As good as one might expect from the director of "Charlie's Angels,"...

Rating: 7/10 (21 May 2009)

...Joseph "McG" Nichols' entry into the Terminator franchise is a fairly relentless action flick that best serves to establish the apocalyptic firmament of 2018, and set the stage for whatever sequels are intended to move our heroes, John Connor and Kyle Reese, toward their inevitable destinies. To bring things full circle, so to speak, which is, unfortunately, perhaps the fatal weakness in an otherwise mildly serviceable screenplay by co-writers John D. Brancato & Michael Ferris, who brought us "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" lo, these several years ago. As is the case with all serial stories, and especially those involving time travel and its attendant paradoxes, when you start filling in gaps in an over-arching storyline, you lose a certain amount of dramatic tension, since you know how certain things must turn out in order to maintain the integrity of the story. In "TS," we *know* that John Connor will not die until he hooks up with Kyle Reese. We know Kyle Reese will not die until he goes back into the past to sire John Connor. On the plus side, we also know we're going to encounter one bad-to-the-bone T-800 before the credits roll.
There's plenty of astonishing eye candy along the way, courtesy of ILM and a host of other sfx companies, some at times astounding camera-work by Shane "Into the Blue" Hurlbut and Michael "this is my first big one!" Fitzgerald--check out the helicopter sequence with Connor's crash landing, wow!--and overall production values reflecting a multi-hundred-million dollar motion picture. Danny "Oingo-Boingo" Elfman delivers a score that meshes well with the kinetic mayhem on screen, and two accomplished leads of variable notoriety, Christian "The Dark Knight" Bale and Sam "Avatar" Worthington, head up an ensemble of human resistance fighters battling them nasty machines to ever-lovin' death. Willing suspension of disbelief is, of course, absolutely required to assuage lingering questions like "Where do humans get their food and fuel?" and "Where are all the maintenance robots?," but things move along at such a steady clip that you don't have much time to consider such brain teasers. Besides, you should have already checked your brain at the entrance to the cinema.
"Terminator Salvation" will never attain the iconic status of the first two films in the franchise, but it manages to hold its own with the unfortunate "T3:RotM," and opens the door to further storytelling. Only time, the box office, and Mr. Bale's temper will tell.
As a Memorial Day weekend wannabe-blockbuster, "Terminator Salvation" may not have any brains, but it's got a strong heart. Purists will be distraught, while action junkies will just suck up the bang-bang.