Terminator: The Scooby Dooby DOO version!

Rating: 7/10 (18 June 2009)

The Terminator series, from T3, the TV show and this new one, would be best described as a "loosely based alternate reality where different things take place than what the director and writer intended years ago, and would make no sense if you pieced them together using your sisters doll house for props". Quotes my own.
This I figured out within minutes of seeing T3. The John Connor we saw was not the same John from the 2nd. And this new Connor isn't the same from ANY of them, not that we saw much of him from the future in the first place. After T3, I stopped thinking and instead did what a lot of people should do... shut up and enjoy the big pretty flashes of light and the BOOM! Crash! sounds.
This new Terminator takes place in the future rather then the present. Christian Bale, who plays Connor, was originally slated for Marcus, a much better role. Bale wanted to play Connor, and in the end, gets a less exciting part to play. Bryce Dallas Howard has little to do here. Her part could have been omitted and no one would have noticed. Everyone else is OK.
There's nothing really unpredictable about what is going to happen. Good guys go after bad guys, bad guys look like they are winning, good guys make a better plan. Oh, I can also go into the bad loopholes and tell you that these supposedly hard-to-kill terminators don't know how to kill humans very well, or how security at Skynet is a joke. I laughed at the FM radios used for communication. Yeah. Like Skynet isn't going to catch us on THAT. OH, and the time travel thing. It's not in the movie, so we have to assume it hasn't been invented yet, so HOW can Skynet know the significance of one Kyle Reese? But I won't go into that. Most any sci-fi is going to have these, and sequels have them plenty. None of that compares than placing McG in charge here, director of such fine award-winning pieces like Charlie's Angels 1 and 2. When the fight broke out between Bale and the cinematographer during a scene, McG said he didn't see it. Where was he? Was he clicking through his Scooby-Doo Viewfinder? And the writers? They wrote Catwoman. And just like that, 1000 people decided not to watch Terminator Salvation after checking that fact.
But seriously, forget all that. I'm making it sound like it's a bad movie or something. Nah. It's exactly what I want to see in a summer blockbuster. New types of terminators, a few good fights, a great helicopter scene in the beginning, and even Ah-Nuld. It won't even get you in trouble with your mom, it's PG-13ized!