Review of Terminator Salvation (2009) by Brandon R — 04 Nov 2015

The premise these films emphasize is that killing John Connor (and/or his father) is all the machines need to do in order to stay in power indefinitely. Connor is the messianic figure who holds the fate of the world in his hands and his death would be a final, debilitating blow to the human resistance. Why then, when given multiple opportunities to kill Connor in this film, do the machines send minimal forces to confront him?

The final action here takes place in what is repeatedly called "Skynet central" and, specifically, in the assembly area where terminators are manufactured. It's not a reach to assume that a facility of this kind would be filled with hundreds or even thousands of active terminators and other killing machines. They've been at war with the human race for fifteen years at this point, you would presume they have an army built up and yet Connor only faces one or two enemies before he's able to exit the facility in the arms of his soldiers. How can this be? Skynet could simply nuke the building and eliminate Connor and Kyle Reese in seconds flat. Done!

The thing I was most bothered by in Terminator Salvation was how often basic logic played no part in the behavior of humans and A.I. alike. Machines wouldn't think like humans; they would be efficient, prepared, and have nearly unlimited resources for building a ruthless war machine. Regardless of this obvious truth we are shown again and again how few reinforcements they send when they have located primary targets and how lax security is at their valued facilities.

Aside from the many glaring logical gaffes this movie is just unbearably dull. The story is weak, the character of Marcus adds nothing of interest to the timeline, and it all takes itself too seriously. Christian Bale's take on John Connor is one-dimensional and he comes across as extremely unlikable, no good for a hero we were invested in. None of these characters even get enough screen time to develop and we aren't given much to cheer for.

In a war where the humans are mechanical and the machines are stupid, who made who?