Easily the worst Terminator film, if you can even call it that

Rating: 3/10 (4 September 2010)

There are two main problems with Terminator Salvation. First, it's boring. Aside from a Terminator-against-Terminator fight that takes place towards the end, the action is very uninspired, and little of what goes on outside the action scenes is terribly interesting. Say what you will about Terminator 3, but at least that film was reasonably entertaining.
Second, it doesn't fit in well with the Terminator franchise. It's drab and sterile compared to the other films, and though it can be argued that a post-apocalyptic film is supposed to be like that, even the brief clips of the future from the previous films had an atmosphere to them, which is lacking here. And some things don't make sense when you consider the franchise's history, either: for example, in the first film, Kyle Reese said that most records were lost in the war - so in this film, why does Skynet have a whole database of old news reports, and how does it know that Reese is John Connor's father anyway? Thus, when we hear Connor say "I'll be back" and then play 'You Could Be Mine' on the radio, it doesn't feel like a respectful homage - it just seems awkward and out of place.
As an action film, Terminator Salvation fails - and as a Terminator film, it really fails.