How to Watch: “Terminator Salvation”

Step 1: Reboot the system. Terminator Salvation proves the machines-against-man-raging-against-the-machines franchise is still alive and kicking. Kicking ASS, that is.

Step 2: Forget about the inconsistencies. A person could go crazy trying to figure out if Terminator Salvation follows the original Terminator timeline or is creating an alternate universe (which seems to be quite the rage these days in both film and TV). Who cares? Just be thrilled. Judgment Day has happened, the world has gone to shit and the big, bad machines are systematically hunting down the survivng humans. Only one man can stop them.

Step 3: Hail the new leader: Christian Bale as John Connor. For all his intensity onscreen – and apparently off – Bale adds a certain level of perfection to everything he does and breathes some welcome life into the  Connor character, leader of the resistance fighters. Bale has some help, though, in the form of Aussie actor Sam Worthington as the mysterious Marcus Wright. A former death row convict, Marcus wakes up to find everything has been blown apart, and he has no recollection of how he got where he is. He then has to play the reluctant hero when he meets the teenaged Kyle Reese, played with bravado by Anton Yelchin (much less annoying as Reese than he was as Chekov in Star Trek), and ends up going on a rescue mission to free the kid from Skynet central. Connor also gets wind of it, and knowing Reese will be his dad in the future (see, there goes those crazy timeline thoughts again), he has to put his trust in the suspicious Marcus in hopes he will succeed. Worthington easily holds his own in the Bale intensity department.

Step 4: Look for a Schwarzenegger cameo – is it real or is it Memorex? And wonder when Bryce Dallas Howard, wasted as Connor’s wife Kate, will get a chance to live up to her potential she showed in The Village.

Step 5: Say what you will about director McG, but the man rises to the occasion with Terminator Salvation. I was skeptical, since the guy’s biggest claim to fame were the two Charlie’s Angels flicks, but McG has clearly thought it through and has studied the techinques of James Cameron, the mastermind behind the first two Terminators. This Salvation is chock full of heart-racing action sequences, set against a very bleak background. And he pays homage to the franchise in subtle but recognizable ways, similar to what J.J. Abrams does in Star Trek, while creating his own vision. Hell, he even lived through the Bale maelstorm. Kudos, McG – now get a REAL name.

Level of difficulty in watching Terminator Salvation: Moderately easy. Better than Rise of the Machines but not quite as good as T2 (nothing ever can top that one), Salvation provides a satisfying coda to the franchise. At least, it should be the end of it, where else can they go?