Fun with strong performances from Bale and Worthington.

Rating: 6/10 (21 May 2009)

Terminator Salvation - The year is 2018. The machines rule, and the humans are on the losing side. John Conner (Christian Bale) battles on, but he needs the help of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a half-human half machine experiment of Skynet to save Kyle Reese.
McG seems to have a chip on his shoulder that stems no doubt from his nickname. He and this film are twin souls - each trying to prove their existence in the world of cinema. T3 left the world bombed to hell and added a few carelessly thought out plot elements that hurt the attitude of the series in general (nuclear cores? robots pre-designed to not kill?), but the underlying problem with the series has always been the characters struggling to undo the future that has already had it's shape on the past. Now we have characters trying to secure the past that has already happened. Confusing? Kind of. Does it need to be here? Questionable. Is it fun? Quite often actually.
Christian Bale adds weight and seriousness to the film. He's still not freakin' leader of the resistance, but we see elements of why this will be so. Sam Worthington is very watchable as Marcus Cole. His battle for humanity is (literally) the film's beating heart. If nothing else from this movie stays with you afterwards (and hopefully more than a few elements will, as it's a decently put together film) his performance should. Bale and Worthington's scenes together are some of the best in the film, and it's a pity there aren't more.
There are lots of cool robots. Robots that swim, drive motorcycles, shoot the series' iconic miniguns, and giant ones with cannons and grabbers. All of these make for good bangs and summer entertainment. The lack of laser weapons and fields of skulls ripe for crunching might disappoint series diehards, but overall the action is quite good. The T-800 has never been so formidable.
Terminator Salvation, like John Conner for mankind, was hoped to be the tentpole for future movies. It's hard to see happen, unless Direct to DVD is your thing. This was a good film, but it's hard to see them taking the series any further.
Terminator Salvation gets a B-