Wiwille's movie reviews part 78

It's been quite a while since I've done a movie review, but Tad, aka The Jiggaman, requested that I take a look at all movies listed in a recent Fearnet.com article, which is entitled Overlooked And Underrated - Unsettling Science Fiction. It's going to be a tall order as most of these films haven't been overlooked nor are underrated and it would be quite a stretch to call a lot of them unsettling. Still a review I must do, and since WIGSF's request of some obscure Tom Hanks movie still hasn't appeared on my doorstep after almost a year, I'll tackle a movie that most cringe to even accept the fact that it exists.

The writer of Fearnet.com believe Terminator Salvation deserves a bit more love than the disdain given by critics and audiences. I'm hard pressed to see why anyone felt any passion for that film either way. Let me get this out of the way first: I find the whole Terminator franchise overrated. Sure it's a cool concept and it has great characters, but the acting displayed in most of these films takes me out of the story. Sure they're not bad films really, just not something I've ever really embraced as so many others have.

For those unfamiliar, Terminator Salvation takes place after Judgement Day, when a machine controlled Skynet became self aware and decided to try and eliminate the human race. John Connor is now leading the guerrilla resistance against the machines, played by a seemingly bored Christian Bale. Michael Ironside is in the film commanding forces from a submarine. I believe he should be in every action film ever produced.

Sam Worthington takes the role of a cyborg created by Skynet, the only one to escape an attack led by John Conner. Thinking it's human the cyborg is captured by the resistance only to be told otherwise. With the help of a human it saved earlier, it escapes while being pursued by Conner. After the chase is complete they make a deal to help each other infiltrate a Skynet base and save the humans imprisoned there.

It's an ambitious project if nothing else as it strays from the Terminator convention greatly. There's no time travel at all, a lot of the robots are hybrids of vehicles, and the look of the future is nowhere near as slick and glossy as those few minutes displayed in the Cameron films. This is a gritty looking piece, which I like, but I'm hard pressed to find a reason to really give the movie any thought what so ever. The characters were really dull and a few served little to no purpose. Director McG, who was born with two names, doesn't rely too heavily on CGI, which is refreshing, and does give the story some moments, but they are few and far between. This movie had a script that screamed straight to DVD and was about as forgettable as a Highlander sequel.

Fans of the franchise likely went to see this in the theatre, but I imagine most have little recollection of what they saw a month later. They probably sit and recall it being about as fun as sitting through a road trip from Anchorage to Orlando with your bladder disabled grandparents who insist on listening to the same Lawerence Welk album over and over again.

Wanna see a film reviewed by Wiwille? Drop me an email or comment and you'll see it soon on One Bad Apple. Rules are posted here.

"As fascinating as chewing styrofoam, with the occasional firecracker jammed in to make you chew faster." - Rubin Safaya