Confession time: I have a problem. I am essentially unable to visit a movie theater without buying popcorn. I can't explain why, but regardless of what I've had to eat that day or what type of movie I'm seeing, I just can't break the link between Movie Outing and Popcorn Eating.
So, standing in an absurdly long line a the local AMC, I found myself in a pickle. If I stayed in the line, complete with apparently just-hired cashier slowly moving about at the helm, and a family of five buying virtually everything on the menu, I might miss the beginning of the movie. If I left the line, I'd have no popcorn to eat during Terminator Salvation.
I stayed in line. Popcorn would be necessary.
It was the right choice. Not only did I not miss the beginning of the film, but it wouldn't have mattered if I had. Despite the fact that a lot of crazy stuff is going down, Salvation devotes little energy to trying to explain it to the audience. There is one exception right off the bat: the film's opening minutes are devoted to explaining that Marcus Wright, the man who would later be abused by SkyNet's efforts to make human-looking Terminators (no spoilers here; that part was in the trailer) was a condemned murderer in his "first" life. I'm sure the writer or director indtended this to be a motivational device for the character, one that would add a touching, bittersweet humanity to his future-machiney self, but the effort was unnecessary. This was not a movie about motivation and nuance. This was a movie about blowing up giant, scary robots.
If someone buying a ticket for Terminator Salvation is expecting anything more than scary robots and big explosions, well, shame on him. We shouldn't let any film's mega-hype – least of all a sequel's – keep us from considering what its intended goal is. And what is Terminator Salvation trying to be if not the final chapter (okay, no proof if it's actually the final one) in a series of decidedly summer blockbusters? It seems logical to expect more of what people love from the Terminator movies, updated to match modern expectations and for what it's worth, Terminator Salvation does that very well. The film, like its predecessors. Tons of action, a bit of schlock, but with enough excitement and tension to balance things out.
As for the modern expections bit, I think it's safe to say that digital animation and motion graphics has come a VERY long way since 1984 or 1991…hell, even since 2003, when T3 was released! The art in this film reflects that in spades, and masterfully combines a gritty, deserted post-apocolypse with impossibly modern machinery, every item as perfectly rendered as if it had really been captured with the camera.
Of course, action, suspense, and motion graphics alone do not a great movie make. They make a fine movie, as in "just fine," and in this case, a fun one. Call me a pushover, but I'm not looking for more from this Terminator or any other.
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