Terminator Salvation

You know, I started mentally scoffing almost as soon as it started (if an assault rifle doesn't kill a terminator, why are they carrying them when assaulting terminators?) but I have to say, I actually like a lot of what the film had to say. It maybe had a few too many scoops of the dumb actioner, and it could have done without the dusting of obligatory surprise moments (beware the ninja 50 foot robot, for it's key weapons are stealth and incredibly delicate giant claws), but as silly as some of the science fiction and plot elements were (Skynet is a place? and why does it have a GUI?), in all none of it really went beyond say, someone thinking a 6'2" bodybuilder weighing a metric ton and sporting with a thick Austrian accent would make a good candidate for undercover work.

The homage parts where great (bikes chasing a truck, "come with me if you want to live", etc) and Marcus was, while not explored anything like a hard sci-fi fan such as myself would liked to have seen (it needed a good extra hour of dialogue and Marcus to be played by Rutger Hauer, in my humble opinion) probably the best way to go about the "new" terminator in the franchise. Being post judgement day, just another model wasn't needed for the science and the nature of humanity is a pretty solid line for fiction.

It was definitely missing something. I like a bunch of the elements but am left with an overall feeling of "Yeah, that'll do" rather than the "Woo, yeah, awesome!" that I feel should be appropriate from a franchise I tie a good deal of nostalgia too. Maybe it suffers too much from it's legacy. Not just the expectation, but the fact that it didn't have anything iconic of it's own. All of the best dialogue and every impressive image it has to offer come from the previous films, something of a double edged sword.

So all in all, I didn't hate it. It wasn't spectacular or triumphant, but it was decent and respectful. It didn't take my childhood memories, bend them over and give them a good hard shafting until cash dripped out, which frankly these days I think you have to take as a victory.