Disappointing; go see Star Trek instead

Rating: 5/10 (22 May 2009)

Okay, I was all primed, because I have read that this one is the best one yet; even went to a specific Thursday afternoon showing, because it was going to be shown on the Ultrascreen. Well, I'm beginning to think I'm not cut out for the average 2009 action adventure movie, because it seems like it was too loud and too much destruction and too little of anything else, but, hey, the new Star Trek wasn't this way! It was great and there was a lot of great action, but there was also human drama going on.
The movie starts out in 2003 with a guy, Marcus Wright, who was on death row, and was being persuaded to give his body to science, which he agreed to do, if he could get a kiss from the scientist (played by a bald Helena Bonham Carter). It shows him undergoing his execution by lethal injection, then flashes forward in time to 2018. He comes out of a pit of mud, naked, and resurrected in the midst of the Machine vs. Man war, but appears to be human. Now if you have seen the previews, then you will know that a little later, he has some metal showing on his face, but still proclaims he is human.
The other main part of the story is that Kyle Reese, who will later go back to the past and will actually have sex with Sarah Connor and become John's father, is only a teenager and is also hiding from the machines, and has to be saved so he can go back and create John. Kyle is played by Anton Yelchin, a Russian-born, American raised actor, now 20, who also plays Chekhov in the new Star Trek movie, and very well, I might add; but it is hard to imagine this character being the guy who went back in time to save Sarah Connor; it was a total disconnect for me. That Kyle Reese had a charisma and a presence that is hard to imagine coming out of this guy in his future, but this part of the story didn't get developed; he didn't really do much here except get captured. Marcus Wright has brought the information that Kyle Reese and a whole lot of other humans are captive at the main Skynet headquarters in San Francisco. So both Connor and Wright want to go to San Fran to infiltrate Skynet, Connor, to liberate the humans, and Wright to find out what happened to him, how he ended up here in the future.
During several of the sequences, we see lots of Terminators, of the old T-600 class (the ones like Terminator I), but we also see a new class of machines that looks like they were taken right out of Transformers.. They also have some ships that spot humans, that reminded me of smaller Millennium Falcons out of Star Wars. And there were some cool, crazy motorcycle/driver machines with guns that could really chase people down—the best machine we haven't seen before. All in all, I thought it was fairly entertaining, but in the end I was disappointed that not much was accomplished, and that they left it wide open for a sequel, which I really don't want to see now, because nothing much happened in this one! I guess if John Connor hasn't sent Kyle Reese back in time yet to save his mother from the first Terminator, then this must be early in the time sequence, and a long time away from the finish. . .perfect for dribbling out many more sequels, but basically, not much happens except the introduction of Marcus Wright, who I thought was the most interesting character in this movie. John Connor really didn't do much, a total waste of Christian Bale's talent.
One of the disturbing things was trying to follow the plot, as they kept shifting back and forth between John Connor and Marcus Wright. The two guys, each outfitted in stark looking military garb with short hair and scars and wounds, etc. looked too much alike. After Marcus had the steel showing in his face, it was easier to keep them straight, but I had to see the steel to be sure.
I think you can see that I have mixed feelings about the whole thing, but I'm sure the fans will love it. Even Arnie had personality as a robot by Terminator II (even as we laughed at his Austrian accent!) And in Transformers, the good robots also had personalities, especially "Bee", the one that was also Sam Witwicky's car! I don't know, it just left me feeling kind of empty, whereas I loved the new Star Trek so much, I went back and saw it again last night! I expected to be kind of numb to a totally new redone Star Trek, and I expected to love the new Terminator, but it turned out the other way around.