Oooookie Dokie.  The looooong awaited terminator movie set in the post apocalyptic future is finally here.

But before I get into my review of the work, I want to lay out there that as a kid I thought T2 was by far the best movie ever.  All the taglines, the award winning and groundbreaking special effects and coolness it was enough to keep a kid happy for months, and it did.  I watched T2 every single day for 2 months during a summer out of school. (im serious) OCD much?  So I knew it back and forward, and when I heard about this movie I nearly lost consciousness.  Thank god terminator 3 wasn’t the end…

So with my feelings out there, Ill go ahead and hop in. The big premise of the movie is John Connor trying to figure out if Marcus Wright is good or bad and if he can trust him.  Obviously by the trailers you see Marcus is somewhat robotic, and who knows if you can trust him.  Pretty cool idea, because it sets up for some twists and turns and Sam Worthington does a great job with the character. Terminator Salvation is set in 2018 with the post nuclear war already occurring and we are thrown right into the mix starting off with Sam Worthingtons character Marcus Wright.  Much to my surprise, and probably yours, Sam Worhtington outdoes Christian Bale as John Connor.  The character, the acting, everything is better about him in this movie.  Bale is still stuck in raspy voiced batman mode and just hasn’t quite escaped it yet, and I didn’t really make a damn bit of connection with him in the movie.

It sucked that this happened, I was supposed to be rooting for John Connor and be on the edge of my seat but I just wasn’t, and it was a huge letdown. This doesn’t destroy the movie though, its still enjoyable to watch. Tons of action and really top notch special effects.  You also have Anton Yelchin playing Kyle Reese (the guy sent back to father john connor) who also does a pretty good job in his role but the other characters just really didn’t develop for me enough.  Connors wife is pregnant but never even mentioned and she has about one line… theres a mute kid who is Kyles sidekick for some retarded reason… an old lady that shows compassion when her other “rebellions” don’t, then shes abducted and never talks again.  Maybe they weren’t developed because its setting up for 2 more sequels, possibly bad writing, because its pg-13, its less than 2 hours long, who knows?  But it was lacking.

As youll notice if you see it, the whole movie has the colors desaturated and there are a lot of grays and browns and it makes it look a lot like a world after nuclear war, it’s a nice subconscious touch but at times kinda sucks when you want to bank on the big screen images.  Yet the cinematography is top notch, its worth seeing in the theatre.

For the die hard terminator people, there are a few little hidden easter eggs you get to catch and giggle nerdily to yourself about, and a couple blatant satisfiers on taglines in the earlier movies “Come with me if you wanna live”, and “Ill be back”.  Little corny but what the hell, it doesn’t destroy the movie for me.

All in all this sequel-prequel (haha, confused??) was enjoyable and a good summer movie but didn’t have me creaming my pants or anything special.  There was an Arnold cameo that was pretty awesome, bad ass explosions and special effects and an interesting storyline albeit a smidge predictable.  Id say you should still see it in theatres and enjoy yourself but don’t set the bar super high.