Imperfect, but Not Nearly as Bad as People Treat It.

Rating: 8/10 (27 June 2011)

Terminator Salvation Rating: B
WARNING: Review may contain minor spoilers but I promise not to include anything you can't already see in the trailers.
Terminator Salvation is set in the year 2018 after a computer defense system known as Skynet launched a Nuclear attack on the human race. The humans that survived banded together to form a resistance in the war against the machines, one of these humans is John Connor, the man who in another future led man kind to a great defeat against Skynet and the machines. However in this film he's just another member of the resistance who has to take orders from not as qualified command officers. Also another man by the name of Marcus Wright shows up and has apparently no idea what has happened over the last 14 years, he meets up with Kyle Reese, the guy who ends up going back in time and becoming John Connors father. And without getting into spoilers everything else you need to know is that there are a bunch of robots and explosions.
So I went into Terminator Salvation with fairly high expectations, it was my most anticipated movie of the summer and I didn't want to be let down as I was with last years most- anticipated (Indiana Jones and Lucas' Alien Fetish). With that being said I was overall pleased with the way Salvation turned out. By no means was it an incredible accomplishment or a movie that would redefine Sci-Fi and action movies, but for a summer pop-corn movie it doesn't let you down. There are some great action sequences especially during the second half of the film, and it knows how to have fun without being silly like T3.
On the negative side however, the plot during the first act was trying to accomplish too much. There were two or three separate story threads that we had to follow at any given time and instead of working together it felt like they were competing for screen time. The stories were important to tell but the way they were presented was non-intuitive and slightly frustrating, however when the stories met up during the second act things got much better very quickly. Now they could focus on one plot line and give it all the attention it deserved. Another negative aspect is that many of the performances were very mediocre, especially with Sam Worthington's character struggling with an American accent and at times seemingly forgetting to act.
The effects and the action sequences in this film were great, this is definitely a movie that makes the nerd inside of all of us cheer out in joy. The battle scene with the T-800 is especially amazing. McG definitely knows how to direct a cool action movie, now he just needs to focus on making sure that each story point gets the same treatment, even if that means slimming a few down.
This movie was by no means on par with the ground breaking T2, but it was also a very different type of movie and thus requires a different mind-set going into it. If you expect a smart Sci-Fi action drama on the same level as Judgement Day than you'll be disappointed but if you can enjoy a movie with robots and explosions with a fairly good story to tie it together than you'll enjoy this. Star Trek is still my favorite movie of the year so far, but that being said I was pleased with this movie and I can't wait to see McG improve upon Salvation with the rest of the series.