Okay, I’m going to just come out and say it: I liked Terminator Salvation and enjoyed seeing it, but it wasn’t that great.

Here’s the deal.  I LOVE the first two movies.  They’re amazing.  Number three was good; didn’t compare to the first two, but it was good.  This one didn’t hold a candle to number three.

Now for some spoilers.

Maybe part of it was not having Arnold in the movie; the best five minutes in the whole thing was the CGI Arnold duking it out with John Conner (Christian Bale).  That part was awesome – pretty much made the movie worth the ticket price!

I think the fundamental problem came down to two issues for me.  One, that my wife and I both came away thinking there is no possible way that humanity could have survived in that future.  No possible way!  Their defenses were ridiculous, the machines were too advanced, too powerful and too numerous!  Impossible!

Which brings me to number two.  On the one hand the machines were overwhelming in numbers … and yet they only ever came after the humans one at a time!  What the heck???  John Conner is in the HEART of Skynet.  A bazillion machines all around and he is target numero uno, and they still only came at him one at a time.

And when did it get so easy to kill machines?  In the first three movies nothing would stop them short of melting them down.  Nothing.  Even machine vs. machine was a battle that warranted a whole movie.  Now the humans are gunning them down left and right, even going mano a mano with them and winning.

Finally, the whole Marcus thing.  Bizarre.  Didn’t really get it at all.

So, all that to say, I had an awesome time going to see it with my wife.  We enjoyed it, but thought it was pretty weak story-wise to the other films.  It definitely didn’t add anything new to the franchise.  Oh well!