This is Judgment Day?

Rating: Null/10 (29 May 2009)

Terminator Salvation (2009)
** (out of 4)
Fourth film in the series is a crashing halt due to some rather bland direction and an even blander vision of a screenplay. This time the film takes place in 2018, after Judgment Day, and it appears the machines are about to destroy the human race. John Connor (Christian Bale) is still battling the machines as a mysterious man (Sam Worthington) tries to help the young Kyle Reese reach safety. I know a lot of people were going into this film with low expectations but I actually had high ones but they were pretty much letdown by the twenty-minute mark and things really didn't get any better. I would personally argue against the PG-13 rating and I wasn't too thrilled with a certain star not being involved but the biggest problem here was the rather lackluster direction by McG. The entire vision of the post-Judgment Day came as a major disappointment. After hearing about these events in the first three movies I couldn't help but have a "that's it?" feeling while watching this movie. Yes, the effects are bigger and there are some newer creations but none of them had a Judgment Day feel to them. You might say the events here are just leading for a bigger fifth film but that doesn't make this one here any better. I found the action scenes to be over the top but to me they were just a bunch of noise without any emotion or punch to them. The only thing that saved this film from being a complete bomb was the final thirty-minutes after a certain twist in the story that I won't ruin. I thought the twist was the first time anything smart actually happened and it's one of the few scenes where it appears some thought and character development was going on. I always enjoy watching Bale but found him to be another disappointment here. I didn't mind his dark and gloomy voice in the two Batman movies but I found it rather annoying here. Sam Worthington is the one who really steals the film here and at times I couldn't help but wish he was playing Connor. Helena Bonham Carter is wasted in her role. There's a cameo here, which was certainly meant to make you cheer but I found it to be very stupid and rather corny. Will I go watch a fifth film? I certainly will but I really hope it's a major improvement over this one.