Terminator Salvation

So I had the chance to see Terminator Salvation aka Terminator 4 over the past weekend. I can honestly say that I should have known how this would turn out as I realized that the director of the movie also directed the Charlie's Angels films, but still I went in with high hopes.

Quick Summary: The film follows the future Judgement Day that has been alluded to in the past few films. A now grown up John Connor is a member of the resistance and is working to fight off the machines that threaten human existence. While Connor knows that he is vital to this effort because of the tapes his mother left him - he is soon faced with a change in reality when he meets Marcus Wright. Wright is a former death row inmate who after agreeing to donate his body to science awakens to find not only the world different but himself as well. Complicating matters is the fact that Skynet now has not only decided to target John Connor but a teenage Kyle Reese (aka John Connor's future father) as well.

Review: So like I said I went into this film with such high hopes/prospects that it was inevitable that they would fall short of anything that was on the screen. That being said this film fell far short of ny expectation I could have had. The plot line was predictable at best, the acting wasn't too great either, and the overall affect of the movie was subpar. Christian Bale halfway through started speaking in his ever popular Batman voice - which seemed to grind me to no end as it was unbelievably obvious.

The overall feel of the movie was too blockbuster. The action sequences were good - but this did not overshadow the fact that the plot line was poor and a bit too chaotic. Certain character's I felt could have been expanded more, particularly the female roles. While I understand that the whole Terminator series is heavily marketed toward the male viewer I felt it undermined the humanity aspect of the film to focus so little on the female characters. Adding to this was the fact that too many of the films characters (save for perhaps John Connor, Marcus Wright, and Kyle Reese) had little depth to their characters - leaving me feeling as though I were watching archetypal characters onscreen rather than individuals of whose stories I could care about. And don't even get me started about the CGI cameo made by Arnold...

Basically I would say if you are a huge die hard fan chances are you've already seen this flick (and were probably also equally as disappointed), if not than I suggested either renting this film on DVD or skipping it entirely.