In this new installment of The Terminator film franchise, set in post-apocalyptic 2018, Christian Bale stars as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past.
As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet's operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind. Salvation doesn't advance Cameron's original story so much as it stages a portion of the mythology we'd already heard about but never saw. The outcome of Salvation has been covered in the previous three Terminator films – Connor finds Reese; Skynet is defeated -- so there's no suspense. Six credited screenwriters hammer away at the Terminator timeline but can't come up with a compelling reason for McG and his crew to go back to this future.
As a hero, Connor is really no more distinctive than the gnarly,
unshaven outcast ringleader of every retro-future fantasy from Escape From New York on. Yet Terminator Salvation is invested in treating him like a grunge messiah. Bale brings the role his usual stylish, seething edge. He seems ready to blow at any moment, making his infamous on-set tantrum look less like a case of star egomania than like a Method actor's refusal to break character gone amok. Connor, leading a fringe of rebel fighters, is out to protect Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), a teenager who has no idea how important he is: If he lives, he will grow up to be Connor's father (the Michael Biehn character from the first Terminator), and will therefore sire the resistance movement. But all the loop-the-loop, boy-is-father-to-the-man-who-must-protect-the-boy-or-the-man-won't-exist stuff is more fun to make sense of when you're leaving the theater. On screen, it's just a dimly revolving puzzle.
Hitting theaters during one of the best summer movie seasons in decades, Terminator Salvation deserves a shot at box office success. It's one of the better action films of 2009 and, even without Arnold, this Terminator puts the series back on track. "Terminator Salvation" looks busy, but it's static. The thing doesn't budge. It's an epic waste of time.
