Johnny Connor & The Passable Terminator

Rating: 1/10 (4 June 2009)

This film did not tickle my Endorphin-bone. It baffles my mind how (at the time of writing) this film has an average of 7.3.
But let's get down and dirty. The reason for my vote of three (3) is primarily that I simply could not identify with any of the characters. With seven important characters (I assume we'll see more of over the next two installments), it was difficult to get to know any of them sufficiently.
Then there's the lack of real danger. John Connor did not have a lot of obstacles. Never did I feel he was in any real danger. He got into Skynet far too easily and got himself out easily too.
The purpose of the Marcus character was one thing I didn't quite get either. After seeing the film for the first time my initial reaction is 'did they put him in the film just so he could give up his heart in the final scene, so that Connor could live'? Then again that can apply to the mute girl too. She gave Connor the remote detonator when they were airborne, so that he could blow up Skynet.
With the amount of characters it's difficult to believe that mankind is in any danger. In the first Terminator film, it was up to Sarah alone. In the next two, she had her son and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Take any of them out of the equation and mankind is doomed. However in the case of Terminator: Salvation, I just don't see what impact the death of either of the seven could have on mankind's survival. And so I don't care about the fates of any of them.
I am willing to forgive them for making such a barely passable film if it was just to introduce us to the seven characters. I understand that we'll be seeing a lot more of them and probably get some more back-story on each. Maybe even a few more story lines. The Marcus storyline in T4 was poor at best. It didn't matter whether he was man or machine, I didn't care about him. He had no personality. I did not care about his past. Nor his future. Was he really just a plot device to get John Connor into Skynet?...
But despite its many flaws, I guess an over-the-top Terminator is better than no Terminator. To quote Kevin Smith (on Batman & Robin); "Better with camp Batman than no Batman."