Terminator Salvation: a review
Jess brought up the point that John Connor didn't DO much in the movie. True, he wasn't the leader of the Resistance he was told he would be. Yet. More on that later.
I'd also read a review questioning why Skynet wasn't any smarter or didn't have a bigger, better plan than this. Well, my thinking on this goes in many directions. On the one hand, Skynet has been dominating the war for presumably quite some time. But despite its obvious upper hand in weaponry and sheer firepower, it has been unable to eliminate humans in a reasonable amount of time. The game plan had to change. If it couldn't go out and easily get rid of its biggest threat, it would trick the threat to come to it and have the home court advantage. Yes, I agree having only ONE T-800 waiting to kill John Connor was a bit of poor planning, but Skynet has always been a little cocky about its ability to follow through on a plan. ONE T-800 couldn't kill Sarah Connor almost 30 years earlier when it had the element of surprise. ONE T-1000 couldn't kill John Connor about 20 years earlier. Why Skynet only ever sent ONE terminator back to any one point in time just goes to show Skynet underestimates human intelligence/fortitude and overestimates its own abilities. On the other hand, John Connor was only a threat to Skynet because Skynet picked him out and essentially set his life into motion such that he would be the best trained and prepared for a future leading the Resistance. Can we assume that in one version of the future, John Connor came to be the leader by his own devices, and it was only then that Skynet sent someone back to eliminate him as a threat early on? This is tricky because of time travel and paradoxes and the future trying to change the past, inevitably erasing the current time line. What would happen if Kyle Reese were never sent back in time? Would John Connor just disappear from the present? Back to the whole Skynet-choosing-its-own-fate-by-targeting-John-Connor idea - it reminded me of the Harry Potter conundrum. Voldemort's prophecy stated that a child born around a certain time would grow up to be his biggest threat, rivaling his own power. It was only because of Voldemort's insecurities and chance that he selected Harry over Neville Longbottom [born about the same time] and targeted him, transferring his own powers in the process of trying to kill him. If he hadn't attacked him, he wouldn't have such tremendous power and he wouldn't have grown with the fame and support of the people as the boy who lived. Likewise, was John Connor's cult following only because Skynet had selected him, failed at preventing him to grow and learn more and more about the future war, and in the process, gave him tactical advantages from all his experiences? The Resistance command was cocky and didn't want to listen to John Connor, similarly, the wizarding government didn't want to believe Harry Potter every time he tried to help against Voldemort. It was the power of people believing in both characters that gave them so much sway.
Back to how John didn't DO much in the movie... The title reveals some of this. It wasn't really a movie about John Connor, it was about Marcus Wright. A bad man who agreed to donate his body, to "help the human race" after he was dead. He didn't know it meant he'd BECOME a terminator. When he woke up believing he was human, he wasn't a bad man anymore. He was helping some kids, he was helping a pilot. He was out to rescue this poor kid that got snatched up after living a shit life hiding from the machines. Could it be said he was reborn, the crimes of his past life forgiven? Things were looking good for him, until everyone found out he was a machine. Again, he was a bad guy, even though he'd be doing all those good things. He was given a chance to redeem himself, to help save Kyle Reese and therefore help save the past and the future. While inside Skynet, Marcus discovers what really happened to him, then he truly redeems himself and fights to help John. Marcus helps John in so many ways, it's hard to keep track. He throws the T-800 around and distracts it while John sets explosives. He helped John get into the facility to save Kyle Reese, effectively saving John's ENTIRE EXISTENCE. Then again when John's taken a metal rod to the heart, he offers up his own to replace it.
Now, was anyone actually sad when command was blown to pieces? No, of course everyone was rooting for John to get his place in the lead. Now John has proven that he knows better than they did. The whole movie was a set up to really put John in the role he's been waiting his whole life for. Up until now, it's been dumb luck and lots of people believing in him that he's survived so long. Half the time he's got a terminator watching his back anyway. The future we've seen in the earlier movies has been much different than the one in this movie. There's fewer resources, the combat moves of the Resistance are much more guerrilla in nature. I was shocked to see how well stocked the Resistance was in this movie - jets, helicopters, the ability to do a heart transplant in the field... Cars and trucks abandoned all over, even collected in some places, just waiting for a little fixing up. Now we've got a Resistance that can believe John is more interested in saving human life than simply destroying Skynet. We've even got the scars above and below John's eye that we see in the "future flashbacks" where John is in command. I liked that.
So why don't I think the movie was totally awesome, but only "ok?" For one, I think it was poorly advertised. "This war ends tonight!" was complete baloney. Of course it doesn't, they need to keep the franchise going! They had a scene in the previews that wasn't in the movie, and I hate when they do that. I also noticed a COMPLETE LACK of any mention of time travel. Has John Connor TOLD anyone how he knows as much as he does? At the end of the movie, it seemed to me that time travel technology hadn't been invented yet. Skynet's plan was to lure John into the nest to kill him, but did they know the significance of Kyle Reese? Kyle Reese wasn't really #1 on the kill list, he was just the bait. If Skynet knew Kyle was John's father, wouldn't it rather just kill Kyle Reese and see if that eliminated John Connor without all the fuss? And I know they threw in some of the catch phrases and that was fun for us, but there was no "on your feet, soldier!?" That line was so important, they even brought it back for the TV show.
I expect the next installment to be better. Dirtier, more paranoia of infiltration models, more desperation. It should be the movie where they have to capture the power plant or whatever industrial building they'll choose this time to house the time travel technology. The movie in which sending Kyle Reese back in time is the goal and point of the movie. Terminator Salvation was just the gateway to a new round of Terminator movies. Then hopefully the third one will have the introduction of the T-1000's. These are things I'd like to see.