Terminator: Salvation (12A)

Over the years, the Terminator series has grown from an experimental chip into a powerful and unbreakable machine.

Its three parts provided the framework for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s career as an actor, in which he excelled in the role of an unbending and emotionless robot.

But Terminator: Salvation (12A) misfires so badly that the malfunction cannot be attributed solely to the absence of this actor of limited talent.

It’s 2018. A post-apocalyptic Los Angeles is a wasteland of dust and decrepit skyscrapers which emit smoke like a smouldering fire. After countless armed battles against man, the machines patrol the earth like the undead, hunting out the last human survivors and destroying them with barbaric glee.

In dimly lit bunkers, in which buried pockets of civilisation are holed up, the Resistance, a Mad Max-esque group of ragged freedom fighters led by the iconic John Connor (Christian Bale) plan their salvation.

They are reinforced by a resolute teenager, Carl Reece, the saviour in the first film, and by a new character, Marcus Wright, half-man, half-machine, who, because of his mixed ancestry, has to fight to earn the trust of Connor.

While many of the battle scenes are superb, and although the technological sophistication of the machines increases with each sequel, the enemy in this episode appears wholly one-dimensional, which restricts somewhat the development of the narrative.

One of the elements of the previous films was that, although a machine, the enemy was partially human. This created a face for the enemy, a personality behind the guns and the machinery.

However, in Salvation, the enemy is represented solely by the naked, red-eyed, mechanical beast synonymous with the original model. Gone is the evil Arnie T-800 Terminator of the original, Robert Patrick’s T-1000, and the uncomfortably sexy Kristanna Loken as T-X.

The battle is literally machine against man, metal against flesh and brain, which limits the scope of the quest for salvation. While Christian Bale embodies the role of John Connor adequately, there are times when he is guilty of overplaying the part.

Sam Worthington’s Marcus Wright outshines his rival but still somehow lacks the plausibility of the second film’s ‘good’ Arnie, who was able to portray the robot without having to diverge too much from his natural mechanical character.

Salvation ultimately runs out of steam because it clings to the formula of its predecessors without bringing with it any innovation. The previous films portray the war with the machines as the climax of the series but in this film, without Arnie, a fresh approach was needed.

Instead we are force-fed recycled characters, scenes which are all too familiar, and a product which is a clumsy pot-pourri of bits and pieces.

While there is enough here to retain the viewer’s attention, you nevertheless mourn the demise of a cinematic dynasty.

Like Chelsea without Mourinho, the ghost of Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to cast a shadow over this film, an impression confirmed by a brief and unnecessary cameo from the Austrian.

Many will hope that Terminator will fight to live another day, and so it should.

Watch the trailer for this film here.