Three movies and a tv series later – all of which, remember, were about actually stopping Skynet and the nuclear war – and the Robots of Terminator Salvation have indeed taken over the world. The grown-up John Connor, method-acted into snarly oblivion by the increasingly unpleasant Christian Bale, is now some sort of post-apocalyptic messiah, coordinating the surviving humans against the all-knowing, and unstoppable robotic onslaught. Well, sort of.
SciFi is, I think, meant to include Science as well as Fiction – things have to be at least vaguely sensible. And this isn’t. For instance, whilst the robots are apparently able to pick up enemy movement at will, they miss the rebel base entirely and they completely fail to react to the torching of a whole forest by Connor and his crowd. Can anyone say “heat seeking missile”?
And whilst Sam Worthington looks pretty (and he certainly picks up a lot of the slack for the odiously one-dimensional Bale) what exactly is he there for? To raise questions about the blurring distinctions between man and machine? Perhaps. Because while the movie raises those questions, it doesn’t get around to answering them. All Very Perplexing.
For what it’s worth, Terminator Salvation filmed in New Mexico. New Mexico Magazine offers advice on day trips to the locations in the film. And in case there was any doubt about how filming can involve the whole community, here’s a story about how two dogs from the local doggie day care won featured extras roles…..