Christian Bale is John Connor in Terminator Salvation.
Credit: Sony Pictures
Terminator Salvation is, primarily, an action movie. There are many battle scenes, prolonged exciting chases, and key protagonists survive despite being on the edge of destruction and facing insurmountable odds.
The special effects are good, filled with fiery explosions, global communications devices, with a reprise of terminator screens and abilities. The impressive special effects do tend to be derivative of the previous terminator movies, however.
The series builds on stereotypes of robots that are deeply ingrained in popular culture. For hundreds of years, people have had a fascination with robots or inanimate forms gaining life and behaving autonomously, sometimes controlled by some powerful force (often evil).
Such robots include the legend of the Golem of Prague in the 1700s, Mary Shelley's fictional creation Frankenstein, and more recently, the cloned protagonists in Star Wars. The Terminator series is definitely an iconic addition to this 'stereotyped robot' genre. The terminator robots lack emotion, in contrast with humans, and are close to indestructible.
The Terminator role was well matched to Arnold Schwarzenegger's acting persona. Understandably, but disappointingly, Terminator Salvation does not contain the Governor of California. But there are a few moments of tribute to Arnie's legacy, which I won't give away here.
The overarching theme in the current movie is that machines and humans are different, and the key to being human is our heart (depicted quite literally). It is a common perception, and, not unreasonably, a stereotype propagated by the movie. It doesn't convince me, though.
Set in 2018, Terminator Salvation depicts a critical battle between humans and Skynet. A key plot theme is that humans believe that they have discovered a way to override Skynet. As to be expected, there are time shifts, with the film starting in 2003. Kyle Reese, who is the protective protagonist from the first film, plays a significant role in Salvation.
The plot doesn't bear too much examination. Going backwards or forwards in time, to adjust the past, to determine the future, is problematic. Real life thinking around causality doesn't correlate to how these shifts occur in the film.
The terminators embody interesting technical capabilities that add to the movies' charm. They have a stunning ability to regenerate, even from puddles of metal (in the second movie). It will be a long time, if ever, until research reaches such a level of sophistication.
This movie was shockingly bad
the heading say it all,
Terminator Salvation is plagued with devastating plot holes and inconsistencies.
don't bother with this one
Watch instead Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles
Terminator Salvation was bad with its lack of development of a decent storyline.
While not perfect Terminator Sarah Connor Chronicles especially end of the second season deals brilliantly with the self-awareness of machines. It shows development of an alternative to Skynet who grows and learn and cares about a little girl, creating some of the best scenes and dialogue on TV. Similarly the Terminator Cameron taking care of John says we and he don't understand how Terminators work that they have sensation ands says she "wouldn't be worth much if I couldn't feel." Unfortunately like all great shows it is canceled.
The real question should be, "Should self-aware machines fear?"
It looks like we are headed down the Terminator road regardless of how we feel about it. In 10-20 years, these robots will be fact, in 50 years, they will be everywhere. It's kind of cool really, because even if a biological weapon, which does exist today wipes out the entire earth, then the robots could keep our legacy alive and well.
Scott C. Waring
Author of novels George's Pond & West's Time Machine
Soon to release Dragons of Asgard & UFO Sightings