Good action movie. Not up to the "Terminator" standard.

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2009)

OK, So T2 is my favorite movie of all time, so naturally I was excited to see that a fourth installment was being delivered. The trailer was enough to get me Fandangoing my tickets. And that is just about as far as my delight got. Here's the thing: the movie isn't bad...as an action movie. But the Terminator franchise goes beyond "action movie". The Terminator story is sci-fi gold. It's almost as if the writers didn't fully appreciate the mythology of the Terminator series. As far as the film itself goes, the visual effects are well done, and the acting/directing isn't horrible. But the story lacks the mental "kick-in-the-balls" that came along with the other Terminators. So much more could have been done with the relationship between John Connor and Kyle Reese. The writers really missed an opportunity to develop a strangely sentimental father/son relationship. I am reluctant to give this movie anything more than 6 stars, but because it is now part of the Terminator canon, I'll throw an extra star in there. See this movie, but don't expect the ground-breaking visuals or mind-bending sci-fi that were present in the previous installments.