Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation (2009)

Runtime: I saw the 117-minute cut

Directed by: McG

Starring: Christian Bale and many other famous names

From: Warner Bros.

Ooooohhhh! Good for you!

This is my first time viewing Salvation; for the preceding 16 years, what came to mind with this film was not the film itself—rather, it was “the rant” from Christian Bale. Even now, I’m sure it overshadows everything else. Bale got mad at the DP Shane Hurlbut for unprofessional behavior.. he walked on set during a take; whether or not you feel the vulgar outburst was warranted is personal opinion. For certain, how toxic was this set? Things like this may happen more often than it made public; why did someone do Bale dirty and leak the audio? Was that done as a middle finger to McG? The presumption is that the shoot was not smooth sailing and there was plenty of people yelling at each other.

I have the first four movies on Blu-Ray (it was a 2012 Warner Bros. release) & thus was able to see the 117-minute Director’s Cut rather than the 114-minute PG-13 cut that was released. You know, that was one of the reasons why Salvation wasn’t seen theatrically. Unlike the rest of the franchise, at least Salvation attempted to do something different, and many fans likely wanted to see the war between Skynet and humanity besides the brief glimpses we got of 2029 in the OG movie.

A shame then that the story (set in the far-flung future of… 2018) is such a mess and is too often stump-dumb. Why isn’t Kyle Reese apprehensive about Sam Worthington’s character Marcus asking “What year is this?” and other questions that make it clear Marcus hasn’t been part of the world for the past 15 years? I knew the focus wasn’t entirely on John Connor; that was OK, at least in theory. Marcus and the other new characters were at least tolerable. Undoubtedly, Salvation had the most interesting cast in the history of the franchise: Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin, Common, Bryce Dallas Howard, Michael Ironside, Moon Bloodgood, and even Helena Bonham Carter for a bit. 

While the action wasn’t always shot well, at least it was of the slam-bam variety. I am disappointed that this wasn’t better as Salvation could have pointed the franchise in a new and better direction if they HAD to make more. Hilariously, the final act was scrubbed after that was leaked. Instead, a completely new final act was created. The original: I’ve heard would have been wholly unsatisfying and an insult to franchise fans. What we got instead was more sufficient.

My personal canon is that there was only two Terminator films but others can disagree. Unfortunately, the movie was squandered potential and at least to some wasn’t how they imagined the war to be. Henceforth, Bale’s diatribe is the dominant memory that many have of Salvation. As for Genisys, a hard “pass” for me. The title alone is a turn-off but enough plot points are known that it’d be an intensely unsatisfying experience, to state it kindly.