Terminator Salvation Review

The Terminator series of movies has always seemed to find itself in a time travel conundrum. Is each movie moving forward or moving back? Because the first Terminator machine was sent back in time from the future by John Connor - whom we meet in subsequent movies but isn't even born yet in Terminator (1984) but sends his father back in time to save his own mother from the Terminator. Hmmmm...and so begs the question: Is Terminator Salvation a prequel or sequel? The way it ties all the movies together - it is both.
Terminator (1984) was a sci fi movie that bordered horror (like Alien). And the violence in the movie was extreme, for it's day. There were no super special effects, as computer graphics were in the infant stage. With the debut of Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991) we see the incredible groundbreaking special effects that became what people wanted from all movies, as well as good old fashioned action and John Connor. Let's not forget mega-blockbuster movie. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines(2003) goes back to the budget of the first movie but gives us more of John Connor and how his future came to be. Yes, more John Connor. It seems from the first Terminator movie, when we first see John Connor standing in the post-apocalyptic landscape, we want more! We want a movie about John Connor and future he sent the Terminators from. And, of course, more Terminators.
Well, we got our movie!
In Terminator Salvation we see a lot of John Connor (Christian Bale). He is the voice of human resistance against the Terminators, machines and Skynet. He is just another soldier at this point but we know from the other movies, and he knows, he will be the future leaderof the human race. John Connor's character is in a strange position of knowing the past and future at the same time. He listens to tapes his mother made him and she explains the things about himself that she learned from his father, whom he sent from the future - in his own future. In any case, John Connor is leading a fight against the machines and the resistance is going to make a big move against Skynet but Connor sees something isn't right about what is happening. Little known Australian actor Sam Worthington makes a stunning debut in this movie. He plays, as we know from the previews, a Terminator that doesn't know he is a Terminator. This puts his character in an interesting position to help or hurt John Connor.
I won't give much more away except that the special effects and story will be a treat for any Terminator series fans out there. And it does bring the story arch full circle - as a prequel and sequel.
The only thing that surprised me about this movie was all the fire power the humans had. They even had jets and a submarine. I guess I expected the humans to be a little more low tech. But not at all detracting from the movie. Humans kicking Terminator butt is always fun.
I recommend this movie! It IS a big screener, so please go see it at the movies.
MMMM (out of 5 M's)