2009 (USA)
Director: McG
Viewed: December 18, 2009
Format: DIRECTV DEMAND
C- - Just as Nick Stahl’s skittish, fatalistic John Connor fit Rise of the Machines‘ ferocious rush towards a bleak future, a zealous yet cynical Christian Bale—plagiarizing his Batman growl—suits Terminator Salvation’s gritty realization of that future. This, and the admittedly seamless visual effects, is about the only thing that McG’s distressingly rote sequel gets right. This outing’s central conceit—SkyNet has spawned an experimental half-human, half-machine abomination (a rugged, essentially charmless Sam Worthington)—isn’t remotely meaty enough to sustain a feature film. The story is as limp as a noodle, but even as a mindless science-fiction actioner, Salvation fumbles. At about the halfway point, McG trades genuinely frightening early set pieces for dull sensory incoherence. Blessedly, it’s not the nerve-frying visual lunacy of a Michael Bay film, but just the undistinguished smash-bang nonsense that has characterized vast swaths of the past two decades’ action films. That such mediocrity has befallen that Terminator saga is all the more frustrating given that the film-makers are clearly besotted with the previous films, loading Salvation with references and homages that range from the blatant to the clever. If only fanboy enthusiasm alone were sufficient to conjure a good film.
You say so much there in so few words, and your right on the money as far as I’m concerned. We just purchased a blu-ray player for the first time, and this is one the kids requested. It’s one of the worst films of 2009, but it’s some blu-ray demonstration disc!
Happy Holidays to you and yours Andrew, and the St. Louis gang!
Thanks, Sam! Happy Holidays to you and your clan as well. :)
Today is Disney day at our house: I gave my wife Snow White, Pinocchio, and Sleeping Beauty on Blu-ray for Christmas, and we’re going to settle in for a day of animation masterpieces!
I’ve got so much to get to before the end of the year, movie-wise. Avatar review is coming soon, and I’ve got a stack of DVDs waiting for me for the holiday break. I’m playing catch-up on the highlights I missed earlier in the year: The Hangover, Five Minutes of Heaven, The Limits of Control, The Cove, 500 Days of Summer. Hopefully, I’ll get to some capsule reviews of those as well. Have a good end-of-the-year yourself.