Definitely a salvation.....sorry had to say it

Rating: 7/10 (6 June 2009)

terminator has seen its fair share of crap, actually the entire third film is an ungodly abomination but even then it has a certain appeal. Salvation pulls the franchise back from the brink with high pace action, some well rounded characters and some good special effects.
The plot does a good job of advancing the story here, sky-net are taking people from their homes and the resistance have found a way to fight the machines. And whilst these are good devices to move the story along neither one is fully explained, for instance, the reason people are being kidnapped is never fully explained and the ultimate weapon against the machines doesn't really find its feet and gets discarded half way through. There was so much more room for a war drama with the kidnapping being pivotal to the story and the action could have seen street and guerrilla warfare but ultimately the story is poor at best.
In counter respect though action scenes are well choreographed and with enough explosions gun play and machine warfare to keep the average view happy, but even then the subject matter begs to be more about conflict and fear and less about bang-bangs explosion but hey the inevitable sequel will probably build on this aspect.
Bale and Worthington show the talent they're known for as the male leads and Bryce Dallas Howard gives a good show for the girls which is one of the films high points, there is a real sense of drama and it never over steps its self into the terrible over acting found in Salvations predecessor.
Special effects are top shelf in most areas. There are some flimsy textures in areas but the machines are very believable and to be honest they bring back some of the fear lost in the third movie's femme fatale terminator.
Despite all the mean things that i said earlier i liked this film a lot sure the story and action weren't completely to my liking they did a good job of keeping me entertained as did the characters and the terminators themselves, but i cant escape the felling that this film could have been so much more than the sum of its parts, there was so much room here for a proper war film it had the cast to pull it off and the effects team to boot, but i suppose the agenda of the studio was to make as much money of this cash cow as possible so they opted for the explosions and action over substance and plot. All in all this is a good film, my only criticism, is that it should have been great.