Watched Terminator: Salvation some time back at GV Plaza Singapura with simplyjean.

This is the fourth installment of the Terminator series, the story is set in 2018 – 14 years after John Connor escaped to Crystal Peak, a military base built into the Sierra Nevada mountains, which allowed him to survive Judgement Day, the nuclear fire unleashed by Skynet which basically ends human civilization as we know it.

I won’t be talking much about the details of the movie, but rather I would touch on what I considered gaping holes in the storyline. First of all, it appears that in the movie, Skynet has sort of figured out the relationship between John Connor and Kyle Reese and thus Kyle’s importance. How Skynet get all the pieces to put together to figure that out is beyond me.

Next, there appeared to be relative ease for John Connor to capture machines and infiltrate Skynet bases. At one point I believe he plugged some kind of USB-looking device into the ‘service port’ (I really think it’s an USB-port or even a Firewire-port) of a Skynet robot bike and hijacked it. He also did the same when inflitrating Skynet in San Francisco. Now, why would a computer evermind built machines with service ports that the equipment of the human resistance can interface with? It almost suggest to me that Skynet will not and cannot completely exterminate the humans, but would be keeping some around for maintenance and / or research. After all, our computers and military equipment all needs maintenance and replacements parts. If they do not already fall apart after several years, they would need to be replaced as a matter of upgrading. Frankly, it would be impossible for both Skynet and the human resistance to maintain a high tech war at all, considering just how much damage has been done after Judgement Day to manufacturing capabilities. It really makes one wonder how Skynet puts together its state of the art army and how the resistance keep all those A-10s, Black Hawks and laptop computers working. It would really have been more logical for Skynet to settle into a symbiotic relationship with the humans in its own area of control just like the Matrix.

So, if Skynet is exterminating all humans and not enslaving any as retainers or slaves, then it brings us to the next mind bogging aspect of the entire Terminator story. Skynet, the computer evermind, has not only achieved sentience but also has the intelligence of a super (or evil) genius. That’s like striking 2 jackpots in a row if it happened all on its own and if not, cursed be the person(s) who programmed the AI. This computer has not only taken over a large part of the US military network, it has also mastered science and technology to research and upgrade its army, military tactics and strategy to pursue its ongoing war with the human resistance and also understands logistics to keep its army in good order to find and exterminate the remaining human population. Not to mention Skynet knows how to mine resources, and then transport it from the mines to the manufacturing plants to put its army together. I won’t even ask how the other nations of the world got their own asses kicked and allow Skynet to maintain dominance on Earth since they are unlikely to allow the US to plug into their military computer networks. Skynet must have also been a super hacker!

Finally, I must say that Skynet, in spite of its immense genius – since it actually even come up with ideas like masquerading its Terminators as humans – did not learn anything about ‘head hunter’ operations that the US or Israeli military employs against their enemies. John Connor repeatedly makes public broadcasts and it would be insane to assume that Skynet doesn’t pick those up and triangulate on his position. While Skynet has even infested lakes with robotic eels or snakes to kill humans, why hasn’t Skynet launch a nuclear missile at Connor’s bases, or send out unmanned drones like present day US Predator UAVs to take him out is beyond me.

Frankly, while the movie maybe quite enjoyable, we should all just enjoy the movie and then forget it. You know I won’t and can’t openly discuss obtaining the film through piracy, so I’ll suggest just buying a DVD and then gather as many people and watch it together.