Terminator Salvation (2009)

Christian Bale is John Connor, possible saviour of the human race in the war against the machines, but he needs to save the boy (Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese) that will be his father if he wants that to happen. In the background is the impending all out assault on the machines by the resistance.

Despite Christian Bale’s number 1 billing on the poster, this film is more about Sam Worthington who plays a death row inmate executed in 2003 who finds himself alive and well in 2018. Marcus Wright (Worthington) does more to protect Kyle Reese than John Connor does, and he gets to flirt with the spunky pilot Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood). Bale does fight with a CGI Arnold Schwarzenegger, argue with Michael Ironside, and speak in his gravely Batman voice as compensation.

Terminator was great piece of story telling, T2 sacrificed story and character for action (as James Cameron likes to do), Terminator 3 Rise Of The Machines was off track on all levels, and T4 doesn’t have a lot of story, but it packs a lot of bang in to its running time. Director McG has mixed together the basic Terminator premise with Mad Max 2’s highway action, Apocalypse Now’s helicopters and noise, the revamped Battlestar Galactica’s war between human and robot, and Transformers’ robots to create a loud, noisy, war film that doesn’t go anywhere but has fun (in a grim, post-apocalyptic way) doing it.