Deadly Machines with a One Track Mind: Kill

Christian Bale stars as John Connor in this fourth installment of the Terminator series. Moon Bloodgood stars as Blair Williams, John’s love interest and sounding board. Sam Worthington stars as Marcus Wright a bad guy who is changed into half machine under the watchful eye of Dr. Kogan played by Helena Bonham Carter.

The year is 2018 and the future is dark literally. The film is very dark mostly black and white with some sepia tones added. Skynet, an organization that wants to eliminate all humans from the planet has built deadly human looking machines that are programmed to kill... and kill they do. Be sure to bring your ear plugs to the theater as the movie is ‘extremely loud’. You’ll hear non-stop machine gun fire or explosions throughout. (I had a headache afterwards.)

I’m a terminator fan and enjoyed the first two films immensely. Mostly I enjoyed the creative aspects of the scripts and the comedic banter between Arnold Schwarzenegger and all that he encounters. The problem with this film is there is no personality of any of the machines or the enemy for that matter. Very dull, which in the end makes for a lack luster film. There’s nothing new here, we know the machines want to take over the world, but we’ve know that since 1984 when the first film debuted. Give us something new to think about or a story-line to care about. Non-stop machine gun fire and explosions just don’t cut it.

We’d also like a better script with some acting that isn’t stiff. Bale, our hero, is rather cold and aloof. He’s a very strange leader as well and we really don’t know much about him. It was confusing hearing him speak at the beginning of the film as he talked with a deep raspy voice as he did in Batman. The futuristic motorcycle riding was also similar to Batman.

At one point in the film we are given some insight into the villains as a character says, “The difference between us and them as that we bury our dead.” (‘Them’ refers to the machines) I’m not sure what that is supposed to mean, but writers need to carry the idea through and give us more depth.

The great thing about T2 was the interaction between the terminators and the humans during everyday life events. We are shown no normal everyday occurrences as earth has been destroyed to the point that pockets of resistance hide out in different camps with machine guns and shoot at anything that comes near them.

The film is very violent as well. It’s not for kids and I would caution you to keep them away. The ending scene is a battle that we’ve seen before in T2, the machines look a little different and the fighting is longer but the stairs, warehouse and fires all reminded me of the earlier films.

Arnold Schwarzenegger (currently the Governor of California) does make an appearance which will please fans as he is shown with his body builder chest larger than life strutting into the film. He’s not as endearing as the other films but that is no surprise as this film is doom and gloom. No room for any comedy here. Just kill, kill, kill until all the humans are gone. Yes, it’s a downer, dark sci-fi flick with no new material. And I don’t think turning up the volume and listening to loud machine gun fire throughout the film counts as new.

Sarah Adamson © 2009