Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a convicted murderer who was executed by lethal injection in 2003, finds himself mysteriously revived in 2018, several years after the computer known as Skynet attempted to wipe out its human adversaries. Wandering across the barren landscape of southern California, Marcus meets a young resistance fighter named Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin).

Reese, who’s been targeted for termination by Skynet, is soon captured, and Marcus eventually crosses paths with John Connor (Christian Bale), humanity’s would-be military messiah. Upon discovering the truth behind Wright’s rebirth, Connor chooses to use him in a mission to rescue civilians--including Reese--who’ve been harvested as part of Skynet’s latest plan to crush its enemies once and for all.

CRITIQUE

Let’s get a couple of things straight. First off, the impact of The Terminator and Terminator 2 isn’t likely to be repeated; the original was too surprisingly great and the second too groundbreaking for another movie in the same franchise to possibly scale the same heights. Second, James Cameron isn’t coming back.

I know some people think it’s unconscionable that anyone other than the man who gave birth to this story (sorry, Harlan) would helm a Terminator flick, and I know they were particularly incensed when McG was hired to direct (yeah, the Charlie’s Angels movies blow, but We Are Marshall proved he actually can tell a story when he sets his mind to it), but Cameron’s moved on, people, so get over it. (These same people seem to ignore the fact that out of the four sequels Cameron has been involved with, only one was to a project he wrote and directed.)

All you can hope for now is a movie that’s good, and I happen to think that both the third and fourth entries in this series have been good. No one’s breaking any molds here, but how could they? Iconic these movies aren’t, but good action flicks there are.

Rise of the Machine got better as it went along; the first two acts were pretty much a retread of Judgment Day (albeit a slick, entertaining one), but I really liked the ending, which thumbed its nose at the finality of the previous movie’s resolution. The finale of Salvation, however, is its weakest aspect. It goes on too long, contains far too much exposition, and is generally underwhelming (this despite a whole mess of pyrotechnics).

But up until this point the movie both supplies the great action we’ve come to expect (there are several extremely well-mounted sequences) and toys with a couple of themes that more heady sci-fi tales have been exploring for as long as the genre has existed. And I imagine the movie focused more heavily on these themes before Bale signed on and the story was rewritten to give Connor a larger role.

It’s no secret that the script, which is credited to Machines scribes John Brancato and Michael Ferris but was rewritten by Paul Haggis and Jonathan Nolan, was constantly being revised (most of Nolan’s work was performed during filming), and it shows. The concurrent running of the two main plotlines during the first hour is a bit uneasy; the Marcus/Kyle stuff works fine (and sometimes even damned great), but at times it’s obvious that Connor is being shoehorned into the story.

Things improve when the two plots finally converge, and the third act begins well enough (I love the way on which Connor sets a trap for one of the Moto-Terminators; it’s nice to see he never lost his taste in music), but as I said, the climax runs twice as long as it should, and so much explaining-of-the-plot goes on that the momentum goes wonky.

I don’t know if McG misspoke or was misquoted, or if plans changed, but the half-hour-longer version of the movie that was reportedly going to see the light of day isn’t included here. The Director’s Cut version that is included here is only three minutes longer than the theatrical version, extending a couple of scenes, making some of the violence a bit more graphic (although it’s still nothing terribly harsh), and adding back in the bit where Moon Bloodgood removes her top. (This last bit actually helps amplify one of the main threads of Marcus’s side of the story. Not that I’d be complaining if it didn’t, mind you.)

Because this material was lost late in the game, excised in the days immediately before the movie’s theatrical release in hopes of bringing down the rating, the editing in the theatrical cut got rough in a couple of spots (the scene that contains the aforementioned bit with Bloodgood ended up making little sense); reintegrating these bits helps smooth these rough spots over. But I can see how the movie could have been longer; some characters come and go rather abruptly or are never even identified (Terry Crews is listed in the credits but I’ll be damned if I’ve spotted him in either of my viewings, and I can’t imagine Bryce Dallas Howard’s role was meant to be so small), and some subplots are undernourished (particularly John’s relationship with his superiors in the resistance).

