Terminator Failvation

Rating: 1/10 (27 May 2009)

The Terminator franchise has been a part of me since my childhood. I absolutely loved The Terminator as a horror movie with a few great action scenes because of the likable characters and the way Arnold was portrayed. Terminator 2 followed up by fleshing out the story of John Connor's importance a little more and showing a hardened Sarah Connor. T3 a different story though, while it was entertaining it had moments that just made you cringe.
I don't know where to start so I'll do this old school: categories.
Dialog: Terminator Salvation presents you with an opening scene meant to make you feel for a new, unfamiliar character. But they leave out so many details about his history that you just don't get pulled in. Then comes flashing forward to John Connor fighting with his "superior" located on the resistance base a sub. We have some really fantastic actors in this movie performing lines that are as flat and meaningless as the romance dialog between Padme and Anikan, and I liked those movies.
Story: There is almost no redeeming value in this movie. The story isn't there. The events are predictable but the story is just a wavering pile of inconsistencies, lacking a climax and satisfying ending. Never are you in anticipation of what is going to happen next, never do you feel concerned about any of the missions at hand, and never did you have really want for these characters to succeed.
Characters: John Connor has the potential to be a real on screen hero. We have never seen him be that though, just some guy trying to avoid the future. (Not counting the excellent Television interpretation). So who better to portray man's salvation than Christian Bale, one of the most compelling actors in recent cinema. We'll Christian I won't blame you for this as the script only featured you for about 40 minutes of the movie (or so it felt). Maybe I will blame you for not reading the script before signing onto this pile of garbage.
His wife Kate is also a total moron on screen. Okay how about this: you are pregnant and part of an endangered species. Do you a) run into a battlefield when you don't need to or cannot even contribute anything, or b) stay in the base. STAY IN THE BASE! Marcus, the other main character has a great current story that we don't care about because of a mystery back story that we WANT to know more about. His decision in the end of the film would have carried more weight if we understood why he needs this second chance.
Action & Special Effects: Where do I start? How about the actual machines? They look okay. Gritty enough to be realistic but the way they are portrayed isn't scary. I don't feel like I did in the past movies where they were an actual threat. Here they are just not interesting or at all threatening. That said there is a moment in the film that is meant to seem big, really big. We see a CGI Arnold. Who looks super fake and weak to the point of you being taken out of the film. I'll touch on this in my conclusion.
Conclusion and other matters: Okay I wanted to tie all these things together by expressing my feeling about this so called climax of the film. The machines found a way to draw John Connor into their base thereby being able to destroy him. Logically, as a machine should think they put him in a room with all the terminators they have to destroy him once and for all. He dies and it's over so sad. WAIT WHAT? They put him in a locked room with one terminator (CGArnold), a machine who John Connor has been familiar with since he was 12. Now that's some good, logical decision making isn't it?
I love this franchise, but this movie made me feel empty inside. I guess that's all as I don't feel like ripping apparent continuity issues: that's just too easy.
9.5 out of 10 the amount of points I'm taking off this movies score.
Honestly, It wasn't the worst movie ever, it just could have had so much more heart to it. I'll see it again soon though and re-judge then. For now I am leaving sad... and let down. (original posted @ wapeach.com)