Terminator Salvation did one thing that not all movies can do that I really appreciate. It sparked immediate discussion between me and my fellow viewer as we walked to our car. Sadly it was discussion of our frustrations with the film. If I could remove myself from the canon of the previous films and watch TS as a stand alone action film I think I would enjoy it, but I love the series and as a part of canon it fails.
Warning: Minor Spoilers
The plot is just, just not thought out. You can tell it was patched together haphazardly to get it out on time. There's this mysterious man who was a prisoner in the past who appears in the future, but if you've seen the first 5 minutes it is basically spelled out exactly for you what he is and what role he will play. Foreshadowing=good, Eliminating any mystery=bad. Later unlikable characters make stupid decisions and then randomly have to blow up this skynet place. Why, nobody is really sure, but they make it sound like a big deal. They all receive orders from Michael Ironside who's just an overdone stereotype hard hitting leader that belongs in a Command and Conquer videogame. He hangs out in a ridiculous submarine base that John Conner can infiltrate just by diving from a helicopter. Kyle Reese basically just hangs around so people can ask him who he is and he can say "I'm Kyle Reese." Later we find out that ever member of the resistance has a loyal following to John Conner. This isn't really developed, it is just created at the end to provide an inspiring moment. They eventually go into the strangely unguarded Terminator base stupid things happen that shouldn't have been able to happen if the fictional world had been created with any sort of eye for detail. Big things happen and then at the wrap up it is explained that the big things didnt really matter at all. GREAT.
Basically this is just not what I wanted Terminator Salvation to be. I wanted a war of the future. I wanted the glimpses of the future you got in Terminator and Terminator 2. Laser beams and bodies flying and all out warfare on the battlefront. What we get instead is a resistance that I believe would be quashed within minutes in a desert base surrounded by landmines that only spring up when it is beneficial for the plot, All led by a 1980's joke character and followed up by characters that make irrational decisions based around John Conner, who isn't really that likeable of a character. Also the plot is just stupid.
Go see it if you must see the next piece in the series even if it will dissapoint you, or if you have never seen any of the others and want to see robots and explosions. I do warn you canon-ites though, you will be dissapointed.
Frustrations SPOILERS
1. Marcus has a robo skeleton, meaning he should weight like 800 pounds, yet he swims and young women drag him about.
2. On the motobike that John Conner hijacks I believe he uses a USB drive, that's just stupid
3. If this skynet place they blow up at the end is so important, why are they buckling down for more battles? Basically the reason they blow up this place at the end is not at all explained
4. The Blair Williams character breaks Marcus out knowing he is a robot. How stupid are you? Robots want to kill humans, he is a robot, therefore he is somehow working to kill you. DUH.
5.Their base is in a submarine
6. The humans could not believable have survived as long as they have. These robots would totally have killed them by now
7. The Arnold scene is just stupid and unecessary
8. When they blow up the base at the end using the batteries in the robots you have to think, would these robots really just leave a bunch of highly explosive batteries chilling on a table?
9. The mine in the minefield conveniently sticks to Marcus, yet later it seems fine to drive trucks around on it.
10. John Conner is way too pissed off, surly and stupid.
11. I rooted for the Robots. Honestly.
12. Helena Bonham Carter plays this like "brain of the terminators" character and she is just so unnecessary. The terminators are machines, they should just get sent commands from a faceless computer. They don't need a face, and certainly not Helena Bonham Carter's (though I like her)
13. In the scene where Marcus has carried out his purpose, Helena Bonham Carter explains everything to him, causing him to rebel. I would imagine she could just NOT do that and reprogram him so he is none the wiser. The explanation serves no purpose but to get him to rebel and actually help the resistance cause.
14. When he does decide to rebel he conveniently knows exactly what thing to rip out of his head.
15. In the terminator base, there are like 3 terminators. It's a freaking factory! It should be crawling with robotic beasts of destruction to annihilate John Conner. HE SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO THAT!
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