I’m a Terminator fan.  A big one.  I have been since my father first let me watch Terminator 2 back when I was 12 or 13 years old.  I went back and watched the first one later on.  Since those fateful days in my youth I’ve probably watched Judgment Day a hundred times.  It’s the film I play back in my head when I’m stuck somewhere boring with nothing to occupy my attention.

Yep, I’m a Terminator fan.  I even like the third one, especially for some great action scenes and an ending that really defied the conventions of the Hollywood system.  Sure, it started to spoof the series, and it was by far the least of the three, but it was still an enjoyable action romp with a pretty strong heart.

I also love the Sarah Connor Chronicles, or at least that which I’ve seen (the first season – I’m saving the second season for when it comes out on Blu-Ray).

And now, here we are, with a fourth Terminator film.  A Terminator film that for the first time lacks the presence of Arnold (mostly…).  In fact, at least in terms of cast and director, this Terminator film shares nothing in common with the ones that came before.  But the new members who’ve stepped in have a pretty impressive pedigree, particularly our new John Connor, Mr. Bruce Wayne and Patrick Bateman himself, Christian Bale.

So how is it?

It’s good.  It’s better than Terminator 3.  It’s not as good as 1, and pales in comparison to 2, but it is, actually, a good movie, despite what many critics are saying.

The highlights are the action sequences – which are numerous – and some fantastic CGI by the wizards at ILM.  McG, despite his ridiculous name, does a good job framing the action sequences, keeping the camera relatively still (compared with, say, Transformers or the Bourne flicks) and letting us see the splendor of those hellishly expensive set pieces.  There are explosions a-plenty, big and small and everything in between.

The gritty, silver-halide look of the film also works well in the post-apocalyptic setting.  I appreciated that the filmmakers tried to forge their own style, avoiding (too much) use of James Cameron’s deep-blue night shots from Judgment Day.  The sound effects were also top notch.  I don’t really remember the musical score, but there are a couple songs that fit into the world (including Alice in Chains and, in another scene, a rock-and-roll-powered nod back to Judgment Day).

Christian Bale does well.  It’s not his best work, but it’s also clearly not the best he’s ever had to work with in terms of script.  He did descend into Batman-growling at a few parts, but it didn’t bother me.  Too much.  Sam Worthington did what I felt was an excellent job with an anti-hero role, and Anton Yelchin, playing a young Kyle Reese, channeled Michael Biehn pretty convincingly.  As for the rest of the cast, including Bryce Dallas Howard, well…they were just kind of “there.”

Which brings us to the negatives.  Terminator Salvation clocks in at 115 minutes, and even with that runtime it felt like it needed another 10 minutes, at least, for character development.  Unlike some critics I can accept the endlessly dark, almost oppressive nature of the story – it is a post apocalyptic world with humanity hanging on by a thread, after all – but the plot needed some more quiet moments, more dips in the pace to match the back-to-back action sequences.  We care about John Connor because he’s John Connor and he’s being played by Batman, but that’s about as far as it goes.  Bryce Dallas Howard’s Kate Brewster is just a pregnant figure in the background, with no emotional resonance with her husband, Connor.  Moon Bloodgood’s Blair Williams shows up and proceeds to quickly make a decision that, if you think about it, is pretty much completely irrational in the world in which they live, and we have no way to tell why her character is compelled to do it.

At the most basic level this is a technically proficient, extremely large budget action film.  It embraces that status with wanton abandon, and the result is a big roller coaster of a popcorn film.  It’s a blockbuster summer movie in almost every sense of the word – good and bad.  For me, personally, that’s mostly good.  I enjoyed it.

But there’s a part of me that misses what James Cameron attempted to bring to the summer blockbuster with Terminator 2.  An action film that aspired to be – and was – something more.  An action film with kick ass set pieces and amazing special effects…and characters we cared about, and a plot and concept that made you think.

The years will not look back as kindly on Terminator Salvation as they have on Cameron’s masterpiece.  But, really, does that matter right now?  No.  This is a big, action packed sci-fi film, with nasty killer robots and gigantic explosions.  And that’s enough for me.

Joe’s Score:

79

Good.  Flawed, perhaps seriously, but the positive outweighs the negative.