In the summer of 1991 movies changed. James Cameron brought us a new kind of action movie, one that everyone could watch. It had jaw-dropping special effects, our Governor had hit his peak, young girls adored John Conner and women had a strong (albeit crazy) female lead.
In the summer of 2009 movies seem to have taken a step back. McG (really, this guy got fucking credit under the name “McG”??!!) brought us the same old same old. While I thought the overall tone successfully gave a very dystopian feel to the film it was unfortunately the only positive. Christian Bale’s now famous rant was much more entertaining than his performance here, in fact, he was more than forgettable. The supporting characters and their very brief story lines served very little purpose other than filling space and the regurgitated quotes from T2 only helped to remind me that I was just watching a less exciting knockoff.
The Hamburgler, or whatever this “Smash Mouth” director wants to be called stole most of his shots and a few of the scenarios from the earlier pictures. What really blows my mind is how the Terminator seems to not have improved; he doesn’t look like he has advanced 18 years from the technology Cameron was working with.
Terminator Salvation could have taken a few chances, remained PG-13, and been a decent action movie. Instead we get a lot of uninteresting action and a whole lot of boring exposition we could have figured out on our own. Grimace blew this one for anyone who watched T2, or Robocop or Bladerunner or The Matrix or Fahrenheit 451 or…
My Vote: If you really must see it don’t wait until DVD, there is still something to be said for going to see a movie at the theatre.
