Film Rating: B

Forget Titanic, the best thing James Cameron ever did was to direct the first two Terminator films, especially the second one. The first film is a fairly simple thriller, but with one of the most heartfelt and heartbreaking romances you'll ever see on the silver screen. T2 is a sequel of epic proportions, telling a story so large it's a wonder that one film could contain it; but at the center of T2 is a strong, beating heart that gives all the characters real emotions and big decisions to go along with them. It's an amazing film. Arguably, it should have ended there; together, those two movies tell a complete story, and nothing more was needed.

But when there's money to be made, you can bet that someone will try, and in 2003 the world was subjected to the torment of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. I've only ever made it through the first half hour of this movie. It's that bad, mostly because it lacks the heart that made the first two films so powerful. This could of course be attributed to James Cameron's lack of involvement with the film, though I think the TV series The Sarah Connor Chronicles proved that he wasn't necessary to tell a good Terminator story. In fact, the TV series is probably my favorite element of the Terminator universe (yeah, I said it...sue me) because it takes the heart and emotion of the films and expands upon them in a multitude of ways.

Anyway, as bad as T3 was, it did good enough at the box office to warrant a sequel, and that's where the new movie Terminator Salvation comes into play. This is no doubt a polarizing movie, and I think everybody that sees it will think something different. If you hate the movie, I understand. If you love it, I get where you're coming from. I'm somewhere in the middle, though leaning towards the latter.

Salvation isn't really a sequel to the first two films and that pile of garbage calling itself the third movie, but a new beginning to the franchise. In this timeline, the first two movies definitely happened, and are an established part of the continuity. The third film isn't really ever referenced, and the only portion of that film's continuity to remain intact is the idea of Judgment Day eventually happening despite the Connor's best efforts. This means that Salvation happens in the future, and for the first time ever, fans get to see the war with Skynet. Not the dark, brief glimpses of the future seen in previous films, but the full on, unfiltered blaze of combat, and above all else, this is where I and many other fans wanted the film to succeed.

And it does, wonderfully. Director McG (yeah, it's a dumb name) and his creative team have crafted one of the most visually fascinating films in years. The post-apocalyptic world is instantly believable and at the same time terrifying. It's easy to tell that McG wasn't lying when he said that Cormac McCarthy's book The Road was an inspiration for the film's design, because the way the barren, destroyed Earth looks is very close to how McCarthy describes his post-apocalyptic world. McG goes a step further, and even borrows the idea of some mentally unstable survivors attacking fellow humans out of desperation. All in all, the viewer can instantly buy that this ravaged planet exists, and at the same time be terrified of it.

This is also the first time we've really seen how Skynet operates, and McG nails this aspect as well. The design of Skynet's weaponry, ranging from Terminators to the hunter killers to huge supply ships to the frightening harvesters, everything is extremely well thought-out and brought to life with extraordinary vividness. Put simply, the special effects will blow you away, but it's the creative and ingenious ways they are used that truly impress. This was the last film the great Stan Winston worked on before he passed away, and it's a fitting swan song indeed.

The visual elements of the movie all come together during the film's amazing action sequences; virtually each set piece runs longer than it should, but they are all heart pounding, exciting, and inventive. The 'harvester' sequence about a third of the way through the movie deserves particular merit as being one of the most thrilling action scenes I've ever seen in a movie. It just doesn't stop. McG frames all the action properly, shoots it expertly, and never resorts to the overdone shaky camera effects that have plagued action movies of late.

These are my favorite things about Terminator Salvation; the visuals and the action. They're practically perfect, but the movie very nearly falls apart in other departments. The biggest problem with the movie is the plot, or lack thereof. The movie gets off to a rocky start with a terrible, terrible opening scene that had me thinking I was watching an extension of T3 (and thus made me want to run from the theater crying). It gets better, but the first half hour is pretty rocky. There are multiple storylines, but none feel very developed and ultimately the so-called plot just felt like a set-up for action, and that's not what Terminator is about.

But things eventually come into focus around the hour mark when you realize that the movie actually does have a plot, and one that's fairly interesting. The story revolves around two protagonists. The first is John Connor himself, who, with his knowledge of the future, is seen as a prophet by many, but the leaders of the resistance don't think so. Meanwhile, a man named Marcus wakes up in 2018, his last memory being his own death in prison; he meets up with Kyle Reese and together they set out to find John Connor. Their storylines eventually merge, and while I don't want to spoil anything, the ultimate result is a film that explains how John formed his resistance.

