Now, I didn’t bother writing what I thought of Terminator 4 before now, but I feel that I should throw in my thoughts.
Terminator is not an action series. It is a Sci-Fi/Thriller with action bits and an 18 certificate. Terminator 2 was better than 1, even if it was a 15. Terminator 3 wasn’t that great, and was a 12A. Salvation was worse than 3, and also a 12A.
Terminator is an adult series, with adult themes and adult depth. It is not a straight up action film with lots of explosions. It is not for 12 year olds. It is also different from Joseph McGinty Nichol’s other films. McG, as he likes to be known, is the man behind Charlie’s Angels and Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle.
There are echoes of Terminators with these large robots and explosions at gas stations, a very Great Escape like bike jump, high speed motorbiking lifted from Batman, in fact, herein lies a problem for this film. There are sequences lifted from so many different films that it seems Terminator: Salvation has no real identity of its own.
This, of course, goes in hand with the constant references to the past Terminator films. Nothing sums up the feeling about these echoes as much as the groan from the audiences (on both occasions I have seen this film) when one Mr. Bale utters the words “I’ll be back.”
Beyond what is just a headbangingly bad film of almost script-less drivel, this film is missing one of the most vital parts of Sci-Fi, especially the Terminator brand of the genre. The series needs heart.
T1 and T2 gave the remaining humans an air of being the last humans, even though that little event wasn’t quite upon them yet. This particular film, however, misses that, along with everything else that made the first two films what they were.
If this is the start of another Terminator Trilogy, I think you can count me out, along with that other large franchise beginning with “T” that has just made it to a second instalment.
Salvation is not a good Terminator film. It is not even a good film. Well worth missing, unless you have a choice between this and Mighty Morphing Robots, in which case, do as I did, watch the Schwazenegger-less Terminator.
MTFBWY
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