Terminator: Salvation

I normally don't post non-related Transformers posts on this blog, but after watching this movie I had to say something. Terminator: Salvation is easily the best film in the series. My family got me some free movie tickets for my birthday, and I originally wanted to use them for this movie. However, it wasn't released the weekend I was in town, so I decided to wait and cashed them in for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Where ROTF broken my heart as an ultimately terrible film, Terminator: Salvation was everything I hoped it would be and so much more.

Christian Bale did an awesome job as the future John Conner, and the new plot point with the death row inmate from before Judgment Day (Marcus Wright) added a great deal to the story. This film felt like it connected all the dots of the franchise, and although it follows the same plot line as Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, it does nothing to emulate that film. The director took an almost Batman Begins style with this film as it was a sequel, prequel, and reboot all at the same time. It had a more realistic style this time around with no slap stick comedic pieces (Terminator 3). The story itself focuses on the future war, and it also focuses on a possible attempt to kill Kyle Reese (the hero of the first film and father of John Conner) when he was a teenager and still in the future. However this time, it is the whole Machine army in the mix and not just a single time traveling Terminator. This helped the film from seeming like it was beating a dead horse.

What I really enjoyed about this film was the fact that the directors did an excellent job of tying the old with the new. Some critics have criticized some of these things, but for fans of the series waiting for a good sequel to the first two films, it almost feels like respect being paid to the old. Where the third film was part of the series, it just didn't feel like it really connected. This film did was Terminator 2 did, and had those little pieces to tie the films together. Examples included the faded and torn picture of Sarah Conner, the Conner tapes, similar camera angles and settings to previous Terminator encounters, and even adding the 1984 version of Arnold's face to the attacking T-800 in the factory. It was computer generated, but you would never know from watching it.

Overall, despite the critics, I do believe that this film is my favorite of the series. If it had any rival, it would be the amazing Terminator 2: Judgment Day. After Rise of the Machines, I had lost all hope for this series. This film does bring some hope back. Plus, with its PG-13 rating, it felt like the focus was on the plot and the action rather than deaths and other items (although the first two films had an excellent balance, where 3 really ... well... didn't). If I could step back in time, this would be the film I wish I would have seen on the big screen versus the highly disappointing Revenge of the Fallen. Hopefully film three will get everything back on track.