Terminator Salvation is written by Michael Ferris (T-3 and Surrogates) and John D. Brancato (T-3). The film is directed by McG. This film has a huge cast, starring Christian Bale as John Connor, along with Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, Moon Bloodgood, Helana Bonham Carter, Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese, Michael Ironside, Bryce Dallas Howard as Kate Connor, and Common. By the way every time I say McG i feel weird. Terminator Salvation takes place after Judgement Day has happened, and John Connor is helping the resistance to stop humanity from disappearing forever.

I was finally looking forward to a Terminator movie where we would be able to be a part of the actual reisstance, the actual war that was Machine vs. Man. I remember seeing Terminator 3 and being just ok with it. The trailer for Salvation made it look incredibly gritty and full of action. Terminator Salvation definitely delivers on action, there is no doubt about that. I enjoyed the gritty look and feel to it.

The dialogue, I was not a huge fan of. Parts of it were cliche, there was even a random part where John Connor just grunts into a radio...I'm not sure if he had something stuck in his throat like dust, or if I simply missed what was going on. Certain parts of the movie also felt forced, like the writer's were having trouble moving things along so they tossed something in to get everything moving. Some of the trademarks of Terminator, the "I'll Be Back" seemed a little hokey in this film. It didn't seem fan pleasing, or an homage, just tossed in there.

I fet like there should have been more set up for Sam Worthington's character Marcus Wright. Many times his character just knew how to do something, without explanation, he would just fix something. Did his character previously live on a farm? Was he a mechanic? It's established that before Judgement Day Marcus killed some people was executed on Death Row, and was supposed to donate his body to science. Dr. Serena Corgan from Cyberdyne Systems, played by Helan Bonham Carter, with terminal cancer working on advanced research is the one to convince him to do this. However he wakes up in 2018 to discover the world he knew was gone, and the machines have taken over.

Why the writers from T-3 were tapped for this movie I will probably never know. Especially considering that McG wanted to make a great Terminator film. He basically succeeded, but the failure is all in the writing. Which is a shame because the only reason Bale wanted in on the film is that is was character based, and that didn't really happen in this film. Especially since it felt like they just threw away Kate Connor as a character. They showed Kyle Reese as starting to fill into a leaderhsip role, I liked that, so it should be interesting to see what they do with him next film.

There was maybe only one cinematography shot I had a problem with, which ws one of the drag around shots of Sam Worthingotn you could tell it was green screen.

We also get to see the origin of the T-800 101 model from the original Terminator which I thought was interesting and a lead in for more origin since there will probably be another Terminator movie. I guess you could say this is a minor spoiler, so don't read if you haven't seen it yet, but Arnold's in this movie, as a face-planted CGI T-800. He doesn't have any dialogue

Spoilers now

I thought the storyline using the frequency that shuts down Skynet bots to be reversed and track down the high command was a good concept, but sort of clumsily written. Michael Ironside was an exception though in playing a good role through General Ashdown. This sets up how Connor became the leader of the reisistance.

Marcus Wright manages to redem himself in the end when John Connor gets impaled by a Terminator, and donates his heart to him, but I guess I didn't feel the redemption.

Overall I enjoyed Terminator Salvation, but I would've hired entirely different writers. That said, it looks gritty, and had a great feel to it, but the writing is probably the downfall of this movie.

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