Warning: There Be Brief Spoilers Here...

Terminator 3 left many a movie-goer with a rotten taste in their mouth, due to it’s over-the-top action that fell flat, a villain that wasn’t scary, and over-done humor that went nowhere…yet it made a boat load of cash, and here in 2009 we get another helping of the Terminator franchise.

Terminator Salvation tries to be the savior to the franchise, and for the most part does a noble job of it. The film, directed by McG of “Charlie’s Angels” fame seemed like a risky gamble, and it was. McG hadn’t really had a good past few years, the story of the franchise had veered of course, and of course, the writer’s strike was looming in the distance.

Interestingly enough, only one of these things really impacted Salvation with any real importance, and that’s the Writer’s Strike. Watching this movie it was obvious, painfully so sometimes, that the script was in dire need of a few more drafts. The story doesn’t seem to know where to focus. Most of the film follows Marcus, a man who seemingly dies at the beginning of the film to find himself alive and well 18 years later, dead smack in the middle of a war between man and machines. Then of course, there is the story of the would-be leader of the resistance, John Connor, whom we’ve seen twice before, trying to fight the machines, while also trying to be who he is destined to be. That’s all fine and good, but if you watch the movie, it is obvious that the Connor storyline wasn’t big originally, but when they signed Batman himself, Christian Bale, as the star, well…the script had to change to give him meatier scenes. Most of them work, but I can’t help but feel this film would have been so much better, if we didn’t see Bale’s John Conner until halfway through the film. Marcus Wright (played pretty well by up and coming Sam Worthington) is an interesting character who has a dark secret (spoiled in the trailers, no less) and was a joy to watch, especially his scenes with a young Kyle Reese (played brilliantly by Anton Yelchin) and I feel this movie would have been better served to follow him until he crosses paths with John Conner, and then Connor becomes a character in the story, but I guess saving Christian Bale for the last half of a movie isn’t a smart move, commercially.

Bale is okay in the role, but he really does phone it in sometimes, and if he’s actually giving it all, it seemingly starts to delve into a self parody of his Batman voice.

The movie is well directed, for the most part, but it seems to me that while McG is capable of directing an okay movie, he doesn’t seem to care enough to elevate it to the next level. He’s not a great director, and with this film I think he proved he will never be. He just strives to be…okay, so he’ll always be…just okay.

The film has some great action moments, and some spectacular digital effects (including one very well done gubernatorial cameo) but it never comes close to the heights of T2, which is still a benchmark in the action/adventure world of film. With a better script, and a better director, perhaps it could have achived the goal of reaching T2 heights, but sadly, it seems no one can touch it…and perhaps that’s the way it should be.

I am interested to see a sequel to this (and there will be, make no mistake, this’ll make summer bank) if only to see more of Anton Yelchin as Reese, because, hot damn, that kid is becoming a movie star, and his performance in this movie was really it’s best asset. Hopefully Bale will get more into it the next time around, and a new director will take the film to different places.

Overall, Terminator Salvation is a fun summer blockbuster that far outclasses the third movie, but ultimately fails to become what it wanted to be…a classic.

7/10