Click Here For Our Interview with Christian Bale
Click Here For Our Interview with Sam Worthington

As with Star Trek and Wolverine, Terminator Salvation is too big a summer movie to warrant just one review. Below you can find Ryan Hamelin's review, and past it make sure you stick around for Tom Herrmann's second (and more positive) look.

Terminator Salvation

Review By: Ryan Hamelin
RyanHamelin@TheCinemaSource.com

Movie Grade: B-

I think it’s safe to say that Terminator Salvation suffers from a lot of the same problems that marred Daniel Craig’s second outing as Bond in Quantum of Solace. Huge action-packed spectacle lacking heart makes for a film that is as hollow as the metal androids of death that populate its barren post-apocalyptic landscapes. Also like Solace, the movie could’ve stood to be a bit longer (shocking right?) and had some room to breathe. It’s clear a lot of the set ups and pay offs were trimmed to make room for the explosive situations themselves and it hurts the film overall as we never really get invested in what’s going on. The explosions are pretty damn cool but they are far more disposable than they had to be, mostly because you never caught yourself caring about who lived or who died. They did do some things right though, so I’ll start with those.

Sam Worthington has been officially christened as a member of the group of actors who can believably pull off badass. He’s easily the best part of this movie, and as he turns out to be the closest thing to a main character that this film has, that’s definitely a good thing. He’s charismatic, intense, and dangerous without ever feeling like he’s stretching himself or trying to force the issue. This is in stark contrast to his co-star, but I’ll get to that in a minute. Worthington plays Marcus Wright, a death row inmate before Judgment Day who finds himself mysteriously still alive after his lethal injection. Not only that, but it’s now 2018, and machines have taken over the planet. Not exactly your perfect welcome back present.

When I first read the plot synopsis of this movie, this storyline sounded perfect to me. Tell an origin story without it being an origin movie, bring us up to speed on a post-apocalyptic world through the eyes of somebody just as confused as most of the audience is bound to be and do it with some style and panache. John Conner was to be a cameo level role in the flick, and if he had stayed as just a guy on the other end of the radio, that would have made the movie hold up A LOT better. Then they could have taken their time with Marcus and Kyle Reese (As played terrifically by Anton Yelchin, the breakthrough performer of the year) and built those characters to something close to what an audience would care about. Sure, reveal that Christian Bale is John Conner at the end of ...