A Worthy Sequel

Rating: 8/10 (20 May 2009)

So I managed to acquire half a dozen advance screening tickets for the movie for tonight and with as little spoilers as possible...
It was awesome.
So far, what I'm reading from critics is concerning the lack of humor and downbeat characters in the film. Which in short, is a joke in itself. Do they expect people to be cracking witty remarks in these dark post-apocalyptic times? It's grim, it's gray and everyone is (barely) living in fear. Don't pay attention to RT at the moment, they are clueless. These are hardened people, comparatively speaking, how many homeless people do you see begging that are laughing their butt's off? Exactly, and if they are, then they haven't been homeless long enough! For fans of the Terminator mythology and have actually payed attention to the little things, you will definitely be able to find some joy the bleak background. Without spoiling too much, it brings back certain artifacts from the first film especially (the picture, the tapes, the building of Kyle Reese - the shot gun) and also something which I'm not sure everyone noticed but an important origin of a distinguishable physical characteristic shown in the past films with John Connor.
For people who aren't really familiar with the previous installments (like my co-worker "wait, were there movies before this one?" I almost lost it on her!), they may be a little confused but regardless of being unaware of these tie ins, they will be thoroughly entertained. This is a fantastic blockbuster film on it's own, but giving it a Terminator template made it even better. Some of the special effects/cgi were simply breathtaking and there were plenty of "holy!" moments, never thought such a bleak future could look so beautiful at times.
Now, I could understand why people would be disappointed for the sheer fact that "it was no T2" but honestly, how the heck are you going to top that? Judgment Day was groundbreaking and a brilliant mind blowing action movie. No matter who they hired, it would never hold a candle to it. BUT, McG did a great great job. For an MTV director to respect Terminators history and mythology and give us something as exciting, pulsating, enjoyable from beginning to end with a PG-13 rating it quite remarkable. I'm not saying he's amazing or anything of the sort, but he may have made people rethink their prejudgment when they snarfed and made snide comments about his name.
Performances wise, they were pretty good all around. Sam Worthington steals the show, Bale did his part and was a bit monotone but I don't expect much more from someone who is leading the resistance and has endured what he has. The supporting cast did their part as well and it felt pretty even. No major qualms really.
When the credits were about to roll and the Terminator theme song started to play, I let out a great sigh of relief and left the theater with a smile on my face. The Terminator franchise/mythology holds close to lots of us, we grew up on it (specifically T2) and the fear of having it crushed (ala T3) would be heartbreaking, but fear not.