Good but not Great...Doesn't quite work or add up

Rating: 7/10 (26 May 2009)

This is by far and away McG's best movie. But that isn't saying much. Charlie's Angels 1 and 2 were junk. We are Marshall was good but very manipulative.
This is a BIG movie. Great, seamless special effects. If producers had an ounce of brains amongst them they would have named this movie Terminators rather than Terminator Salvation horrible title and like Cameron taking over for Scott with Aliens. Also they would have ripped up the script and started over
I wanted to love this movie but I could only like it. The story, the writers did a horrible job. I've heard that Sam Worthington is the next big thing. Why? His performance is wooden, uninspired and lacking any type of charisma. For me, the scenes with Christian Bale work very well. He is John Connor. some people have complained that he is over acting. He's fighting for the freedom of the humanity. It's kind of a big deal. Bale holds the screen with incredible intensity.
The Marcus Wright plot with Worthington doesn't make any sense.
Plus Sam Worthington is not good in this movie. I think Cameron recommended Worthington to McG to sink the movie. I don't get people thinking he's the next star. Worthington's Australian accent slips out every once in a while through out the movie. Worthington shows no charisma or basically any acting ability. He's bland and boring. Bale's scenes had me riveted to the screen while I thought the Worthington scenes were boring and disconnected. I THINK THE Australian Hollywood MAFIA IS TRYING TO PUSH WORTHINGTON INTO BEING A STAR AND SAY HE STOLE T4 BUT HE'S IN FACT THE GUY WHO SUNK THE MOVIE. HE'S BORING! Arnold, Patrick and Loken as terminators all showed far more style and charisma than the stone faced Worthington.
SPOILERS - If Wright is a terminator why the heck doesn't he just kill Reese and Connor when he meets them. I can understand acting completely human with Blair and others. But why not have the programming kick in when he meets his targets. Makes no sense to send them back to skynet base. And in fact it's and accident that he sends reese back to skynet at all. Wright actually fights against sending reese back to skynet.
HOW THE HECK DOES SKYNET KNOW THAT REESE IS CONNOR'S FATHER! OR THAT CONNOR WILL EVEN BECOME THE LEADER OF THE RESISTANCE. SKYNET SENDS THE TERMINATORS BACK AT THE END OF THE WAR. THE TERMINATORS DON'T LIVE TO TELL SKYNET THAT REESE IS CONNOR'S FATHER. IN FACT NO ONE KNOWS THAT BESIDES SARA CONNOR! Makes zero sense.
The writers screenplay is terrible! WE FOLLOWED SARA CONNOR (T1), WE FOLLOWED SARA AND JOHN CONNOR (T2) AND THEN FOLLOWED JOHN CONNOR (T3).
WHY ARE WE NOW FOLLOWING SOME DUDE NAMED MARCUS WRIGHT. HE'S NOT WHERE THE STORY SHOULD CONCENTRATE. THANK GOD BALE CAME ALONG AND MADE THEM INCREASE THE ROLE OF JOHN CONNOR OR THIS MOVIE WOULD BE TOTAL CRAP! THE ORIGINAL WRITERS HAD NO IDEA WHAT THE HECK THEY WERE DOING. IF YOU HEARD ABOUT THE ORIGINAL ENDING, TAKING OF JOHN CONNORS FACE AND PUTTING IT ON WRIGHT. TOTALLY DUMB. THEY WOULD HAVE TAKEN ALL THE HUMANITY OUT OF THE SERIES! I love the terminator series. And this movie, though okay is still a major disappointment.
With all the problems of the movie. The first 2/3 is very entertaining but the ending is Connor fighting in the basement. It was great to see the Arnold T-800 but the ending isn't very big in scope and seemed jumpy and nowhere near awe inspiring
The Marcus escape scene was terrible. If the reistance can't kill one terminator on their own territory than how are they still alive. Also the attempted rape scene of Blair was awful. I've seen that exact same scene in 50 other bad movies. Horrible writing.
THe movie doesn't work because it needed to concentrate on John Connor not marcus wright. Big mistake. HUGE! Also the look of the movie was off. THe movie should have taken place at night. Reese in T1 says humans stay down by day and come out at night. In Terminator Salvation, he says the exact opposite. THe movie lacked the cool look of Cameron's future scenes. The look of the movie just didn't capture the world that I'd imagined for the last 25 to 18 years.
All that said, I still hope the movie does well enough that a sequel will be made. McG and special effects people did a good job. It needs vast improvement for the sequel but I'd still be interested in seeing it.