Sam Worthington makes a whole new kind of Terminator

Rating: 10/10 (13 June 2011)

Despite the Franchise changing John Connors as often as a T-1000 can change identity, The Terminator Story is now moved up into the time frame when Connor is in the resistance.
These "Alternate Timeline" stories are as popular now as when the first Outer Limits was on Television with stories like these, during the Golden Age of Science Fiction when Harlan Ellison was writing "Demon with a Glass Hand" (On which the original Terminator movie was based). And so the Familiar elements of the Timeline... John Connor, Kyle Reese, Kate Brewster, and even the T-800/850/101, intermingle with the topnotch storytelling of X-Files Bard John Brancato, who also wrote T3.
Christian Bale plays John Connor who is taking charge of the future he was groomed to live in - He is gathering his "Tech-Comm" unit and although in this film, he is not yet Leader of the Resistance, Bale portrays him as a No-Nonsense leader... Gone is the Kid of T2: Judgment Day played by Edward Furlong, and no more of the wandering, hiding John Connor of T3 played by Nick Stahl, although Stahl had taken the role and made it his own, the change to Christian Bale was not a mistake.
The Kate Brewster mantle was dropped onto Ron Howard offspring Bryce Howard, whose blind girl in M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village" put her on the very visible map, and she no slouch in the Brewster role either, other portrayals include Anton Yelchin as a teenage Kyle Reese, Yelchin had captured all of the mannerisms of the character made by Michael Biehn.
And so we come to the new, Arnold-Schwarzenegger-Replacing central character, Marcus Wright - played by new Action star Sam Worthington, who I have said is the Orlando Bloom of the 2010's.
The Hapless Marcus Wright, eagerly awaiting execution sells his Body to the dying Dr. Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter)- Only to wake up in the middle of a small Nuclear Explosion. We see Wright for a second, in the underground Skynet facility Connor breaks into, and discovers that the T-800 Program is underway much earlier than expected.
This can probably be attributed to Wright's appearance in the Timeline, Technologies that Skynet did not originally have, were on hand due to Dr. Kogan's experiments.
The way Brancato melds it all into the original Terminator story, we know that the things seen in this treatment of the storyline will come to pass, just not in the way expected. The Wright character shines a whole new light on these events, and so, most of Terminator Salvation is seen through the jaded eyes of Marcus Wright.
After Wright connects with Reese and the mute Star (JadaGrace Berry), his adventures begin, and Wright cannot guess where: Losing Reese and Star, Wright connects with love interest A-10 Pilot "Williams" who has to eject on top of Wright's head. Moon Bloodgood plays Blair Williams, and immediately pursues Wright. What else is there to do in an apocalyptic future but repopulate? She becomes unrequited in that pursuit. Blair brings him straight to Connor and a startling revelation that he is not what he thinks he is... And that is all the spoiler I can put in here; this is basically the story of Wright, and his interactions with the characters we met in the 1st 3 films and in this one.
There are MANY homage's to the earlier films; just about every scene in this film has a reference to an earlier Terminator. For instance, when the MotoTerminator jumps over the truck (Like Arnold/T800 did in T2) during a chase scene, Wright knocks out the broken glass in the window of the truck he is driving, just like T-1000 in T2. We can hear all of the "I'll Be Backs" and other famous Terminator Phrases cleverly added to the dialogue. I like that they did these homage's, some of them are subtle, others blatant.
The Kicker of this film, of course, is the Guest-Appearance of Arnold's face on the very first T-800 ever made - Which was photorealistic to the point where it did not look exactly like Arnold looked, it was meaner. This first T800 is several notches more powerful than Arnold's original T800 - He is MUCH harder to kill.... RPG's which would have turned the first T800 into scrap only succeeds in destroying the T800's Flesh. The combat chassis underneath the Arnold Visage is not the same Silver Titanium Hyperalloy Combat Chassis (Microprocessor Controlled) - This metal is More Durable.
I honestly admit when I watched this, I didn't like a couple of things, but as you get into the 3rd, 5th, and 10th viewing of this film it grows on you, the Marcus character grows on you, and Worthington played this part VERY well. So far I've liked all three major films Worthington has been in. He makes this film for me, although the other actors in this ensemble cast are also good. Michael Ironside makes his usual small role appearance.
As Stan Winston's final foray into the Terminator Universe, this film was done well, the effects well placed and not overbearing, the characters multilayered and fresh, the story a good overall Terminator Action/SciFi story, McG did much better on this than I expected he would. after Charlie's Angels.
As this film was supposed to be the first of a "New Trilogy" and reboot of the Terminator Franchise, I can only hope, that the ownership issues are leveled out, and that a new Terminator film can be made that follows the future as laid out here... Because the Wright character can return, we see how easily he was rebuilt as Skynet... And we know he can re-appear, even though his heart now beats in John Connor's Chest.
This film, in my opinion put the same new life that Marcus Wright gave John Connor, to the Terminator Multiverse.