Acting & Story lines as Mechanical as Terminators but Awesome Special Effects

Rating: 5/10 (2 June 2009)

TERMINATOR SALVATION Director: McG Country: USA Year: 2009 Language: English Runtime: 115 Minutes Rating: 12 A
Welcome to the summer – the weather is gorgeous and the box-office giants are storming our cinema screens. One of the most highly anticipated films of the year and certainly one of the most talked about is TERMINATOR SALVATION, the fourth film in the Terminator saga which first hit our screens a full quarter of a century ago in THE TERMINATOR (1984). It made monumental stars of both Arnold Schwarzenegger and its director, James Cameron. The first went on to become Governor of California while the other went on to make the biggest box-office smash of all time, TITANIC (1997).
TERMINATOR SALVATION arrives in cinemas dragging some serious baggage, courtesy of Christian Bale's infamous, foul mouthed on-set rant in which he eviscerated a lighting technician. If you haven't seen it yet, or rather heard it, you can easily find it on YouTube, and join the upwards of 5 million punters that have tuned in for a listen.
The new film arrives without either Schwarzenegger or Cameron – the best things about the first two movies. The third installment in the franchise was pretty poor and didn't perform anywhere near as spectacularly at the box office. Warner Bros' and Sony Pictures' have taken a gamble in handing control of the latest film to McG, who was responsible for the unintentionally hilarious CHARLIE'S ANGELS (2000) and CHARLIE'S ANGLES: FULL THROTTLE (2003) so it had the potential to be a disaster!
TERMINATOR SALVATION is set in post-apocalyptic 2018, where John Connor (Christian Bale) is the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future that Connor was raised to believe in is altered, in part, by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet's operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.
So how does the movie rate against the earlier films? Unfortunately, it never comes close to scaling the heights of THE TERMINATOR (1984) or TERMINATOR 2 (1991) but it's a far better attempt than the dreadful TERMINATOR 3 (2003).
While the story lines and much of the acting are as robotic as the machines there's no doubting that the filmmakers have pulled out all the stops when it comes to action sequences, awesome visual effects and technically astounding computer graphics. Hell, you can nearly see how the film cost a reputed $200 million!
That being said, if you're hoping for something as brilliant as the first two movies you'll be bitterly disappointed. If, however, you're just looking for a two-hour distraction you'll be pleasantly amused.