Great re-launch of the series

Rating: 5/10 (8 June 2009)

I cannot understand the bad press at all, after watching this twice its hard to see any truly major flaws in what is a brilliant story driven action movie featuring all the hallmarks of the original two but adding its own great flavor the series.
I won't go into spoilers but generally thee is a great cast at work here, Christian Bale didn't convince me in the trailers but in the film itself he's a competent John Connor, well rounded and flawed but showing the side of him that inspires people. Anton Yelchin plays Kyle Reese here, another recurring character and really sells himself in the role, reminding the audience much of Michael Biehn. However Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, a new character to the series, almost steals the show providing a real hero for the film whom like Bale is well rounded and drives the plot with enough humanity that we understand what separates us from the machines.
This is the underlying theme of all the Terminator films and it really gains ground here with the destructive war showing the real horror of the Terminators in all their various forms and a shocking surprise at the end providing a great insight into how intricately a killer mastermind Skynet really is, as well as providing a real highlight for long term fans. The style serves all this well, with thrilling and well realized action scenes orchestrated beautifully by Mcg and the design of the machines themselves often being quite creepy, with an unsettling side to their metal skulls and glowing eyes, they really are portrayed well, giving a sense of how cold and calculating they are. Some really intense scenes early on set the tone for the entire movie and provide my favorite movie of the summer.
For long term fans of the series, the next two films in this planned trilogy will likely decide how worth the wait this installment was but ultimately it has set the stage for what could be a brilliant close to the series and finally showing us the war we've been waiting for. McG deserves the chance to make the next two because here he has managed to re-launch a once great series on the verge of decay. Now its alive and stronger than ever, with the story we all really wanted since we saw the first film. Go see it now, its worth your time.