blast-o-rama.

Disclaimer: Once again, the fine people at b gave me passes to a pre-release film. Also, this review has minor spoilers. But really nothing you couldn’t gather from the trailers, anyway.

Last February, I attended New York Comic Con.  More than just a comic convention, it’s grown to be the haven for nerds of all shapes and sizes, an East Coast equivalent to the venerable San Diego Comic Con, which has become known more as the launchpad for Summer blockbusters, than for it’s comic-related content.

Anyway, I sat there, on a cold Saturday afternoon, as director McG took his plea to the geek populace….Terminator Salvation is coming. And it will be good.

This was a tough time to be McG. The audience was doubting him, given his track record (Sugar Ray videos and Charlie’s Angels movies do not a SciFi director make), and earlier that week, a tape surfaced of his lead actor chewing out a lighting guy. But he made his play. He sold himself, he sold the film. And then he showed us the reel.

8 minutes of unfinished scenes, some dialogue, and an indication of what this next Terminator was going to be.  The geeks ate it up.  Well. Except for me.

It looked…disjointed.  As if the film was going to be a handful of stories slapped together, with admittingly stunning looking effects.  But I gave them the benefit of the doubt.  Come May, I’d know one way or another.

So it was with trepidation I walked into the theater this evening.

For those of you new to the Terminator saga, let’s throw you headlong into this one. The year is 2018. Judgement Day occurred. This means half the human population was killed in a Nuclear explosion caused by the self-aware AI known as Skynet (think Google, but REALLY evil.)  Pretty much all the humans are dead, but those that are still alive are fighting the robot armies.  One of the leaders of this group is freedom fighter, John Connor (Christian Bale).

John has quite the pedigree, as he (and his mother, who cameos in this installment via voiceover) has fought many a Terminator robot sent through time to kill him (as he’s ‘the one’, you see), and now, years later, he’s looking to find one person in particular. Kyle Reese (played in this edition by Anton Yelchin).

Why Kyle? Because Kyle is his father.  John (in a future later than this) sends Kyle back in time to impregnate his mother, effectively creating himself.  Confused yet?

Awesome, because here comes the wrench known as Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington).  The movie starts with Marcus’ story, as he’s a death row prisoner in the year 2003. Minutes before his lethal injection, he’s convinced by a cancer patient (Helena Bonham Carter) to sign some mysterious paperwork.  He awakes in 2018 with no memory, and looks to find his way in this post-apocalyptic world.

I know, that’s a lot of exposition for ultimately what is the first 10 minutes of the film, but unfortunately for us, that’s about as much driving plot as we get for the first hour.  The film plods along, with nods to the 3 prior Terminator films, and a subplot with Marcus falling for a female freedom fighter (Moon Bloodgood), but ultimately….we’re given no reason to care.  Scenes go by, characters are introduced, and relationships and conflicts are built…why? Just because.

And that’s ultimately Terminator Salvation’s biggest failure as a picture.  The film has no meaning.  You have an incredible cast gathered together, stunning visuals, amazing sound design…and really nothing for them to play with.  Huge explosions and eyedropping set-pieces (including an exciting motorcycle chase and giant robot sequence) are reduced to nothing, as we as the audience have been given nothing on screen to grab onto.  It’s almost insulting that the second act reveal of Marcus’s true history (surprise! he’s a robot!) is ancillary for the audience, as we haven’t seen much of a hint of his origins, or given any true reason to care about the character.

This unfortunately can be said for most of the cast, including an impassioned Christian Bale, who is given nothing more than to look and sound important, and we the audience, much like the fellow members of The Resistance, are supposed to see him as a leader just because other’s say he is?  Where are his moments of growth? Where is his indecision? What makes him tick?  We’re given none of these things.

It’s a damn shame that a film that drills the concept of the importance of one’s heart, has no heart of it’s own.  It isn’t until the final act assault on Skynet that you feel anything near a level of excitement or evolvement with the film.  It should come as no real surprise, but this is also where the film excels the most, which should be enough to send most audiences home happy.

In this case though, I’m left feeling rather hollow.

They say that a film is the sum of it’s parts.  But how a film with such solid acting, adept directing, and arresting visuals and audio can leave one cold will remain a mystery.  Terminator Salvation is simply put, a tepid rendition of what should be a jaw-dropping movie going experience.

It’s been said that many times, some of the best stories are left untold. Maybe the tease of Judgement Day seen in Terminator 2 was the most the story needed.

Despite all this though, I’m left with a question.  During the press junket for this film, McG said that 30-40 minutes were cut out of the film.  Maybe his original cut is all you’d want and more? And maybe, just maybe, on the world of DVD and Blu-Ray, Terminator Salvation can be saved.