Critic At Large: Terminator Salvation

A Terminator movie without time travel is a bit like a football game without a touchdown. But this chapter of the 25-year old franchise is a fun ride into the post-apocalyptic future only briefly glimpsed in the previous movies. Those killer robots sure know how to build some badass-looking motorcycles and fighter jets. Christian Bale plays John Connor, who is not yet the leader of the surprisingly well-equipped human resistance (but who is already regarded with a certain amount of reverence for reasons never fully explained). The movie describes how Connor does eventually become that leader, but the story is mostly an excuse for some remarkable chase scenes and plenty of explosions. Sam Worthington, an Australian actor who plays a man with an uncertain past, is quite good and I’m looking forward to seeing him in James Cameron’s Avatar.

I remember reading that this story was supposed to mark the beginning of another trilogy, but I’m not sure audiences are interested in a series of futuristic war movies. Part of the pleasure of Terminator movies is that they offer the spectacle of killer robots wreaking havoc in humdrum present-day society. The movie also suffers from a criminal lack of Summer Glau. As you might guess, I’m still a little bitter that Fox cancelled the Terminator television series.