Solid IF NOTHING New... Missed Opportunity Me Thinks

Rating: 7/10 (3 June 2009)

The intro was awful and Danny Elfman doing the music made it sound like Batman from the beginning, so much so, that I turned to the missus and said "this sounds like Batman", then the music by came up and was no surprise no massive metallic terminator sign at the front intro either... but disappointing.
As for the film, if this is start of a new trilogy then they dived way too quickly into smashing things up... why not show us 1 hour of the missing 20 years? For me, to just jump straight into the war against the machines... don't know, just seems rushed and an excuse to show off the effects...
Bale is hardly in it really, and tbh, annoys somewhat, not Bale per say, more his character, who tbh, I didn't give a monkies about really... Sam Worthington on the other hand as Marcus, really shone once the character started unfolding, so thumbs up for him Helen Carter? What a waste of space and the sequence with her and Marcus talking, was ridiculous and turned it into a kids film... makes no real sense, they'd have just killed Marcus surely as he's now done his job? Effects? 8/10, sometimes very very nice, other times, BAD....
Nice things? Acting overall decent, decent script, Arnie CGI making an appearance... that made me smile, but is nicely done to not spoil the film...
However, downsides? TWO MAJOR ONES: ONE: The sequence in homage to T1 , on the stairs with the terminator coming up it and on the gantry... not sure what he was trying to do here, but it kinda made me wince...
TWO: The end of the fight, hot metal/cold and freeze Terminator??? Wincing again, why do what's already been done? Can see why he did both sequences BUT preferred if he hadn't: So, SCORE??? 7/10... to put it in perspective, T1 10/10 Classic, and nasty T2 9/10 Classic, slightly cheesy and made for kids T3 1/10 Abomination and should never have been made... great ending though! T4 7/10 Good attempt but overall a near miss. However, could've been a dam sight worse!