Friday, May 22, 2009

Terminator Salvation

I have a few words of caution for those who are about to go see this movie. That is, remember that it is a Terminator movie. It’s not going to win any Oscars, and they were never meant to. These movies, with the exception of the 3rd installment, are a personal favorite of mine. The reason for that is a little tricky. The first and second movies open up a huge philosophical “can of worms” so to speak. They bring about the weird paradoxes of time travel, raise questions on human nature, what it means to be human, what makes us human and a few other debatable situations of free will and fate. That’s not my favorite thing about these movies though.

What makes me love those movies is the fact that they sit right on top of those subjects, with all the potential to be very deep and insightful, and they do nothing with it. They spend 2-is hours blowing things up. It’s so close; almost a thinker movie, and then everyone gets shot.

It makes me grin every time.

This one is no exemption. Christian Bale does a great job brining us a brooding, but optimistic Jon Connor, and Anton Yelchin does an acceptable job as a teenage Kyle Reese. The real treat in this movie is the character of Marcus Wright. Sam Worthington gives a great performance as the guy you want to root for if you could bring yourself to like him. And his character has a potentially fascinating arc, and of course, it’s happily lost to everyone in gunfire.

Remember kids, it’s just an action movie. Not “best picture of the year”. Just go see it and have some fun. Oh, and it has a T-800 with the face of Arnie! That’s a real treat for the fans.

All in all: Metal Limbs and Mediocrity

Lives up to the pre-views? Yup.

Worthy sequel? To 1 and 2, yes. Forget 3. Please.

Stars (out of five): 4

T

1 comment:

labrythyne said...

lol, it's a good thing that CB signed up to do like 2 more Terminator movies....

and yes, Arnie's little bit was quite surprising!

the girl they got to play John Connor's wife though scares me.