Terminator Salvation (2009) ***1/2

So what do we call Terminator Salvation? A sequel? A prequel? It's hard to define and even harder to explain the in's and out's of the Terminator franchise to an someone coming into it cold. What this film does is follow the war between the machines and the Resistance, a small group of survivors trying to destroy that evil programming called Skynet. (insert Vista joke here)

The film basically follows the exploits of John Connor (Christian Bale), who is considered a prophet by the Resistance because he can see the future. No, actually he has the tapes his mother started recording in the first film. It does beg the question- How did he find a functioning tape deck in the post-Apocalyptic world? Why couldn't he put them on his iPod? There's plenty of room between the Guns N' Roses tunes.

John Connor isn't the main character in this fourth installment. Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) awakens from a coma during one of the battles and enters this new world that he doesn't know. He literally stumbles into Connor and Connor's father (who is only a teenager at this point) Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin). Remember that Reese copulates way back in 1984.

This is basically a futuristic war film with effects that mesmerize beyond belief. Sadly, there isn't much of a story to go along with it. That's the problem with the film- if you haven't followed the original films you will be confused, wondering what the hell is going on as the film plays out. Worthington is the highlight of the film, playing a man lost in the brave new world to which he has awaken. Bale seems underused in the film and has adopted his gruff Batman voice that people freaked about last summer for this film as well.

This film seems to be opening another trilogy of Terminator films and even though it outshines the third film, Terminator Salvation fails to achieve the greatness of James Cameron's original films. This film is full of great action, but fails to deliver much of a story behind it. Not the best of the franchise, but it still delivers a nice ride.