Just a movie

Rating: 6/10 (20 June 2009)

Let's face it, Terminator: Salvation was not a movie that needed to happen. In a world now plagued by over-embellished and drawn out franchises, Terminator was not a franchise that needed another sequel. But, this movie was made anyways; and it served its purpose: to make money. This movie was different than how I thought it would be going into it. I don't know exactly what I expected, but what I expected was something a little more well done than this. It wasn't bad. However, and I told this to everyone who asked how it was, it was missing something. It focused so hard and getting the audience to say "Wow, that was cool-looking" that if forgot to make the audience say, "Wow, this is a good movie. It was entertaining, but not necessarily enjoyable.
The six stars are for the action, special effects, and cinematography. The action was good, and when combined with the state-of-the-art special visual and sound effects and compelling cinematography McG and the Terminator crew managed to produced some decent and engaging action sequences. Everyone loves vehicle scenes, and the chase scene between the service truck and the auto-terminators was one of my favorite scenes in the movie. Also, Worthington and Yeltsin gave fairly acceptable performances.
Of course, there are four stars that aren't there. The story was a little loose; and the scene progression and editing were slightly uncomfortable at times. Christian Bale didn't do stellar. I couldn't see him as John Connor before seeing the movie, and don't see him as Connor even after seeing it. I don't think he was the right choice, and that opinion isn't entirely based on his uncalled-for outrage on the set. He just didn't go great. His over-theatricality made him even less believable in the role than he already was. Bale's John Connor voice was somewhere in between Bruce Wayne and Batman: the character I think most in the audience still see him as.
However, these things seemed to not hold my attention for long while watching it. This is after all an action film and the action does help the movie stay alive. Without it though, I don't think the movie would be as good. But some good things were there, which is why I gave Terminator: Salvation a 6 instead of a 5. T2 was something special. Terminator: Salvation was nothing special. It's just a movie. Go see Star Trek instead.