28 December 2009

Terminator Salvation (review)

Director: McG
Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington
Grade: B

I sit down to watch this movie, and the first thing I notice is that the movie title is announced twice. First in the subtle-cool way I like movie titles to be announced. Then in the zoom-out-from-the-background-to-reveal-the-title way. And then I saw that the opening credits were also done twice. I didn't notice until I saw the name of the director for the second time. Someone, somewhere did not do their job good enough.

Fear not, for this movie is redeemed by Sam Worthington. Dear Sam, your plot beats out Christian Bale's. Love, KL. It's easy to see why. We have awesome-handsome melancholy dude with a heart who somehow managed to murder his brother and two police officers. The details of said murder were never clarified, but it's just background story. Sam's character Marcus Wright just needed something to get his ass on death row. He signs away his body to science, and BOOM! We wakes up post-battlefield in 2018. Poor guy thought he was dead. He also thought he was human. His development was smooth. When he discovered his innards, his reaction was great. And then he got over it. I liked that a lot. Discover, mull, get over it. I LOVED how Marcus refused to accept himself as a machine. Way to defy The Machine, man. And his actor played it very nicely. Sam Worthington, I <3 u.

I believe Christian played the role stoic. You can tell his character was shocked from the way his face froze and how Christian failed to blink. But I think his wife, played by Moon Bloodgood, could have used more screen time. She was pretty good. I did not like her pregnant. Why have a child in the middle of the war? It makes no sense. To live on? Once the machines find out, that child will be a target. Not to kill, but to capture and use as bait. I feel sorry for the little guy. He'll be one helluva protected soul once he comes out.

Just a few slip ups that I did not like. Like when the fuel tank explodes. I really don't know what kind of explosion it would generate, but something tells me the explosion it caused packed too much of a punch. Then again, this is Hollywood, so I shouldn't expect nothing less than grandeur explosions from gas fumes. But it still urks me.

The special effects were seamless. Nicely done. The machine parts looked so real when Marcus's skin was blown off in places.

And this movie wasn't about the action! Too many action movies concentrate on the action! This one had good characters and a unique plot. And maybe that is tearing me away from seeing that this movie really is about action. If that's the case, I don't care. Because I like the plot, I like the characters, and if you're making this solely for the action, then I don't see it. End of story.

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