McG gives a sneak peek of 'Terminator: Salvation'

By Sarah Sluis

Substituting a Levi's jean jacket for a blazer, and spattering profanities alongside phrases like "we were going for the patina of Children of Men and Road Warrior," McG presented two scenes from the new Terminator: Salvation movie yesterday, which Warner Bros. will release this Memorial Day weekend.

Not all the special effects were complete, meaning that animated sketches often subbed for the giant, Transformers-like robots. One, a "harvester," plucks humans from the ground in order to conduct experiments. For those of us that were tots when the first Terminator released, the "harvester" robot bears a strong resemblance to the "tripod" in the children's trilogy frequently assigned in grade school classrooms.

As someone who usually squirms in her seat after the third and fourth chorus of a car chase (give me an Adaptation car crash anytime), I was riveted by the first sequence. Tightly paced, the set-piece not only provided thrills, but also expository information about the robots' astonishing capabilities. It starts out at a gas station (for those plausibly motivated explosions!) and ends up on a desert highway. Bleakly colored, the showdown/chase has a post-apocalyptic look achieved by a Terminator-specific film stock, and the arid location adds to the wasted feel, giving it that wide-open vulnerability of a North by Northwest plane chase. Repeat: I was impressed.

To soothe fans who pictured a comic-action take on Terminator la Charlie's Angels, McG repeatedly mentioned his desire to "honor the mythology" of Terminator. The writing team focused on the plot of the first two films, brushing over Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and altogether abandoning "The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Like a suitor courting James Cameron's daughter, he flew out to visit him and announce his honorable intentions once he signed on to the flick. On Cameron's set, he met Sam Worthington and cast him in the film. The choice sounds suspiciously like a poach, but could end up working in Cameron's favor if Worthington gains star power before Avatar's release.

So Terminator: Salvation has at least one good action sequence, power stars Christian Bale and Sam

Worthington--but, with six-ish writers floating around on IMDB alone, will it have a compelling plot? Time travel, which will figure into the already arced-out Terminator 5 and 6, is an easy way to lose your audience and a film's believability. Sure, the time travel spin is what made the original not-just-another action film, but all those layers of time travel could cross that fine line between satisfying complexity and a hopeless muddle. While McG feels confident they've ironed out all the contradictions, audiences will have to wait until Memorial Day to find out.