Rating: 2/5
2003 Dr. Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter) convinced death row inmate Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) to sell his body to #science.
Meanwhile, Skynet realizes it doesn’t want to generate art for tech bros, so it initiates a nuclear holocaust. Watching this movie almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.
2018 John Conner (Christian Bale) leads a resistance attack against ChatGPT and learns about the T-800. The news is so upsetting he yells at a sound guy.
Marcus wakes up in LA and runs into Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) and a mute child named Star. Kyle is a part of the #resistance. He hears a broadcast from John and says, “We gotta meet this guy!”
Marcus is, like, clearly a machine sent into the future to kill John Conner so that he won’t send Kyle Reese to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor from the T-800 and thereby impregnate her with John Connor, who will rely on a reformed T-800 sent back by John Connor to avoid being killed by a T-1000 in 1995 sent back to kill John Connor.
I didn’t see Terminator 3, so I have no idea how its plot plays into this, if at all.
I’m in a hotel nursing a hangover. This movie was on HBO, so I gave it a go.
Common is in the movie. I was like, “Is that Common?” Turns out it was.
The production is expensive and slick in that McG way. The terminators feel heavier than they have in previous movies. But some of the CGI is so loopy and spastic that it undercuts all the effort.
The most compelling idea is that Skynet weaponized Marcus without his knowledge. The Akira and Blade Runner nods are there — it wants to talk about an android/weapon that doesn’t know it.
Also, since Marcus is a former convict, it looks at how he wants redemption in a system that won’t give him the opportunity. The film has too many competing interests, so it underserved the theme.
Anton Yelchin says, “Come with me if you want to live,” because I guess someone has to say it at least once every Terminator movie.
This movie is so dull.