Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation is a really good summer action flick. It's really short on character development, but does have just enough of a plot strand to string one excellent action sequence along with another. It’s better than part 3 by a large margin, and has way more action than part two, but the things holding it back are pretty big flaws
First of all is the acting. Christian Bale really sucks badly here. This surprises me as he’s really one of the most consistently good actors around these days. Sure his roles are all the same, kind of proving he has no range, but who cares when he’s nailed the “dark brooding” guy down pat. Here however there are two volumes, screaming at someone, or shooting at someone. I seriously don’t think there is any part of this where he just talks. It’s annoying, and at one point during the end, laughable as all you than think about is his now infamous tirade on set. Moon Bloodgood (best name ever) and Sam Worthington (new “it” kid in Hollywood who’s also in AVATAR this Christmas and the clash of the titans remake next summer) are both great and actually have the most character development out of anyone else. But that brings me to another issue.

Sam Worthington plays a half human, half robot. OK, well the trailer tells us this, but the movie plays it like a mystery for the first hour. So for one hour literally half the running time is devoted to something we already know, thereby making it really boring. Also, for some reason, HE is the main character in this film, even though it SHOULD be john Conner, aka Christian bale. As hard as the actors try to bring some life to the very little time devoted to their characters, they are stopped at every turn by the god awful script. From the same team that brought you Terminator 3, as well as CATWOMAN, they have definitely stepped up their game a bit, but man these people need to stop getting work in Hollywood. For example, moon and Sam meet each other in the middle of the desert. They have an uneasy relationship until the night fall and she cuddles up to him saying “don’t get any ideas, I’m just using you for the body heat.” He responds out of no where with “you know….I’m not a good person.” She responds with “yes you are, you just don’t know it yet.” Wait….WTF!?!?!?!? I started laughing out loud. Unfortunately the film is riddled with shockingly bad lines like this all throughout, making the dramatic scenes teeter dangerously close to sci-fi channel quality. Don’t even get me started on the “so that’s what death tastes like” bit after someone kisses a cancer patient. Lol
However the one saving grace is the action, of which there is plenty. McG, aka the worst named director in Hollywood, knows how to make things look really awesome. He is after all the director of the Charlie’s angel’s movies. Here he uses the camera, and sound expertly to heighten the tension in the action sequences, which are EPIC in scale. Also thankfully, there is an action sequence ever other second, so you’re always being distracted from the crappy dialogue by stuff being blown up REAL good. And yes, Arnold himself shows up towards the end via really good CGI for a hard hitting cameo. So as far as summer action movies go, this is heads and shoulders above the dismal and pathetic WOLVERINE, but no where near the level of Star Trek, which seems to be the film to beat this year.
One last note, there is a LOT of footage in the trailers that is NOT in the film, which might actually help cover up some of the plot holes. For example, in the trailer there is a shot a Christian Bale walking chest deep in water, with a gun, and a huge machine rises from the water behind him. They actually make a big deal of it in the trailer. The film opens with him chest deep in water, but not machine, or action scene at all. A curious thing, as usually the drama is the first to go, but action usually always stays. All well, I suppose the unrated directors cut special sky net edition blu ray will have all the good stuff added back in.