Terminator Salvation (Extended Edition)

Being the enormous Terminator fan I am, I saw the film upon theatrical release. When I found out I didn't really want anything exciting for Christmas, I decided upon the Special EDition Steelbook Blu-Ray, featuring McG's Extended version. This is the first Blu-Ray I've ever reviewed, and I'll be watching it on my standard def 20" TV, through my old style PS3.

I'm assuming this isn't the fault of the film, but some of the opening titles were a bit hard to read. This is a problem I have come across a few times with games desinged for HD, so I ignored it and carried on, having already seen the film.

The film open pre-Judgement Day, with the pending execution of one Marcus Wright, who signs away his body to the scientific research of Cyberdine Systems, the same people leading the development of the sinister Skynet. When the film starts proper, we see a particularly gruff John Connor (Christian Bale, AKA Batman, AKA "we're done professionally"), 15 years on from the end of T3, not quite in charge of the Resistance just yet, but spreading his prophecy, and gaining a good following. He accidentally leads a squadron into a trap, leaving them dead, but discovers that Skynet have begun work on the T-800 models from the first films before they we're supposed to.

We then come across Marcus, ressurected. He bumps into a young Kyle Reese, and they decide to go look for John Connor. On their travels, Kyle and young companion Star are captured by the single most ridiculous robot you will see this side of a Michael Bay film. Marcus is lead by Blair Williams to the Resistance base, where we find out he's one of the most complex Terminators ever (which might not make much sense, considering they haven't started building the T-800 yet, but he's just a prototype).

This leads to a back and forth 'can we trust him or not' scenario. Blair helps him escape, and John then spends quite a while trying to kill him, before non-sensically stoping at his first proper chance to question him again. They agree to let Marcus infiltrate Skynet, and get John inside, so they can find Kyle Reese.

In the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar - "IT'S A TRAP!"

It turns out that Marcus has performed his mission of leading John and Kyle into the waiting arms of Skynet perfectly, even without him knowing he was doing it. Skynet reveals this to him, and he rips out the Machine chip controlling his brain. He goes off to save John, who we then see fighting a newly built T-800. In a dick move, we only get to see Arnie's face for a few seconds before it gets shot off. The two go back-and-forth, before a failed attempt at freezing it brings Marcus into the fight. John goes off to rescue Kyle, and then the T-800 gives Marcus a solid punch on his extra-powered heart. John revives him, and gets killed himself, steel girder through the heart. Marcus tears the head off of the T-800, and John, Marcus, Kyle, Star and a bunch of prisoners get airlifted out of the Skynet base, before they blow it up, with the (apparently changed from the first two films) Nuclear Power reactors *AWESOME EXPLOSION ALERT*. Marcus then sacrifices his heart so that John can live.

This film seems a lot like T3, awesome, but little more than a bridge film. The action is fun to watch, but still doesn't quite match the briliance of the first two films. McG is relatively unproven as a director, but shows a good technique for letting us know what's going on and with who.

The action and the plot are just wide of the mark, but the real problem with the film is the character development. New characters like Marcus and Blair are left almost no room to breath. We learn nothing about Blair other than she is a fighter pilot with the resistance, and Marcus is killed off at the end of the movie, even though nothing is known about him, other than that he is a murderer given a second chance. The arc for his character is good, but how can you care about a character that so little is known about?

Pros
The throwbacks to previous Terminator films are great reminders of how well built this universe is.
James Cameron's original characters are developed in a top notch fashion, ensuring that you know how they get to where they are in the earlier films.

Cons
New characters are almost invisible, even Kate Connor, introduced in T3 is barely in the film.
Whilst I understand, and even appreciate the fact that the future changes due to the frequent time travelling, a bit too much gets changed here for the overall timeline to fit properly.

Overall
Despite the weaknesses, the film stands on it's own feet, as well as a great addition to the Terminator Franchise, here's to many more, so long as McG or Cameron is behind them.