Terminator Salvation Review

The only thing certain in life is death and taxes.........and summer movies will be filled with brilliant special effects and explosion after explosion. Yes, the weather has been warming for some time now, which in turn brings out more people with less clothing (this isn't always a good thing), but we all know summer is hear to stay when Hollywood releases its first mega budget, explosion filled flick of the season. Star Trek ushered us in a few weeks ago, and here we are now with the fourth installment of the Terminator franchise. Terminator Salvation has all the reckless car chases and CG eye candy one comes to expect this time of year, but does it have any substance?

I went into the movie theater not exactly knowing what to expect. The trailer had intrigued me and the Christian Bale freak out added even more to my subtle interest (for those of you that don't know, or didn't hear the audio recording, Mr. Bale became irate at the director of photography for adjusting some of the lighting setup while the camera's were rolling, and in turn, distracted the actor. However, in defense of Mr. Bale, this sort of actor 'freak out' happens more often than you would believe, it's just not always recorded). However I didn't want to hang my hopes on the film, because the previous poor installment had shaken my belief in the franchise, not to mention Arnold would be missing.

But the film didn't need Arnold. In fact, I found it more interesting following multiple stories, rather than one (as the previous movies did for the most part). Christian Bale, although not tailer made for the role, did a respectable job as John Conner, the son of the original leading lady. Sure, all the acting was grim, and there weren't many emotional swings, but when the human race is facing extinction, there isn't going to be many high spirits. I found there was enough plot lines and twists (however predictable they might have been), to keep the film moving and free of boredom. In a whole the picture didn't amaze me, but it was fun and kept me in my seat, and because of this I look forward to see what they have in store for us in the next installment of the newly invented series.