Monday 8 June 2009

Film review: Terminator: Salvation (**)

Mediocre. Boring. Mindless. Relentlessly grim.

I knew I should have listened to my inner critic and given this one a miss, but having the previous three Terminator movies at the cinema I figured I should complete the set.

Big mistake.

Not that T4 is bad, per se. There are a couple of moments and even a few creative decisions that I didn't actually mind, but the greatest sin here (other than the total waste of Bale, who really shouldn't bark his dialogue; the redundant role given Bryce Dallas Howard; and the fact the world feels cobbled together from so many other [better] movies) is that the script a) doesn't even seem to understand the intent of these films — they're called Terminator for a reason — b) manages not only to find the dullest slice of the Terminator timeline to mine and c) seems more interested in providing John with his scar than giving anybody a character to root for/sympathise/boo. The retro-aspect assigning of the Connor/Kyle Reese relationship is also poorly and idiotically managed.

I'm not blaming McG, I'm blaming the script. Try as he might, he was onto a loser from the start...

3 comments:

Gerard said...

I found the lion's share of the action to be wholly unexciting, and for that, and the constant allusions to better films, I blame McG. There were one or two things I enjoyed here, too, and the special effects admirably balanced the practical with the computer-conjured, but this was both numbskulled and boring on every level for me. Such a horrid waste of both opportunity and an excellent cast.

Mark Salisbury said...

Although I still contend that the script is more to blame.

Gerard said...

I agree wholly. Across-the-board suck!