John Connor is the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future that Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright, a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet's operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.

Ahh the dilemma that is the Terminator saga. Simply put they probably should have stopped after the second one as each new installment of the franchise completely muddles the series and contradicts earlier movies. That being put it’s hard to fault a series that delivers all the action and violence the series was built on. I don’t think the Terminator franchise was designed to be thought provoking or some meaningful glimpse into society but somehow it became so. No the original Terminator just used Judgment day and the war of man versus machine as a good sci-fi story back drop for a film that was about blowing things up and shooting people. No all the thought provoking discussions came from the fans and somehow we lost what the series was about originally and that was a good sci-fi film with lots of actions and explosions.

So if you were to just take Terminator: Salvation from that perspective of how good of an action film is it, well it’s a great action film. That’s not the problem the problem is that it’s hard to forget all the previous films that have come before it and all the thought provoking discussions that have been waged about how man might be bringing his own downfall with his technology addiction. So all these thoughts and all the previous films that came before it muddles Terminator: Salvation as the film is no longer allowed just to be a straight forward action film. And I am sorry while that might not have been the original creators intentions anyone making another Terminator film should have kept that in mind and as we all know McG is not some deep thought provoking director who could ever pull off that kind of film probably the reason they hired him just so he could deliver another action packed film. Terminator: Salvation just becomes and OK movie just barely above mediocre and easily the weakest film in the franchise.

As I have seen mentioned we all know that the studios will never let John Connor win because that would kill their cash cow. So going into the film you know there will be no resolution to the story and all you are going to see is a two hour film that could have just been part of 20 minutes of flashbacks from any of the previous films. There is no plot that hasn’t already been explored and there is no storyline that hasn’t already been hammered to death and there is no possible way they will give us any kind of resolution or insight at all. So the film is nothing more than a glorified back story flashback that is fun to watch but very shallow.

I am slowly beginning to hate Christian Bale, not withstanding his tirades he had on set he is slowly becoming a Hollywood whore. An actor who was once known for smaller fair like the Machinist and American Psycho is now so full of himself that it bleeds into every role he does of late. Sam Worthington a recent unknown actually ends up giving a better performance. But lets be honest this movie was never about acting or story it was about blowing things up and despite all that was wrong with it, it still delivers on the action.

Grade: C+