Published: Thursday, 11th June, 2009 10:30am

Film of the week: Terminator Salvation

by Damon Smith

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MAN battles the machines once again in an all-guns-blazing reboot of the Terminator series, which sows the seeds of a new trilogy charting John Connor"s rise to leader of the Resistance in the aftermath of Judgment Day.

The fourth film is a very bleak affair - a colour-bleached war opus that pits the last vestiges of humanity against a fully-aware Skynet and its robotic foot soldiers.

Director McG and his crew conjure an arresting and desolate vision of the near future and some of the action sequences are orchestrated with brio including the crash-landing of a helicopter in a river full of serpent-like Hydrobots.

However, the script is as lifeless, clunky and mechanical as some of the killing machines, constructed by bolting together cliches and trite aphorisms that attempt to pass muster as dialogue.

Screenwriters John Bracato and Michael Ferris, who penned Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines, focus too intently on honouring the series"s past to create anything memorable of their own.

In post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor (Christian Bale) leads the dwindling human race against Skynet and its relentless army of Terminators, flanked by his doctor wife Kate (Bryce Dallas Howard), second-in-command Barnes and feisty lieutenant Blair (Moon Bloodgood).

Like the machines, John searches in vain for Kyle Reese, the man who is destined to be sent back in time to protect his mother.

On the decimated US West Coast, death-row prisoner Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) crosses paths with Kyle (Anton Yelchin) and nine-year-old, mute ward Star (Jadagrace Berry) during an attack by a T-600.

They escape and gravitate towards John and his compatriots while Resistance leader General Ashdown (Michael Ironside) plots a daring attack, which could cripple Skynet forever.

Terminator Salvation plugs a few of the narrative holes from the first three films and explores the first wave of Skynet machines, including Harvesters which scoop up human prey and two-wheeled Moto-Terminators which run down stragglers.

There are nods to the previous instalments such as when young Kyle tells Marcus, 'Come with me if you want to live', perfectly echoing words to Sarah Connor in The Terminator, or the snippets of her cassette journals, seemingly voiced by Linda Hamilton.

Arnold Schwarzenegger"s computer-generated likeness makes a cameo as one of the first T-800s to roll off the assembly line.

Bale looks ill at ease amid the pyrotechnics. He delivers the lines with his usual bombast, but we feel no bond with his character.

Worthington at least gets beneath the synthetic skin of his pivotal player - a hybrid with a human brain and heart powering a metal exoskeleton - exploring the inner conflict of an abomination torn between corporeal past and cybernetic future.

'The battle has been won but the war rages on,' growls John at the end of the film, echoing the final words of Terminator 3.

On this lacklustre evidence, he won"t be back.

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