Usually when I go to the movies, I try to leave any expectations and/or prejudices in the lobby. For Terminator Salvation, it was an extremely difficult thing to do. In a review of T3, I concluded that the third chapter "is better than a blatent milking of a franchise, but it fails to uphold the Terminator name and is disrepectful of what came before it" (though in hindsight, I was way too generous grading it a 6 out of 10 stars). I tried to watch the FOX series, but stopped after two episodes and posted, "I like a lot of the talent associated with the series, but in the end I thought the scripts were very poor and it was tarnishing the Terminator legacy." I even declared that I was done with the franchise - at least until Cameron returned in some capacity.
It was a lot of baggage to leave behind, but I was willing to try. I was curious to see this new chapter, particularly to watch Christian Bale's performance as John Conner, but my overall expectations were very, very low. And the film lived up to them, but barely. There were a couple of nice surprises (which I won't ruin here) but Terminator Salvation left me feeling much like I did after seeing X-Men Origins: Wolverine a couple of weeks ago - this movie is not even close to being as good as the first two films, but about on par with the third one. Unlike my feelings about the X-Men & Wolverine movies (I hope they make more, just please make them better), I wish FOX would stop milking the Terminator teat.
I understand Bale signed on for three films, but if the box office numbers don't support any more sequels, it would be fine by me. If FOX does decide to make more, I cannot honestly say (quote it with me now), "I'll be back!"
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