Terminator Salvation review

The fourth movie in the series by director McG (yeah, I know, its a stupid name) has had serious controversy and rumors of crap since its inception. Terminator 3 was terrible, and it had a hot, female Terminator and 'Mr. Terminator' himself, Arnold Schwartzenager, so without either of those, there was no hope it would succeed. On top of that, the ending was released online, and, without going into spoiler world, let's just say it got people infuriated. After it was announced they weren't going to go with the ending that leaked, based on peoples reactions, people really started to get nervous. On top of all that, reviews came out that were more ruthless than the terminators themselves; so, am I going to say the same thing, not so much.

The movie is set 8 years after Judgement Day and the events of the third movie. It involves John Connor, as just a symbol, not the head of the revolution. Humanity is right on the verge of extinction, but the small amount of resistance left has a plan, but its really up to Connor to not only find the teenager, Kyle Reese (played brilliantly by Anton Yenchliv) who will one day be his dad, but also stop Skynet from killing humanity. Along the way, he finds Marcus Wright, a man who last remembers being executed several years before Judgement Day, and lets jus say, Marcus has a few secrets, no one, not even he knows.

Now, the movie was not as bad as everyone made it out to sound. Sure the movie had faults, and the script had more than a few bullet holes, but there was some incredible action, and some bright spots in Kyle Reese and of course, Marcus's character. Christian Bale's John Connor was exactly what he needed to be, and was played as expertly as you'd expect from Bale. Let's face it, it's not much of a stretch for Bale's usual character, but its still done well. The CGI was beautiful, and frightening, the world that exists is beautiful and kind of depressing and there were lots and lots of explosions.

The bad parts in the movie were as I said, the script. It seems like there were several instances where they weren't sure where to go with the story, so they just blew stuff up. The final showdown involving Connor just seemed like the first and second movies, with nothing new. Finally, some of the dialogue seemed forced, and unnatural for the talented actors in the movie.

That being said, I am not one of those people who require a Citizen Cane movie every time I go to the theater. All I want is some entertainment, a simple escape from the everyday life. That is what I got in this movie. It was good fun, not the most intelligent movie out there, but good fun.

I give this movie a 6 out of 10

Fun Fact: Old recordings of Sarah Connor are played in the film, with lines nearly word-for-word from The Terminator (1984). Linda Hamilton voiced the lines herself in an uncredited role.