Eye Candy #163 - "Terminator Salvation"

Terminator Salvation: The 4th Terminator film in the franchise, this is the first to take place in the future, showcasing the derring-do of the now adult John Connor who, as fated in the first 3 films, is the leader of the human resistance against the evil self-aware computer system Skynet. Christian Bale is John Connor, with Dallas Bryce Howard as his wife, Anton Yelchin as his father-to-be Kyle Reese, and Helena Bonham Carter in a supporting role. We also get Hollywood “It Boy” Sam Worthington (of “Avatar” fame) as Marcus Wright, a cyborg in search of his humanity. All the “Terminator” movies are essentially just highly-produced “chase” pictures, where someone is running from someone else for the bulk of the film. Number 4 is cut from that same cloth, with Worthington doing most of the running. It also requires a suspension of disbelief…repeatedly. It’s a miracle most of the humans portrayed in the film have survived as long as they have as dumb as they behave as apparently none of them can see or hear a giant 100 foot tall clanky robot sneaking up on them until it‘s on top of them. The film was panned on its release, but I think it’s a bit disingenuous - the “Terminator” movies are all intensely derivate of one another, but they distracted us with great special effects and Arnold Schwarzenegger. But none of these films were going to win awards for their screenplays. They’re all about how to make the robots cool, scary or whatever. Expecting more than that from a “Terminator” directed by McG, of all people (who gave us two incredibly vapid “Charlie’s Angels” movies) isn‘t born out of reality. Lowered expectations are the order of the day. I thought this was more watchable than the 3rd film (“Rise of the Machines”) and some of the action set pieces were very good. Woodchuck sez, “Worth a look.”