My General Opinion (Definite Spoilers)

Rating: 9/10 (14 June 2009)

I have to say that I don't like watching trailers (other than maybe a teaser) or reading reviews before I've watched a movie. I like going in without any preconceived notions (other than those imposed by the first movies in this case). Saying that, I would have to say that I liked this movie a great deal. I thought it was very loyal to the movies chronologically and contextually. I liked the visceral feel of it. It was a little creepy at moments. The T-600's were really cool and realistic looking. They had an almost steam punk-esquire feel to them at times. And Anton Yelchin was so good in his role that I didn't even realize that this was the kid that also plays Chekov in Star Trek until I was halfway through it.
Only a couple of things bothered me. The CGI was only a little off putting and only in a couple of scenes. Probably the biggest thing that bothered me was some of the tech. Like when Bale hacks the bike and uses a USB cable. This seemed a little far fetched and laughable to me in that I wouldn't have expected the robots to be that "unversal". You'd think that they would have changed the format of their connectors or be wireless entirely for frick's sake. Another part was when the little flying bot was uploading Kyle Reese's (Pieces, lol) face up to Skynet. This took way too long, even for satellite upload. Another was the use of the cruzer micro. There is no way I believe that one of those flimsy little plastic jump drives survived Judgement Day and then the subsequent 15 years and still look as new as it did. It would have been more believable if it had been the bare chip with the USB ending. I guess the filmmakers were trying to say that it was still pretty early in the game and show that the robots were still pretty connected to the human world. It get's complicated because we're already technologically getting past those kinds of things in the real world and it's only 2009. You would think that robots that are self aware could develop faster than that. But at the same time I think that chronologically, their world ended in 2003 and it seems like maybe even the robots would have a hard time innovating in the wake of all that occurred. It's hard to say.
I think the reason that the focus was put on Sam Worthington's character as opposed to Bale's was that this felt like the beginning of a line of sequels. They could afford to set the base of the story and make Conner a sort of side character, because a. we already know a lot about him and b. there are going to be more movies with him in them. The only problem I can see with sequels to this is that they would have to actually get Schwarzenegger and eventually also Robert Patrick involved in them. They would have to get Schwarzenegger to put aside governor-hood (if he's still governor by then) for a little while and buff up or maybe to come in and do voice work with CGI.
Several times I thought to myself that the humans seemed to be way more organized and to have way more resources than were implied by the first movies. This was set way early in the post-Judgement Day time line. Before even the T-800 line. We don't see the same landscape that was in the original film because it's further into the future. I can see (if handled properly)us getting to see the first three movies all over again but from the point of view of the future. I think the biggest thing I am afraid of here is some douche bag director/producers thinking it would be a great way to keep things fresh by changing what happened with what we already know has happened. Like sending something or someone else back during the time of the movies we've already seen. The only way I would be okay with drastic history changes is when and if they (believably and logically) possibly figure out how to avert Judgement Day itself. I know that according to Rise of the Machines Judgement Day has already happened but I think it could be done.
Filmmaker's always play with fire when making time travel a part of the story, and when you're extending and or expanding on an already established universe that is already based on time travel it get's even harder. My point is that now that they have started this whole "seeing the story from the future's point of view" thing, they are going to have to be real creative in order to avoid destroying the franchise. They may have bitten off more than they can chew. That is of course, if they decide to make more sequels at all, but I would bet on it.