TERMINATOR: SALVATION

title: TERMINATOR: SALVATION
year: 2010
cast: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin
rating: **

At one point, about thirty minutes in, as human survivors are being chased by a giant Terminator resembling something out of THE TRANSFORMERS franchise… thus giving birth to a lot of smaller machines, some riding motorcycles… it seems this movie isn’t so terrible. A lot of banal action within a barren, post-apocalyptic landscape which, in most movies look cheap but the computer effects give it a punch, or two. Then something happens. Actually, a lot of things: those being completely convoluted plot-points… But let’s start from the beginning: diving right in with John Conner, played by Christian Bale, who’s basically Rambo of The Resistance, fighting Skynet machines that brought the Earth to nuclear ruin. He’s out to save the world but first his father, Kyle Reese… who, played by Michael Beihn in the first film, impregnated mom while protecting her from that Arnold Schwarzenegger guy (making a computer generated cameo). If Reese dies, so does Connor. And Reese himself, a teenager played by Anton Yelchin… channeling Beihn’s over-the-top acting style perfectly… is on the run with a mute child and a muscular mystery man: Sam Worthington as Marcus, an intriguing character at first but as we learn more about him the movie hits a wall, the action taking a backseat to Marcus’s origin (is he human or robot?); and Conner, at this point residing in the peripheral, is melodramatically torn on what to do next. Meanwhile, the audience just wants some kickass rage against the machines, or a more involving, and less complicated, basis on which it occurs.