Who knows, perhaps at some point we will see a substantially longer cut. Knowing the answer to that question before this release hit would’ve been nice, but that’s Hollywood for you.    

I know this movie underperformed at the box office, so I’m hoping home video revenues are sufficient enough to get a fifth entry off the ground. Salvation play like more of an opening act than a standalone tale, setting up a story that seems to be headed to the point that kicked everything off, and I’d like to see it brought to fruition. More importantly, I’ve been waiting for a full-blown futuristic battle between humans and machines for twenty-five years now, and while this movie does provide a few glimpses of just that, it’s not enough. I still want horizons blotted by mushroom clouds, Hunter-Killers mowing people down, and the sweet glow of a firing phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range.

Besides, as the Sarah Connor series showed during its best moments, the world of this tale is a huge one, one that could be explored for years and years. Call me a sucker if you like, but as long as they keep churning them out, I’ll keep showing up.

THE VIDEO

The 2.40:1/1080p transfer--encoded with VC-1 onto a 50 GB disc (that goes for both versions of the movie)--is excellent; flawless, really. McG and cinematographer Shane Hurlbut (the guy on the receiving end of Bale’s infamous on-set tirade) opted for a grimy, almost grubby look for the movie. Aside from the climactic scenes set inside a Skynet facility, the visuals are dirty, baked, and blasted, dominated by deep blacks, earthy grays and browns, and wan greens; there’s also a healthy amount of grain (the transfer handles it with ease), which further adds to the gritty feel. But you nevertheless get an image that is smooth and film-like, with a vivid sense of depth and a level of detail that is consistently striking.      

THE AUDIO

Damn, this thing is loud! That’s what I thought as I sat in the theater, and that’s what I thought as I sat in the comfort of my own home. Fortunately, it’s just as good as it is loud. The English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track (yes, that’s right--there’s a DTS-HD track on a Warner disc) included here (both versions of the movie get one) will both showcase your equipment and come close to damaging it.

The surrounds are never quiet; when they’re not channeling discrete effects they’re opening up the music (composed by Danny Elfman, who included a couple of nice lifts from Brad Fiedel’s classic scores for the first two flicks) or reinforcing the meticulously constructed sonic character of the various settings. The low end, which pushes as deep as it can as often as it can, rarely takes a break, either; but as low as it gets, it never bottoms out or becomes murky, remaining instead tight and punchy. And despite everything that surrounds it, dialogue is never obscured.

French and Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 dubs are also included; English SDH, French, and Spanish subtitles are available.

THE EXTRAS

The disc containing the Director’s Cut has no standard extras, but it is BD-Live enabled.

The bulk of the extras can be found on the disc that houses the Theatrical Cut. They include:

A Maximum Movie Mode option, which is hosted by McG. Remember all those big promises about what Blu-ray could deliver in terms on content? Well, this is it. Standing between a pair of picture-in-picture screens running raw footage, storyboards, behind-the-scenes clips, animatics, visual effects breakdowns, etc., the director guides the viewer through the movie’s production. It’s like a mash-up of a really good commentary and really good video-based material, and it’s just damn cool. But if for some strange reason you don’t want to sit through it, much of the material is available in the form of Focus Points featurettes, which are good, just nowhere near as good as the whole experience.   

Reforging the Future (19 minutes, HD) is a good, surprisingly concise making-of featurette.

The Moto-Terminator (8 minutes, HD), which is far more interesting than I thought it would be, looks at the design and creation of the movie’s two-wheeled Terminators.

The final disc of this 3-disc set contains a digital copy of the theatrical version of the movie.

FINAL THOUGHTS

If you’re looking for an experience to rival either of the first two movies, you’re not going to find it here. But if you’re looking for nothing more than a good action flick, have at it.