Terminator Salvation is better than that of Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines, but it's still no Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I'm coming into the 4th installment completely spoiler free. I had every intention of seeing this in the theater, but then I started hearing bad word of mouth and people saying it was awful.

Having just watched it, I can't see why the public majority crapped on this one. Sure, it's not perfect, far from it, but it's not as bad as it's been made out to be. There was some pretty cool set pieces that were very entertaining which kept my interest. But there were some problems that the movie as a whole couldn't fix, no matter how hard they tried and it comes down to the writing and who the main character is. Is it John Connor (Christian Bale)? Is it Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin)? Or is it Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington)? The film has it's focus on these 3 characters which ends up spreading itself a bit too thin in places. Up till the 3rd act kicked in, I was leaning in giving this a 3 and 1/2 Stars. But the 3rd act for me was the most entertaining of it all, so I felt compelled to bump it up a half star.

Overall, it just felt like a better movie going experience and it didn't leave me feeling cold like T3 did. There were a couple of cool nods that I got a kick out of. First was John Conner using the boombox with Guns N' Roses blasting You Could Be Mine to lure the TerminatorCycle his way. I thought it was pretty cool to finally see how Conner got his facial scar. But the best and biggest surprise for me was seeing the T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Sure it was an animatronic, rubber version of him, but who the f uck cares? I thought he looked more life like than he did in T3. Ouch. Also, it was cool to hear Linda Hamilton reprise her role as Sarah Conner.

I thought both Bryce Dallas Howard and Moon Bloodgood were underused here. So, if you need a Moon fix, you can always check her out in Journeyman.

So, I give T4 a Rent if you are a fan of the series for sure.

I think you could easily have a triple feature of this Terminator and T2 and could be thoroughly entertained. I for some reason really REALLY liked Salvation probably because of Bale and it showing how John ended up being who he was. I don't even acknowledge T3 I treat it alot like Halloween 3, just forget they exist.

You can change your vote now.

My big issue with Salvation is I don't like that it all takes place in the future, I don't like that.  I'm a big sci-fi buff but if you're gonna GO into the war, they better WIN the war, I don't like the idea of it just being "we will continue fighting."  To me, at least, the war is the dark woods where the monster comes from-- that's the only reason why it's important.

and for the studio's that would be a series ender.

I agree, there is a need for full circle/resolution and someone should have the balls to do that.

In my head, the next two will go as follows:

The next one will be like "The Longest Day," a full-on war film that's like the D-Day invasion of the machines, with everyone armed with a program that'll "de-claw" the machines (since they'd need that apparatus to restore their ruined Earth).  But then when they get there, the main computer tells them that it just sent a Terminator back in time, so John Conner has a "that's it, I'm taking care of this myself!" moment, chucks the thumb drive into his mouth and jumps into the time machine.

The final movie has Old John Conner hunting down the new Terminator (a T-999) that's tracking down his younger self, but then at the half-way point he manages to destroy that machine stone dead, then heads off to destroy the Skynet system, a one-man assault on the Pentagon.  He's gunned down and dies but not before he manages to pacify the baby Skynet program.

Then the powers that be decide to scrap the system and build a new one-- something much fiercer and secure than before.  So when the rights go back up into limbo, the next people who get it (whenever they do) will get to put their own mark on it instead of being saddled with 30 years of continuity.

Just watched Terminator Salvation today, this being only the second time I've seen it and I had the same question in the back of my head, "why is this so universally hated?". I really don't get the negativity this gets at all. It was still a thrill ride for me and I enjoyed it every step of the way. I do get the backlash against the idea of having 'Terminator-Transformers'. But that was one scene and it didn't dominate the story one bit. At least they weren't talking and making jokes. I agree that it's not perfect, but coming off of T3, this is a huge step up.

I do gotta point out one glaring continuity error from that of Sarah Connor Chronicles   and Terminator Salvation. The mythology has it that Kyle is born way after Judgement Day, but in Sarah Connor, they have it that Kyle and his brother Derek were in fact alive before Judgement Day.