Terminator Salvation

Yesterday I went to see the latest Terminator movie, Salvation. With a new director and a new cast, I had to wonder, would this movie re-invent the Terminator franchise? After the movie, I did not have an answer to this question.

I did not have lofty expectations for the movie. I read the review, and they were far from stellar. But still, the movie had the guy who saved Batman! If he could do that, if he could turn that abysmal sequence of events around, then perhaps he could do the same for Terminator. Even better, the last Terminator movie really wasn't all the bad, so it wouldn't take as much effort.

So I went in with low expectations, and I wasn't disappointed. The movie was okay. There were some ridiculous action sequences and the technology level of the robots didn't make a whole lot of sense. Why can't they keep this constant? How hard is it to pick a time frame and use tech that matches? My main complaint here is that we had Terminators from the past movies (which was okay) but we also had robots from Transformers and from the Matrix! Why is this necessary?

Now onto the plot. It wasn't a terrible plot. Kind of cheesy, but overall, it was was not that bad. So, why do I feel let down by the movie? I'll tell you why. The Terminator franchise and world is AWESOME! Just like in Star Wars where all I ever wanted was to see a movie featuring the actual Clone Wars battle, in Terminator, I just want some movies that focus on the life and battles of these individuals. This movie was close, but it didn't get it. I want to see their tech, I want to understand the psychology that drives people during this fight to feel the passion that people have in their support for Conner and to understand the tensions that rip them apart.

I am tired of having to imagine these cool notions when I go to a movie. I don't care that a massive robot can have little motorcycle robots pop out of its legs! This is not Transformers. And why does the "machine" send a naked Arnold after Conner? It's not Bond people! The robots are smarter than those evil villains and their shark tanks.

Seriously, I still love the Terminator world and story. I still want to see more movies and I hope that someone will eventually do it right. Please....