Terminator in the future

Rating: 6/10 (2 June 2013)

When they announced this sequel, I was so excited! I loved Terminator 1 and 2. I even liked 3, but it was nowhere near the level of the others. Still fun, moved the story along, a great ending with judgment day finally happening.
My excitement grew even more learning that it was set in the future with people like Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Conrad Buff, Shane Hurlbut, and others helping out. McG was an interesting choice, wasn't too confident about him. Watching the behind the scenes, gave me a little more confidence in him because of his huge passion for the movie.
I finally got to watch the movie and I was conflicted. I loved that it was set in 2018 because it was the future but not the one we were used to. T600s were more popular. There were a few new Terminators in this one that really increased the threat for the remaining humans: hydrobots, aerostats, mototerminators, harvesters. The look and design of this movie was fantastic. I loved the silver tint, the sets, the terminators, the costumes. The action was pretty wild! Connor and co invading the Skynet base in the beginning and the Harvester/mototerminators sequence rocked.
The acting ranged from really good to decent. Anton Yelchin was a fantastic Kyle Reese! I really believed that he was a younger version of Michael Biehn's famous character. Sam Worthington was mysterious, tough, sympathetic, awesome! Wished we knew more about him. Christian Bale was a hardcore John Connor. Definitely a different version than the past few but I liked him. The scene where he sees the prisoners and the speech about his mother (Director's cut) showed his humanity. I also cared when he got tossed around by the Terminator at the end. His voice was similar to Batman's but that didn't bother me that much. Bryce did a pretty good job as Kate but her role wasn't big enough. Her pregnancy was also never addressed, not a good idea. Moon Bloodgood was a tough gal but her acting wasn't really that amazing and her romance with Marcus was silly. There were some sweet nods to the older films that I liked, including a cameo by a cgi/body double Arnold that was pretty neat. Surprise, Helen Bonham Carter was in this and no Tim Burton! She is always wonderful.
Now, this movie was set during the brink, but I never really got a feel for how desperate things were. Not enough suffering and death, especially in the camps. The way Kyle described it was way more intense and scary. There also wasn't enough Resistance vs. Skynet battles. I wished they provided more info on Marcus, addressed Kate's pregnancy, explained how Skynet knew about Kyle Reese, better writing/acting. The score wasn't so bad I thought, considering Danny Elfman scored it. That's not a dig at Danny, just never thought his style would have worked for this kind of movie. Interesting ending, though not the one they originally planned.
I liked Terminator Salvation, the idea/concept, and most of the execution. Some things weren't that great, could have been better, more explanation, maybe some scenes bringing us up to speed from when Judgment day happened and all these years later, but this was a welcome addition for me as it changed up the formula and the setting. I hope the next two planned sequels can improve on this one. Bring on the future war but don't forget about the characters!