2.5/4
Starring Christian Bale, Sam Worthington ‘amp; Anton Yelchin
Directed by McG
Rated PG-13
With a hefty $200 million budget, the fourth installment of the ‘Terminator’ series gets a serious dose of testosterone-driven special effects, a vast ensemble of exotic planes and vehicles and, most importantly, a star-studded cast. The only downside is that not even Christian Bale’s grease-combed hair and husky growl (borrowed from his ‘Dark Knight’ days) could pull ‘Salvation’ out of action-junky excrement.
In the year 2018, Los Angeles lies in a smoky haze (apparently, not much changes in nine years), where the only remains of human ingenuity are buried in the charred rubble. Teenage resistance soldier Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) has just rescued a wandering stranger ‘mdash; Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) ‘mdash; from a Skynet robot by severing a knot of steel drainage pipes and incapacitating the once-menacing juggernaut.
John Connor (Bale), savior of the nearing Armageddon, heads humanity’s ongoing battle against the future’s totalitarian killing machines. In other words, director McG (‘Charlie’s Angels,’ ‘We Are Marshall’) is sprinkling a bit of spice on a two-decade-old franchise that audiences were led to believe would do for Warner Bros. what J.J. Abrams’ ‘Star Trek’ did for Paramount.
Instead, we’re left with a predictable package of explosive sequences ‘mdash; so explosive, in fact, that one of the film’s special-effects technicians actually lost a leg during production.
‘I need to find who did this to me, and so do you,’ barks Wright as Connor threateningly holds a 9mm pistol to his skull. Mockable one-liners are a bountiful commodity in ‘Terminator,’ not to the disappointment of die-hard fans of the original trilogy. And to give credit where it’s due, Worthington delivers a stunning performance as Wright, Spartan-built with the heart of a teddy bear.
Number four simply wouldn’t be complete without a guest appearance from California’s very own governator ‘mdash; even if he looks 10 years younger and injected with Botox, thanks to a stunt double and some facial CGI.
What ensues under the auspices of McG and Bale ‘mdash; who was actively involved in pre- and postproduction ‘mdash; is two hours of eye candy for technophiles, and misdirected, oft-campy lines for connoisseurs of bad theater.
‘The most important thing we can do right now is stay alive, both here [points to the head] and here [points to the heart],’ Reese asserts when he finds himself trapped in the cage of a human transport bound for Skynet Central. Similarly, audiences will have to turn off this [points to the head] and get a transplant from a prepubescent fanboy here [points to the heart] to find ‘Salvation’ anything beyond Warner Bros.’ attempt to cash in on the summer-thriller trend.