28 May
Terminator Salvation (2009)
Rating: 
This loses 2 points for the following reasons:
- Waaaaaaay to much, unnecessary, exposition. In fact, in the group I went to see this with, that was the very first thing we all complained about. “Here we are up on this hill. Yep, we’re up on this hill to test this thing we just spent the past 10 minutes explaining in the previous scene. Look at the view from up top this hill where we will be testing this. I guess we better get to testing this thing up on top of this hill here.” … … we got it already, sheesh! Reminiscent of Star Trek’s explaining the Borg’s temporal mechanics shenanigans in Star Trek: First Contact 6 ways to Sunday, only to have Riker just come out and say, “Time Travel” for all the ninnies who didn’t get it. WE KNOW!!
- There was a nagging lack of thematic consistency with the previous Terminator movies. What I mean is, the previous movies all followed a very similar formula, consisting of our hero (Sarah in the first, and John in the following two) having a protector that was guarding against a significantly more powerful hunter. We lose that, in its purest form, in this movie. I’m willing to extend some leeway if we include Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles as a buffer: It extended our perception of the war, and of the Connor family, and how they all fit together. However, as a self-contained movie formula, it falters.
Having said all that, please notice I still give this movie an 8 out of 10. This was a fantastic action flick. And if we do allow for T:TSCC to act as a universe-expanding buffer (which I do) than this movie makes for a very satisfying end to the whole story arc. I walked out of the theater content, and smiling.
However… since Terminator has always been about the struggle between SkyNet and the past, and the Connors and the future, I would really hate to see the franchise evolve into a post J-Day, wartime series. It was always about the avoidance of the war, not the war itself.
But I’ll still watch them… 
