No spoilers/ No fanboyinsm/No bashing review.

Rating: 8/10 (4 June 2009)

I was rather skeptical before seeing this movie. Director, setting change - it all could mean huge failure. It didn’t.
This movie feels like it was made by not just terminator fans, but it often makes you feel like you are watching a movie from ten to twenty years ago, and in a good way. There are scenes that manage to capture the essence of what made Terminator 2, Aliens and so forth, movies fun. Only for that i would gladly give this movie high ranking. It doesn’t play with pricey CGI to make your jaw drop, it manages to blend everything cinema has to offer to make you feel like you are there.
Script itself is good. Not great, and has certain issues, but it does its job at changing the setting well, while also keeping the feel of old movies intact. We follow Connor and Marcus, and them alone. If, instead, we had to witness a full-scale anti-machine war, we would get another Matrix Revolutions - something that Terminator shouldn't be.
Acting is a mix. While key cast is great for the most part, Bayle indeed haven't got enough to play with. His character feels more terminator-like than Worthington's. This fact itself can be disappointing, but since we all know well that Bayle can pull off a kick-ass performance, that just means that this impression of the character was intentional. He, Connor, is not a kid anymore. From the childhood he was being prepared for a war and by now he is nothing else but a soldier, and it shows.
Action scenes are played out in the way that fits with what i wrote before: you rarely will see camera fly away to show you the whole scene. Instead, you are there, running from machines. Sad part is that while you do feel like it, its just not terminator 1/2 anyway : there is no feeling of what can best be described as "holy crap, how do i kill this thing? it keeps following me, no way i can survive that!". Thankfully, this is the only shortcoming, and i feel its rather personal one, because there are scenes that clearly directed to make you feel that way, but for some reason they didn't work for me.
Speaking of shortcomings, plot-wise there is only one and i wont spoil it. Ill just point out that there is one unreasonable decision being made in a movie that feels rather forced. Its not too major, but not minor either, so it does subtract from the final score.
And i would rate this movie with solid 8, or even more. Not 10, clearly - but it certainly a worthwhile watch for everyone.