Christian Bale in Terminator Salvation (Aaron Sarnecky)
Back when Terminator Salvation was coming out, I was stoked for it. Years later its trailer is still one of the best I’ve ever seen. But when I finally saw the movie itself, I was underwhelmed. I’m not the biggest Terminator fan. The first two are awesome but I haven’t seen the third or fifth. But Christian Bale is one of my favorite actors, and this was coming off The Dark Knight (he’s my favorite live-action Batman, besides Adam West). And I was even hearing that the director told his cast to read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (which Blade Runner is based on).
Aside from the fact that the rules of time travel change with each installment, the most glaring issue is the underutilization of Christian Bale’s talents. Bale is famous for immersing himself in his characters, but he shares the lead position essentially with Sam Worthington. This could have been an interesting choice if Marcus Wright were a better character. He might be a cyborg but he really retains his humanity. He’s not a Terminator wanting to be human, or a Terminator rebelling against Skynet. We know from the get-go he’s essentially just an upgraded version of himself, though even I will admit that the trailer ruins the twist.
Virtually everything we know about John Connor (Christian Bale) we learn from the trailer as well. He’s worried about leading the Resistance and winning the war. But the movie doesn’t take any special or memorable way to exhibit his anxiety. The only thing that really gets him truly upset is that Skynet wants to terminate Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) and erase Connor from time itself. But it doesn’t make sense that Skynet would know Reese is his father if it hasn’t sent a Terminator to kill him yet. Ironically, the most memorable part of Bale in Salvation is his on-set tirade towards the director of photography, for which he later apologized.
Terminator Salvation is a serviceable movie with some thrilling action scenes, impressive effects, and great cinematography. The late Anton Yelchin is also a good young Kyle Reese. Unfortunately, it doesn’t propel the series forward in a meaningful way, instead weighing down the more creative aspects like the new robots by focusing on an origin story for the T-800, via Marcus Wright.
At least it didn’t damage Bale’s career, since he went on to win Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter and earn two other Oscar nominations.
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Interesting list! For Weltz though, I’d have picked The Green Hornet. Bloodnofsky was the best part of that shitshow.