I'll Be Back... Now in the Future!!!

Rating: 9/10 (9 June 2015)

The first three TERMINATOR movies were all time-traveling capers in their respective eras of 1984, 1997, and 2003. Here, finally, in TERMINATOR SALVATION, we get to see the war between man and machine in the dusty post-apocalyptic year of 2018. John Connor (Christian Bale) is a soldier in the human resistance movement. Not yet the leader, he inevitably takes it upon himself to track down a very young Kyle Reese (the late great Anton Yelchin), who will one day turn out to be his father. Meanwhile, a mysterious man (Sam Worthington) wakes up in an underground facility that the resistance fighters come across. Traveling through the barren wasteland, he soon learns of his origins and purpose. Admittedly, the plot is virtually a shoestring, keeping the events loosely tied together. But that's fine, because the real strong points are the spectacular and epic battles on display here. And yes, fans of the series, Arnold Schwarzenegger DOES make an appearance in this film. While some have felt that this movie was a let-down, I disagree. In fact, this is the movie that TERMINATOR 3 should've been!