Terminator Salvation

When movies have too many sequels they can become bland and uninteresting. The trend lately is to reinvent certain recognizable franchises as a way of capitalizing on an already established audience and still creating something fresh and interesting. James Cameron once reinvented Ridley Scott's classic horror movie “Alien,” into an equally interesting action movie “Aliens.” Now Cameron’s own seminal franchise is being reinvented with its fourth installment “Terminator Salvation.” The problem sometimes with reinventing something that has a built-in audience is that people have built-in expectations and you run the risk of disappointing them. But have no fear as this is definitely not the case with “Terminator Salvation.”

When we last saw Jon Connor in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” he was evading yet another Terminator robot that was sent back in time from the future, with the help of the iconic guardian Terminator played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. In that film Connor failed to stop Judgment Day, the first strike in the war between mankind and machines. In “Terminator Salvation,” it is now 2018 and the war is raging as Jon Connor commands a group of resistance fighters to save the future of mankind from extinction. While this film is a departure from the usual formula in which people and robots are sent back to the present in order to achieve a strategic advantage in the war being fought in the future, it in no way betrays the legacy of the previous films. While having been reinvented into a post-apocalyptic survival movie, it still maintains many of the previous themes and conventions that people have come to expect. It is full of vision and intense action sequences which were executed perfectly to fit the style and story. Each set piece in the film is captivating and amazingly rendered. The performances set the perfect tone for the film and pull the audience into an unfamiliar world. And the story which could easily have been bogged down with exposition instead flows fluidly to its ultimate conclusion.

This summer’s offerings are mired by the shadow of last year’s writer’s guild strike. Many of the films you will see were rushed into production before they were ready and subsequently the films suffered. However, this film is a shining beacon in an otherwise uneventful blockbuster season. McG, the film’s director, has earned some credibility with this film which was not visible from his previous regrettable films based on the TV series “Charlie’s Angels.” But don't let this fact dissuade you from what is actually a fantastic movie. This film is the best summer movie to come out so far, and it will be very hard to top.

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The video and audio are great. Presented in 2.35:1 aspect ratio and enhanced for 16x9 displays, "Terminator Salvation" looks fantastic. Not as good as in the theater, but certainly the best it could possibly look in the comfort of your own home.

Presentation and packaging are always something I take into great consideration. The menu is simple to navigate, but it looks sleek.

As far as bonus features are concerned, viewers won't get squat from this standard DVD release. You'll be better of purchasing the Blu-Ray edition if you're looking for quality features.