> Terminator Salvation
Director: McG
Cast: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood, Anton Yelchin, Jadagrace, Bryce Dallas Howard, Helena Bonham Carter
Rating: M
3 stars (out of 5)
Reviewed by Christine Powley
Terminator Salvation (Rialto and Hoyts) is not a bad movie. It rocks along, keeping you on the edge of your seat for the duration, but it suffers from being the lesser part of a sequence of fantastic movies.
I remember Christian Bale when he was the eye-candy in Little Women and much as I mourn that he sheared his hair and stopped playing romantic leads, there is no doubt that John Connor, the leader of the resistance, is the role of a lifetime for him.
In fact, his famous off-screen tirade only serves to feed into the character.
You really believe that he is as tough as the script pretends.
The problem is, the longer I watched Terminator Salvation the more I remembered what a humdinger of a movie the first Terminator was.
Back then there was nothing like it.
Now, with this film set in the time of the machines, I keep writing down influences from other films.
The machines here pay a great debt to the Transformer franchise.
Back when Arnie was relentlessly pursuing Sarah Connor it was all fresh and new.
Here, once the real terminator machine turns up there is relief that we are back to the hub of this fantasy but little is done with it.
Time-travel fatigue has set in and things have to happen to fit the earlier films.
I hope that next time I see Bale in this role he has a better script and better props.
Best thing: Christian Bale's grit keeps the faith alive.
Worst thing: Is one potty-mouthed actor enough to keep this out of B-movie territory? For long patches you have to say no.
See it with: Night vision goggles. The entire thing seems to be filmed in sepia.
