Terminator Salvation **

Cast: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Moon Bloodgood, Helena Bonham Carter, Anton Yelchin, Bryce Dallas Howard, Common, Jane Alexander, Michael Ironside
Director: McG
Running Length: 1:55
MPAA Classification: PG-13

The year is 2018, and John Connor (Bale) is a local leader of the resistance, fighting Skynet. Those further up the chain of command believe that they have a weapon that can shut down the machines at close range. Connor volunteers to lead the test mission, and along the way locate Kyle Reese (Yelchin), whom the machines have targeted. Reese is in Los Angeles, and befriends a stranger named Marcus Wright (Worthington), who has a secret even he doesn’t know about. When Reese gets captured, Wright and Connor must team up to find him.

“Terminater Salvation”, like “Terminater 3” is a movie that never needed to be made. “T1” and “T2” were great movies that told a complete story, and this feels like an excuse to make more money. Bale steps into the role of Connor, and gets the job done, but the performance is nothing spectacular. Director McG has some tricks up his sleeve, including a helicopter crash that is filmed interestingly, but is unimpressive overall. The biggest delight perhaps is the appearance of a former terminator 2/3 of the way through the film. Overall, I got what I expected here; the problem was that I wasn’t expecting much.