Review from a non Terminator fan

Rating: 10/10 (23 August 2009)

When I first saw this movie's trailer for a screening of The International, I said to myself ''Man, this is going to be THE movie of the summer''. Well, I guess I was wrong, because out of the 200 million dollars this movie cost, it only made 120 million, which is a fair amount at the box-office but still, this movie could be considered a flop. And I'll admit it, I had heard reviews coming from the 1st weekend of this movie's release, saying that it was really hard to understand, I went to see it in it's 2nd week, and at first I went to see it only for the pleasure of seeing robots blow up. Well, this ain't Transformers, and I was pleasantly surprised. The story might have been a bit tough, but I didn't struggle much with it (although Terminator fans who are reading this review could and should correct me if ever I am wrong somewhere in this review). Basically, it is the year 2018, and John Connor is a man who is leading a resistance against Skynet, a computer/robot program who senses the humans as a threat. Connor must protect a young man named Kyle Reese, who is Connor's father, and must send him back to the future, where he can impregnate his mother and therefore ''confirm'' his existence. Elsewhere, Marcus Wright, a convict who was sentenced to death, wakes up 15 years after being ''dead'' and discovers what the world has become. He teams up with Kyle Reese...and you know the rest.
The visual effects were super, and the script was hard to understand at first but pretty well-written afterwards. The acting was pretty good overall, with Anton Yelchin, Common and Moon Bloodgood giving average performances. Sam Worthington excels as Marcus Wright, whereas Christian Bale could've been a lot better, but was still pretty good: Don't expect any ''Dark Knight'' performance. Bryce Dallas Howard was good as well, but unfortunately, her character didn't have much screen time. The action scenes, again, were awesome and very well made, with the visual effects as stunning as Transformers (though you probably won't feel the difference because they aren't shown in the same ways). All in all, Terminator fans have been mixed on this movie, but I find that it's a good movie for the action if you haven't seen the originals, and I don't know if a Terminator fan should see it, but honestly, this movie is McG's best and I enjoyed it.