Terminator Salvation

Last night we went to see the new Terminator film, Salvation. And bloody good it is, too.  Well, assuming you’ve liked the other Terminator films – and we’ll eliminate T3 from the equation, because that was unutterable shit.

It’s not a continuation from the other films – it’s being called a “reboot”, which I would also say isn’t strictly true. It’s different, in the same kind of way that “Aliens” is completely different to “Alien” – the basics are the same, but also things have changed – as they say in the film, “This isn’t the future I was told about”. Which of course is at least half the fun with films involving time travel in the way the Terminator ones do. (And can you believe it’s 25 years since the original Terminator film?)

The main change in this though is that it doesn’t involve any time travel. Instead, it’s all taking place in the future, with an adult John Connor. They’ve taken the time to look at how the machines would work/evolve, including bringing in a couple of new types of machine which make sense, and look fantastic.

The film’s slightly let down by the last ten minutes or so, which descend into American morality and predictability – but other than that, it’s a pretty stunning ride.  Even better, it actually makes sense for the most part – there are fairly large holes in a couple of the concepts, but you’re willing to suspend that for a while, at least.

All told, it’s well worth seeing (again, based on the assumption that Terminator movies are your thing) and makes for an entertaining- and intense – couple of hours. Far better than Wolverine, that’s for sure…