MOVIE: Terminator Salvation

Went to see Terminator 4 (aka "Salvation") last night. Here's my take...

( ( SPOILER ALERT ) )

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CGI Arnold? I was thinking it would be a literal cameo... but for him ("it") to have an actual starring role in the finale of the movie was pretty insane. He no longer looks like Arnie soon as "it" is damaged and so on, but it was still an interesting move.

Christian Bale is certainly a different "John Conner" than we've seen before, and he's not really in charge (yet, has "faithful followers" who defy orders in deference to his wishes). The whole gotta-save-daddy-who-is-still-a-teenager plot was not exactly Oscar material. I actually would have been comfortable with the death of Conner and Reese in this movie since it can be explained away and/or cause more time travel stories in future iterations, but alas, they chose the safer route.

The cyborg Marcus was by far the star of the movie in my opinion. I fully expected to see him as the "last man standing" ready to take the reigns of the series. His fate is not clear to me (despite his apparent sacrifice at the end of the movie). There are several ways to explain away his continued existence.

Was that another Will Smith child breaking into movies playing as the mute child? I couldn't tell and didn't watch the credits long enough to check. There were no post-credits videos (as I came in at the end of credits of the previous showing).

Overall a decent flick. I'm not going to go see it again, but it was a nice update to the aged Terminator franchise.