Disappointing, almost Terrible

Rating: 3/10 (31 May 2009)

Do not be fooled by the brilliant 2nd trailer - this movie is bad in almost every single aspect. While you won't curse yourself for going to see it, absolutely every part of the film is mediocre at best. How a character like "McG" got handed a $200 million budget, the hottest movie star in the planet in Bale, and the TERMINATOR franchise is more than beyond me. Very disheartening - and I'm not even a giant Terminator fan. First one is great, second one is watchable (would have been far more watchable minus Edward Furlong).
Literally EVERY SINGLE action movie cliché is present in this film. From the typical hard-line general who is out of touch screaming "dammit this is war" to the awkward insertion of female romantic interests to the warehouse fight, watching the movie makes it abundantly clear that the writers/director do not have an original idea of their own. Also, the COMPLETELY UNNECESSARY child character who conveniently doesn't speak is distracting. Even the teenage Reese, despite good buzz, is handled poorly. Why Hollywood continually tries to insert teenagers into serious action roles is beyond me.
Even Bale, an actor who I think highly of, clearly phones this in as his character has nothing to work with. For some background, the character of John Conner was originally only a small part of this story but Bale was only interested in playing him, not Marcus, so massive and last minute rewrites occurred. Not that the original script would have been better (it wasn't), but the lack of polish screams out to the viewer.
With no real enemy to learn/care about, the movie sputters along. Instead of an all encompassing war like the previous movies alluded to, there is sporadic fighting instead. Hell, whole human towns/bases are above ground and completely vulnerable. A giant opportunity to create a an amazing new universe and raise whole new generation of Terminator/sci-fi fans has been lost. The dialogue is horrific, the action lame, the story lacking a reason to justify itself, and phoned in performances. At least this is most likely the end of McG and the Terminator franchise (and hopefully any serious attempts at big-time film projects).