Terminator Salvation (2009)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2009
	Director: McG (Charlie's Angels 1-2, This Means War)
	Actors: Christian Bale (The Machinist, Reign of Fire), Sam Worthington (Rogue, Avatar), Anton Yelchin (Star Trek 1-3), Moon Bloodgood, Michael Ironside (Scanners, Starship Troopers), Bryce Dallas Howard (Jurassic World), Helena Bonham Carter (Fight Club)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF, Action
	Conditions of visioning: 14.07.2015, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: In a post-apocalyptic future, Man is at war against machines led by Skynet. John Connor (Bale) is not yet leader of the Resistance, but is believed to be a kind of prophet. He is looking for Kyle Reese (Yelchin) but this one is first found by Marcus (Worthington) whose motivations are unknown.
Review: Following the release of Terminator Genisys, I am starting to watch the other movies of the franchise in reverse order, but that shouldn't matter for a series that deal with time travel. After the classic dyptic directed by James Cameron (The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day) and a semi-parodic third movie (Rise of the Machines) that was showing the big Arnold for the last time before his eight-year governorship, Salvation builds up on the events of all those movies and takes place exclusively in the future during the twice-postponed war against Skynet. That was an interesting choice. Then the mood of the movie is also different, without any of the humour from its two predecessors, thus closer to the tone of the first, influenced I guess by the recent fashion for the "Grim and Gritty" (like the Dark Knight trilogy). This is also interesting, as is the choice of cast: Christian Bale as John Connor not yet the leader, Anton Yelchin as a young Kyle Reese and the excellent (and trendy) Sam Worthington as a former criminal looking for redemption. And it is always good to see Michael Ironside. The only things that really annoys me with this movie is that the color tone (mud and dust) is very different from the one of the others (fire and steel), a lot of action takes place during the day, and the Resistance is able to operate large bases relatively unhindered as long as they stay away from San Francisco, while we were used to see them hiding in sewers, eating rats and barely surviving. But this may be because Salvation shows the early days of the War. In the end I like Salvation as much as I did Genisys, but for totally different reasons.
Rating: 6 /10