Now, that's a fine story to tell, but it's not really a story of any consequence. From the beginning of the film to the end of the film, nothing of any huge importance happens. When the credits roll, the war is still raging, Kyle is still a teenager, and the time-traveling adventures are ten years off in the distance. I think fans wanted the Terminator war movie to be about John and Kyle and the decision to send Kyle to the past, where he fathers John before dying. I think that they're saving that story for another movie, and I'm fine with that; I think 2018 is a fine place to set the story, but I would have focused on Kyle himself as the protagonist, and used John as the mythical God-figure he's always been. That would be more interesting, more relatable, and more emotional.

But that's not the story they told, and I can accept that; let's discuss the one they did tell. Ultimately, it works for me and Terminator Salvation proves itself to be a fine opening chapter in what could be a two or three film saga, but it could be so much stronger. If they had cut down on the action and beefed up the character moments, the movie would have been stronger. For instance, we learn early on that John has been telling people about this future and that people are revering him as a prophet, but we never see him actually going out there and preaching. If they devoted some time to this, parts of the film's third act would be more believable and more powerful. Likewise, Marcus is shafted a bit in that we never learn why he was on death row, why he hates himself, or what it's like for him to wake up in a post-apocalyptic world after thinking he was dead. Skynet's devious plan this time around isn't given the time needed either, and there are some really gaping plot holes in this regard.

Some have suggested that the movie should have focused on either Marcus or John but not both; I disagree. For the story they are telling, both characters are essential, and if the movie had been maybe twenty minutes longer with less emphasis on action and more on storytelling, the pair's respective storylines could have been really well developed. It's a shame that this isn't the case, and when all is said and done, it works well enough in the end; it just kills me to think about how much better it could have been.

Acting-wise, the film is perfectly sound, although no actor really gets a chance to actually, you know, act amidst all the chaos. Christian Bale makes a fine John Connor, but as I've already said, the character needed more development and Bale is limited instead to running, kicking Terminator a**, talking in a raspy voice and doing a whole lot of shouting. Sam Worthington does a fine job as Marcus, though his performance isn't anything out of the ordinary. Worthington, an Australian actor, tries to cover up his accent to sound American, but doesn't really succeed, resulting in a strange voice pattern that surprisingly makes the character more effective.

The real show-stealer is Anton Yelchin, recently seen as Chekov in Star Trek, who here takes over the role of Kyle Reese. He absolutely nails it, and there wasn't a doubt in my mind that this kid grew up to be Michael Biehn. His mannerisms, his intensity, and his sincerity really make you think back to the first movie. It also helps that Yelchin is given the best material to work with, because we see a lot of Kyle's creativity and ingenuity in the face of hardship. Remember in the first movie where Kyle gets to 1984 and immediately starts making weapons and evading the cops using whatever objects he could find? Kyle does that kind of stuff here, too. As I said before, this movie should have been about Kyle, and Yelchin's terrific performance only strengthens my resolve on that point.

Bryce Dallas Howard doesn't have anything more to do than stand around and look pretty as John's wife, who is never referenced by name in the film, but she does a good job with what she's given. Moon Bloodgood plays Blair, the second most human and believable character behind Kyle. We've never heard of this character before, and Bloodgood's performance represents the fresh creativity Salvation has to offer.

Finally, I'd just like to say that I really disliked the score by Danny Elfman. The music isn't bad per se, but it's bad for a composer of Elfman's stature. It sound incredibly generic and never makes you think of the Terminator scores of old; Elfman absolutely refuses to use the original theme, teasing us with the opening drum beat before going off on a different musical tangent. It's annoying, to say the least. On the TV show, Bear McCreary did a great job homaging the music that came before while also making the sounds his own, and I wish they had got him to score this movie.

So when all is said and done, my ultimate reaction to Terminator Salvation is enjoyment. Make no mistake, this is a flawed movie. The first half hour sucks, but it steadily gets better and by the end I respected the movie as a fun, exciting action flick with extraordinary visuals. But McG could have had that and a great story with some deep, fleshed out characters if the time had been taken to iron out the script a bit more. Still, there's enough here to enjoy that I have to recommend it, and there's a lot of potential for a possible trilogy in this time period. If the next movie focused on how John discovers time travel and sends back Kyle Reese, and they followed that up with a third film covering the end of the war, we'd have ourselves a damn fine saga. As it stands, Terminator Salvation is a suitable introduction to this dystopian future, but leaves me wanting more.