Terminator 4: Salvation

Jun 18, 2009
By Talis Saule Archdeacon

Director: Joseph “McG” McGinty Nichol

Unlike its predecessors, the latest installment of the “Terminator” series takes place entirely in an apocalyptic, burned out, utterly devastated post- economic crisis world. Yet the lack of time traveling assassin robots in this version makes the plot no more believable or coherent.
But then again, the series has always managed to do pretty well without a plot that makes sense. It never was about the philosophical implications of time travel or what it means to be human – though this latest film devotes far too much time pretending to address exactly that question – it is about big explosions and cool action scenes.

The action scenes were fantastic. Epic in size, biblical in impact and fast paced enough to keep viewers on the edge of their seats the entire time. A slew of different terminator robots make appearances – some with wings and some with wheels, some bigger than a skyscraper and some smaller than a man. When it comes to action scenes and computer graphics, terminator delivers.
Unfortunately, it drops the ball in just about every other criterion. Character development is weak at best – only one character shows any kind of moral growth or internal conflict throughout the film, while all the characters that have been mainstays in the previous films remain flat and boring throughout.

Nothing new is added to the dialogue, either. Instead of taking the time to come up with new, catchy one-liners – which made the first to films so great – the writers have opted to pack as many references to the first two films in as they could; clearly hoping that after 25 years the magic hasn’t gone.

The film features hero John Conner (Christian Bale), who is the flag-bearer of the resistance despite his frequent disputes with high command, attempting to save a teenage boy who will become his father. Yet suspense is difficult to come by, since it is abundantly clear that both characters will survive through the end.

Conner is aided by the only character that shows any development, Marcus (Sam Worthington), who is a human that the robots have given incredible, super-human powers – though they forgot to install a control mechanism. Lucky humans.  
There is no point in trying to explain the rest of the plot, which is pretty much non-existent. Suffice to say that the film could be a good visit for diehard fans or those who are only in the theater to see a good explosion or two, but not much else.


Now showing in all three Baltic states

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