Can Christian Bale successfully reboot another film franchise? He's had a lot of success with that with Batman, so what about John Conner? T3 was understandably disappointing as it eschewed everything that happened in T2 just to make another film, another film that did pretty much what the previous films did, only not as well. T4, however, is smart enough to start fresh with a new setting, a new time period, and a new plot. Unfortunately, in all of its attempts to do something new, it really doesn't do much of anything at all, leaving this epic film feeling more like a grand TV episode.

Terminator Salvation takes the franchise into that distant future so often hinted at in the other movies. This is the era after Judgment Day when the last pockets of humanity continue to fight the genocidal oppression of SkyNet and its machines. John Connor is one of the leaders of the resistance, but not quite yet THE leader of the resistance. It's an exciting setting for this film as it's a future we've all wanted to see after the glimpses in the other films, but it's also not quite the future we glimpsed in the other movies. I'm not a huge Terminator fan, but I do vaguely remember lasers in the future, right? Where'd those go? Well, never mind; despite its flaws Terminator Salvation is still a fun movie.

The major problem with the film, despite how fun it is, is that by the end of it nothing has really happened. In truth, this is more the fault of the end narration than anything else. There are plenty of exciting events during the course of the movie, but the final bit of narration basically tells us that none of that really mattered because SkyNet is still strong and the war goes on. I understand that this is supposed to be the first film of a new franchise, but it really ends up feeling like the pilot episode for a new TV series. Characters are introduced and maneuvered into their proper places, the threat is explained and rules established for how this conflict works, but unlike previous films, it never really feels like anything is at stake. And even what you think was at stake and what you feel like was resolved is undone by an end narration that negates any importance of the preceding events. So basically it was all for nothing, but at least it was fun and exciting.

The other weak element is Marcus Wright... not the character or the performance, but how the character was used. Terminator Salvation is a perfect example of bad marketing. Why they revealed that Marcus was a Terminator in the trailers I'll never understand. That should have been saved for the film itself. It's supposed to be a major element to the film's plot, but because you know it's coming, it never feels as dramatic as it should. The other problem is the ending. If you haven't heard, this film had an entirely different ending (which I won't spoil for anyone who hasn't heard), one that made fans really upset. After watching the movie, however, I think what they had originally planned would have worked quite well and it actually made plenty of sense. The new ending (which I also won't spoil) is extremely anticlimactic and really negates the reason for Marcus' existence in this film. Marcus Wright is a great and potentially intriguing character, but his utilization in the movie is wasted, and thus a potentially great sci-fi film is relegated to being a merely good action flick.

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