Terminator Salvation

In a way this is the film that Terminator fans have been waiting for. In the first three films we have been told of the apocalyptic future that John Connor was fighting and the reasons why he sent Kyle Reece back in time to 1984 where the story kicks off.
So Terminator Salvation had a lot riding on it. And it does deliver, though not quite to the same effect as the previous three. But then again that's probably to be expected.
If there is a weak link, I'm sorry, it has to be Christian Bale. I can't believe I'm saying this but he was just so wooden and reminded me far too much of Batman (from his voice not anything else). I'm usually a fan of his but I feel he may be miscast.
The star of this movie is unquestionably Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright, a man sentenced to death in 2003 who donates his body to science and wakes up in 2018 as a cybernetic organism (though it takes him a while to work out what's going on). Not just because he is an Aussie do I rate Worthington's performance so highly (it's also amusing to hear his accent slip a couple of times). He IS the star of the movie, his character is so pivotal and he just inhabits it to the extent that you forget he is playing a cyborg. Arnie could never do that!
There were plenty of nods to the previous films, the classic lines get rehashed with humourous results and the Guns 'N' Roses classic from T2 also bobs up.
There's plenty more nostalgia as well. What T4 does well is keep continuity going between all the movies. This is helped along by a voice cameo from Linda Hamilton as well.
Terminator Salvation certainly paints a bleak future, and I wonder at times why they are fighting so hard to salvage a world that has already been destroyed. But such is the human spirit.
Given that a trilogy had all but been announced it comes as no surprise that the ending is fairly open. I wonder if they have enough material - perhaps they should have tied it all up in this movie. Worth seeing, if you have seen the original trilogy, particularly for an excellent performance from Sam Worthington. A 7.5 out of 10.