I feel bad for this movie; moreover, I feel bad for almost all of the movies to come out this summer. Why? Because they have to live under the shadow of The Dark Knight. Summer fare didn't used to have to propose such high standards. You could get away with The Mummy Returns and X men 3. They might be crappy movies, but they didn't have to shy away from their genetic code. They were popcorn crunchers, nothing more, a few hours out of the sun. Then last summer happened, and summer movies evolved. With Batman and perhaps Iron Man, (but most certainly with Wall-E) the summer movie found a brain. They could not only entertain and rack in money, but they could fundamentally be about something. With Iron Man, Tony Stark inhabited a world that seemed altogether part of our own; it had logical underpinnings and real motives (and terrorists!). With Wall-E, Pixar quit making films for children and ascended to a more realistic and serious approach. And with The Dark Knight, Christoper Nolan found a way to approach existential themes from the absurd vantage point of a man who dresses up as a bat at night.
Put it this way: Since last summer, I've stopped going to the movies like I used to. I think I realize(d) that the summer fare of 2008 was something that would take years to ever match again.
And so we have summer 2009. And the best reminder for it all is that last summer was miraculous. Terminator: Salvation is a worthy addition to summer movies; the biggest mistake of the movie is that it tried to hard to mirror The Dark Knight. People will compare it to that (hell, they already have), and that will be its bane. But lets look at the movie under standard summer fare. Do I want to see another Terminator after this? Hell fucking yes. McG has done something with the Terminator franchise that has not been done yet. He created a world, albeit a postapocalyptic one (puke), that fleshes out the mythology of the Terminators and John Connor. Consider what the franchise has been. THe first one was an exploitation piece, and nothing more. A perfect excuse for a bad guy to blow stuff up real good. THe second one was only a tentpole for Cameron's obsession with spanking new technology, and nothing more. It's frustrating to hear people devote so much scrutiny to these two movies for their stories; I hardly doubt that Cameron promoted the strength of their stories to get them made. If he did, wouldn't he have cast someone other than Ahhnuld? And the third Terminator that everyone smirks at...why? Once again, another tentpole for limitless action. None of these movies made much effort to create a sequel. McG has done just that. He has taken these three films (which barely constitute a franchise anyways) and created a world. He has taken the skeleton and added muscle and tissue.
How does that vision look? I think it's fascinating that in his pitch to Christian Bale, McG handed the actor a copy of Cormac McCarthy's The Road and told him this was going to be his approach. How bold! To compare a 4th installment to a relatively weak franchise to Cormac?! If I were Bale, I think I would have to appreciate that gesture. My interpretation of all this is that McG is making this movie as an attempt to prove his clout as a filmmaker with a funny name. ANd I respect that. I think the movie does just that.
The action, for the most part, was pretty incredible. In particular, the chase scene (A Terminator staple) with the sentient motorcycles drew forth a few "Goddamns!" from me. I loved his references to the other movies, as well. I think that's a worthy way to pay tribute and also move on. In other words, McG allows some winks, but never do they alter the tone. I worry, however, that the Arnold pseudo-cameo may not hold up in the long run. We'll see. I appreciated it.
Mainly, it was just the little things in the movie that pleased me. Little efforts here and there to show that everyone was making an effort on this project. The one shot scene where Connor gets in a helicopter and subsequently crashes. The introduction of new robots. The outstanding scene in the creek meshes the franchise's close relationship with action and horror. Count how many references to the earlier movies are in this, and you can start to see the amount of time that was put into this. I hope that McG does this again with a project of his own; he has paid his dues.
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