Why so serious?

Rating: 8/10 (5 September 2013)

at the outset, let me be clear that I am not a fan of action movies. I have enjoyed some from that genre once in a while, the first Die Hard, the first two Terminators, the first Matrix, The Avengers.. and that's that. I hated the second Die Hard, the third Terminator, the later Matrix movies, was bored with the Spiderman movies etc etc. But I loved Salvation.
Having proverbially been living on Mars for the past few years, I have missed the Sarah Connor Chronicles. I haven't seen any of the Transformer movies (wanted to note this, since some reviewers have compared the giant robots to those from that universe. With that background, let me reiterate - I loved this one.
Maybe I haven't been exposed to many of the other technically slick recent movies, and maybe that's why I enjoyed the action sequences in this one so much. Perhaps I found the giant machine bots in this one a massive improvement over the last time I had seen their ilk on screen (that was in that ridiculous third Matrix movie). The moto-terminators were a joy too. I enjoyed the chase sequences, the camera inside the crashing helicopter when John Connor tries to take off with it, and the finale too. The signature homages to the previous Terminator movies showed up at the right times too. I was thoroughly impressed with the post-apocalypse ("dystopian" I think is what I want to say) depiction. I found the performances of especially the two leads - Christian Bale and Sam Worthington - quite appropriate. Moon Bloodgood, Anton Yelchin, Common and of course Jadagrace also left an impression. Some of the subtle notions and character building scenes were artfully done - I particular enjoyed the early relationship development between Marcus and Kyle+Star..
In short, I don't know why so many people hate this movie so much. I didn't even get to watch it on the big screen and still was thoroughly entertained, having happened upon a late nighter on a movie channel here, and was planning to watch while testing some programs that would have taken an hour or so to run. They ran, and were forgotten. Salvation kept me hooked, and I always stop surfing to this day when I hit upon it being telecast somewhere.
Thanks McG. Hope you get to do the next in this franchise.