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Home XRYSTAL VIDEOS Movies Movie Review: Terminator Salvation

Movie Review: Terminator Salvation

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Written by Patrick   
Thursday, 21 May 2009 17:53

The Short Version: Forget Terminator 3. Terminator: Salvation adds a new twist on the formula yet adds enough to keep us coming back.

8 out of 10.

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_uu34lpOGIcA/SS00K4h1DuI/AAAAAAAAAAs/TEN4KbaLVe0/s400/terminator-salvation.jpg

Click Read More for our thoughts.

This is the Terminator formula in a nutshell. Someone with the future potential to save mankind is under threat of death by SkyNet. Terminators are sent to kill this person. A protector of some kind is also sent. Both the Terminator and the protector die by movie's end, but the protectee lives on. Oh, and Arnie makes an appearance of some type, of course.

The previous films were, in essence, high intensity SciFi horror films. Past Terminator films dealt with weighty issues like fate and whether we could change our futures or if they're pre-determined. Apparently, according to the screenplay writers time is not so nice and a causal loop must be maintained. After all, if Judgment Day never comes then John Connor's father, Kyle, will never be sent back in time for the war effort, thus John himself will never be born and attempt to stop Judgement Day.

What this all means is that the war with the machines is inevitable and this time around moviegoers are treated to the events of the future. The events of Terminator: Salvation take place shortly before SkyNet finishes the designing and building of the T-800 Terminator model, which happens to resemble a particular California governor.

Salvation's moral meanderings are twofold. The first is about being given a second chance if one has committed crimes in the past. The second is the nature of what makes us human. One character is a hybrid between Terminator and human, complete with a normal human brain, nervous system and a beating heart--which is stated to be the source of what makes us human. Now it's the spiritual heart, not the physical, that is referred to but this physical fact just makes the analogy more obvious. Still, it is stated that what makes us human cannot be synthesized or simulated by a machine even if the spiritual implications are not as readily explored as one would desire.

In addition to these two basic issues, Salvation is much closer to a traditional war story. As PluggedIn puts it: "And that change in genre carries a whole new set of dramatic questions. It's no longer simply a matter of what you would steal, destroy or kill to survive a deadly berserker. Now, in the midst of a battlefield of swirling, mechanical killers, the human characters are asking themselves how much they're willing to give up for the sake of the guy next to them. Or what risks they'll take to cling to their humanity in the face of extreme challenges. And to the movie's credit, they all fight for the high ground. "If we behave like machines, what's the point of winning?" Connor exclaims, [when he discovers that the generals of the human resistance plan on destroying SkyNet at the cost of killing all the captured human beings.]"

As usual the ending is open-ended. I hung around during the credits to see if there were any secret endings, but there was nothing. I expect that a final battle with SkyNet will be forthcoming. Let's just hope it's as good as Terminator: Salvation, which earned a 8 out of 10 in my opinion.


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