Great action film and a worthy successor to the series

Rating: 7/10 (24 May 2009)

The almost 2 hour long Terminator Salvation flew by while I was watching it. I couldn't believe 2 hours had just gone by. You know what that means? I was royally entertained. It's not the perfect summer blockbuster (and isn't as good as Star Trek), but it's a well made action film with plenty of eye candy to behold.
Terminator Salvation is a different type of movie than its predecessors. While those were also action films, they also had humor and had a much lighter tone than the one present in Salvation. This is Terminator at its darkest yet. It is a war movie after all. Some might miss the humor of the earlier films, but I didn't really mind. Plus there are plenty of easter eggs for series fans to catch and laugh at along the way. It's kind of weird that this is the first Terminator to not have an R rating though. Just proves that violence isn't nearly as bad as sex and foul language according to the MPAA.
I can't really get into story specifics because it will make my head spin with all this time travel stuff, but Salvation does a good job of setting up everything that was hinted at in the other movies. There's nothing there that hasn't been told to us already though, which means little to no surprises. Its purpose is basically just to show everything that was told rather than expand the story. That's for the sequels. I will say though, that Marcus Wright (played by Sam Worthington) is the best character in the movie and Worthington gives a good performance as someone who is trying to figure out what the difference between man and machine is. Christian Bale is a decent John Connor. Nothing extraordinary but he gets the job done. The character isn't nearly as developed as Marcus though, which is a shame since John is so integral to the story. Anton Yelchin does a solid job as the young Kyle Reese as well. Everyone else has little to no screen time and isn't worth mentioning (though a certain cameo will have series vets smiling).
Terminator Salvation is basically nothing but action and special effects and it's all done beautifully. McG might have struggled with some things, but action was not one of them. Some people might even feel a little Transformers in this movie (I certainly did), which I don't consider a bad thing. While the earlier films were basically one big chase sequence, Salvation is huge set piece after huge set piece and you can clearly see that huge budget.
Ultimately, in terms of summer blockbusters this year, Salvation is a couple notches ahead of Wolverine and a notch below Star Trek. Action junkies will love it and I'm sure most Terminator fans will welcome it with welcome arms after the hate that Terminator 3 got. It's a solid new beginning for a franchise that has huge potential.