Terminator: The resistance is not futile

Terminator: Salvation is very good at what is: a big, loud, and bleached summer blockbuster with lots of explosions and gunplay in a grim future. If the first movies were about the inevitablity of Judgement Day, and if Sarah Connor Chronicles was about becoming the people who survive it and fight the war against the machines, Salvation is about the earliest period of that fight, and it's a grim struggle.

Humanity comes in two flavors in this movie. There are the remnants of humanity's militaries trying to fight the war armed with big guns, huey helicopters and warhog tank busting aircraft. Then there are the desperate civilians trying to survive and will to do anything to do so. This Terminator movie pushes the mythology forward by introducing "Road Warrior" elements along with a dash of "Apocalypse Now." It's shot with much of the color bleached out. Most of the characters that survive in this movie get little more than what feels like an introduction for later installments of the franchise. And through the magic of digital imagry, Arnold Schwartzenegger gets a cameo in the role he made famous.

Some questions are left hanging. Skynet is harvesting humans, but it is unclear exactly why. To make T-800s seems inplicit, but the connection is never quite made. And where is the resistance getting it's tech? Vaio seems to still be in business in this movie but aside from roaming the ocean in subs, the military-led portion of the resistance seems pretty well supplied considering that most of the world has been recently nuked.

And what is it about San Franciso this movie season anyway? In the world of The Terminator, Skynet runs the city. Over in the Star Trek alternate reality, the city, which is home to Star Fleet Command and Star Fleet Academy, is being targetted by the bad guys.

Still, as the next installment in the francise, Terminator: Salvation is a step in a new, post-Arnold direction. With Christian Bale in the role of Batman, umm John Connor, the series seems to be in a sort of reboot mode. Since it will probably make enough to merit a sequel, let us hope that the drama and character of those movies will live up the special effects work. Otherwise, it may meet the lamentable fate of the excellent Sarah Conner Chronicles which was terminated by a force more malignant than Skynet: The Fox Network.