When I heard Christian Bale would replace Edward Furlong and Nick Stahl who solidified John Connor's presence in Hollywood, I was excited. But did he deliver? or did he go down with Terminator Salvation as unsatisfying, we'll see.

Terminator Salvation was directed by McG(?) and starred Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, and Anton Yelchin. The movie begins with a character named Marcus Wright talking to a women who is trying to convince him to give his body to Cyberdyne to become a machine. It turns out he is a murder and will go away for life anyway, so he agrees to the terms of the contracts and then we cut to a battlefield. A missile heading toward a satellite field controlled by SkyNet and this is the first effort made to lessen the machines chances of winning. We see the almighty John Connor ride down in a helicopter and act quickly as he and his unit are infiltrating a medical center were machines were being manufactured. They find out SkyNet is building a bigger and better machine called the T-800, which is almost identical to what John Connor said it would be.

This sets the stage for the events that are ahead, the movie is visually stunning at best. I recall and helicopter crash sequence involving Bale and it was just impressive, McG doesn't have a great track record but I felt he made this movie THAT much better. Sam Worthington was great as Marcus, he had charisma and he was just an awesome character overall. Anton Yelchin was definitely overlooked, he played a young Kyle Reese and was just phenomenal. The reason I have yet to mention Bale as good in this movie is because he wasn't, his character was so one-sided and his acting goes back to Batman. I was not impressed by him in the slightest and kind of felt bad because this made me realize how bad Hollywood actors can get, or a method actor at that. I found myself actually cringing every time he spoke a word, but his action was incredible, I liked everything about John Connor except for the acting itself. Another complaint was his wife (Kate) played by Bryce Dallas Howard, oh god was this unnecessary. They could have saved some money and brought a cheaper actor on because not only was she a terrible actor, she had no role in the film. I felt a lot of money was wasted here with the inclusion of Common as Barnes, this movie would undoubtedly profited if they had eliminated some of these foolish mistakes. As much as I am bashing this movie, I really did enjoy it, the plot held up, the acting was good on some parts, and the filming style kept the movie going. I never at one point wanted it to end and felt it was its own movie due to the lack of Arnold in a BIGGER role. Despite some minor plot holes, this movie impressed, mindless action against machines is pretty appealing. I think it deserves the $8.00 or $10.50, whatever you spend at your local theater, because it was entertaining. For my overall rating I give "Terminator Salvation" ... 4 out of 5 stars.