In a post-apocalyptic 2018, the predestined John Connor (Christian Bale, set on angry) leads humans in a war against artificially intelligent machines. The non-humans take the form of colossal Transformer-like weapons, Ducati motorcycles, metallic skeletons, badly behaving power cords that can swim and, in one case, a thing that looks like just a regular joe (and that is portrayed by Sam Worthington). This fourth iteration of the popular sci-fi franchise is directed by McG, and if nothing else, it may be the loudest movie I've seen in years. Shot in arty murk and with a bazillion digital effects, Salvation is one long chase-explosion-battle after another. There's just a whisper of a plot, and only a word or two given over to the story's central quandary: Is a "human" who is unaware that he is a machine really a human? (The curious are advised to seek out TV's Battlestar Galactica for similar, but seriously debated questions regarding the sentient worth of humans vs. machines vs. machines that seem human.) This film is just for folks who want to see shit blow up real good, and argue over which Terminator kill-bot really kicks the most ass.
