Movie Review of Terminator Salvation
Director McG Misunderstands Terminator Franchise in Terminator 4
May 29, 2009
With Terminator Salvation (Terminator 4, T4) director McG (Charlie's Angels) has created a visually enjoyable action movie, a Michael Bay (Transformers) look-alike, with almost as little depth.
This review contains plot spoilers.
Terminator Salvation Plot
T4 takes place soon after Judgment Day, Skynet's nuclear attack against humanity.
Instead of the lone genius military leader prophesized in the earlier movies, John Connor (Christian Bale) is now a mid-level officer in the resistance military command. He comes off as a disgruntled, disinherited prince trying to win his rightful throne of supreme command.
The movie focuses more on Marcus (Sam Worthington), a human transplanted into a Terminator body. He is used by Skynet to infiltrate the human resistance and hunt down John Connor and his future father Kyle Reese.
McG makes a fatal mistake in making the movie more about Marcus than about Connor.
Terminator Movies are About the Connor Family
The first Terminator movie (T1) was about the relationship between John Connor's parents Sarah and Kyle.
The second movie (T2) was about the relationship between John and his mother, and John and the T-800 Terminator.
The third movie (T3) was about the relationship between John and his future wife Kate, and between John and another T-800.
T4 is about the relationship between Marcus and a female human fighter pilot. Huh?
Dealing with Destiny
In T1, Sarah comes round to believing the unbelievable destiny of her unborn son.
In T2, mother and son and T-800 fight against destiny, and try to change the future.
In T3, we realize that some destinies cannot be denied. "Judgment Day is inevitable," the T-800 tells a disbelieving John. John still tries to prevent Judgment Day from happening.
In T4, John lets his belief in his destiny corrupt him. This isn't McG's message, but it is the message that comes across. All the build up in the earlier movies about "the great John Connor" fizzles out as we see a selfish prince happy to receive a heart transplant to save his own life. Even if the heart is from his brave, living, perfectly healthy, best warrior.
Not exactly the kind of hero you can root for. This is not "huh?", it is "yuck".
The Nature of Artificial Intelligence and Humanity
The T-800 in T1 was a dumb, unstoppable machine.
T2 showed the T-800 as having some capability to slowly learn to be more human.
T3 had a more sophisticated take. The T-800 was still a simple goal-oriented machine. But humans anthromorphised it, attributing human attributes to it that aren't there.
At the end of T3, John says that the Terminator taught him to never give up. Actually the Terminator didn't teach him anything. Machines don't give up because they don't know how to, not because they are brave or psychologically strong. John taught himself.
T4 doesn't care about Terminator psychology, and gets human psychology wrong. Is the Six Million Dollar Man, the bionic Steve Austin, human? The humans in T4 would say No.
In the world of T4, humans think that it is your body that makes you human, not your brain (Marcus has a brain control chip, but it is his Terminator body that freaks the humans). Double huh?
When is a Terminator Movie Not a Terminator Movie?
T4 gets the catch phrases and imagery right:
- "Come with me if you want to live." "I'll be back".
- John crushing a Terminator skull underfoot in a deliberate reverse of the imagery in T1.
However, T4 totally fails to capture the soul of the Terminator franchise.
It's a good action movie, but it's not a Terminator movie.
