Thursday, May 28, 2009

Terminator Salvation (2009)

Score: 8/10

This is one of my most waited movies in 2009 and at last I had an opportunity to watch the movie yesterday. Terminator Salvation is the fourth installment of the famous Terminator series that was started in 1984. You might get confused if you do not watch the previous Terminator movies.

In the third installment, Rise of the Machines, a computerized military defense named Skynet considered human beings as a threat. As a result, Skynet launched a nuclear attack to different major cities around the world to cripple human capability to fight back.

Salvation begins in 2018 where groups of survivors lead by John Connor (Christian Bale) mount serious resistance to destroy Skynet and its Terminator robots that are built to eliminate human beings from the face of the earth.

Skynet has tried different approaches to eliminate John Connor without any success. As a final effort, Skynet creates a sophisticated hybrid robot model named Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) that combines human and machine to sneak into the resistance’s base and entice John to come out from his hiding place. Due to Marcus (indirectly though), Skynet manages to capture Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) who would become John’s father when he goes back to the past in the first Terminator installment (see, it’s confusing if you don’t watch those previous movies).

Skynet is not the only one who has a brilliant plan. Human beings also find a device that can stop the tyranny of machines for good. They plan to mount a major attack to Skynet base using this special device. However, John is reluctant to continue with the attack and ask for more time to save Kyle that is held inside the Skynet base.

For me, this is a very entertaining movie, especially after waiting for a few years for this installment. It’s loud, it’s intense throughout, and it’s full of action. I believe 90% of the movie involve shooting, fighting with robots, explosions, chasings, and other high pumping adrenaline activities. Usually I rarely give high score for an action movie, but this one is different because it manages to bring you into the action. I can imagine clearly what the characters experience and the perils that they have to face.

The visual effects are amazing and you can enjoy various new robots in this movie. The acting is also good for all the casts. Some people consider Bale as emotionless, but I think it is appropriate for this movie considering all the responsibilities that he has to portray in John Connor’s character.

The plot is the biggest flaw in the movie. From time to time I think the way Skynet thinks and acts is a bit irrational (well I’m not a robot so perhaps it’s logical for them). Sometimes it seems easy to kill John but Skynet just does not use the opportunity. Besides of these shortcomings, I still enjoyed the movie immensely and I recommend you to enjoy the same experience. Oh yeah, the ending indicates that this might not be the last installment of Terminator franchise.

For more information on Terminator Salvation, you can visit:
- IMDB: Terminator Salvation (2009)
- Official site for Terminator

"Don't poke the strange looking machine"

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

hey man. I saw this film the other day. Didn't think much of it. I posted my review if you wanna read.
pce