Jul/090
Terminator Salvation
Oh where to start. This movie was a major disappointment. When you are working with a franchise, the most important thing is not to throw out the characters and situations that have been set up in past movies. The first misstep was in creating the new character Sam. The movie immediately became about him instead of the franchise hero John Connor (Christian Bale). Marcus (Sam Worthington), a human who’s been turned into a machine, is compelling as he struggles to understand his humanity. He’s figuring out not just who he is, but what he is. A story, especially a big epic action movie, cannot have two heroes and that is what the addition of Marcus did to the franchise. He even dies heroically, giving his heart to John. Besides Marcus usurping John Conner’s role, the idea of a human terminator feels ripped off from the cylons in the rebooted BATTLESTAR GALACTICA series.
Here’s what I think the movie should have been. At the center of the story is John Connor as the reluctant leader of the Resistance. We see him struggle with the burden of knowing his future. He has doubts about his ability to be the leader that his mother told him he would become. In TERMINATOR 3 we met his future wife Kate and she was a gutsy woman. I wanted to see Kate in a kick ass role instead of barely having any lines. Also, in the movie she’s pregnant. Impending fatherhood would be a further burden to John Connor. He would want to defeat the machines to make a better world for his child. In the last movie Kate and John come together as partners in the fight against the machines. I wanted to see this partnership continue, to see the evolution of the couple as leaders of the Resistance. I would want to see John meet his father Kyle Reese, who through the wonders of time travel is a kid. In the movie they barely have one scene together. Their screwed up father son relationship should be at the heart of the story. The movie should be John mentoring the kid and becoming a father figure to him. All of this is emotional, juicy stuff. None of which is in the movie. Kyle and John don’t have a relationship. Kate hovers in the background, saying nothing. We never see John lead so his men’s loyalty is a mystery. What is supposed to be his rousing speech to the troops asking them to stand down from the planned attack is vague and nonsensical. Sigh, the movie could have been so good. Nothing bums me out more than wasted story opportunity.