Now Playing: Terminator Salvation

Having just (re)watched all three original Ahh-nold Terminator movies, I thought this latest offering from McG was actually pretty damn good. I mean, reading some of the reviews out there made it sound like it was the worst Terminator movie ever - nay, the worst movie of all time, period - and with T3 still freshly burned into my brain, I cannot disagree more. But hey, what do I know? I don't have a website that gets more traffic than Yonge/Dundas during rush hour.
Not to say I didn't have my problems with it - I do have two glaring issues. Spoiler alert, people. You know I'm not shy about these things.
1) The heart transplant. What. Setting aside the motivational issues of these characters for a moment… what? Marcus just happens to be a perfect match for JC**? Really? Does anyone know the statistical likelihood of this being possible? Unless it's yet another "fate" things, where Marcus was meant to meet JC and save his life, I just don't know. It seems silly that of all the things that would break my suspension of disbelief, it would be this, but there you have it.
2) This is a mythology thing that I'm sure a few fanboys out there will correct, but somewhere in T3, the T800 that comes back says that it was he who killed JC, that it was Kate who reprogrammed him and that this was done because Skynet knew that JC would have a soft spot for the T800. Alright - I swallowed that. Fast forward to Salvation: the iconic "..-.." music hits and Arnie (in his special CGI birthday suit) comes out. Do we see even an inkling of hesitation in JC's trigger finger? No. How does a self-aware, sentient, supercomputer not remember that JC has no problem killing a T800 but sends one after him like 10 years later? I don't know.
…It's the little things.

Aside from these two things, I thought the movie was bloody good. I mean, the action sequences (especially that continuous shot in the helicopter) was phenom. I was there, man… like, right there. It didn't have the humorous breaks to lighten the heavy feeling of the movie, but it would have probably been out of place. I thought that the casting was done quite well - Bryce is a passable grown-up Kate, Anton was simply excellent as Kyle and, what can I say, Christian (while seriously underutilised) made me a believer. I do have to say that HBC's Dr. Serena character was quite off-putting, but I liked her Skynet interface - if you watch it, look for her facial twitches. And no, I didn't hate Star - I thought I would, but I didn't. Go figure.

Plot elements were done pretty well too. I know that some people think the characters are a bit thin - but you know what? It's meant to be an act in three parts. If they don't get picked up for two more, then it's our loss. It's like HBO cancelling Dead Like Me, or Fox cancelling Firefly. I like the scar-getting. I know many would say it wasn't epic enough - but I thought it was kind of fitting, to have such a visible reminder of just how vulnerable human flesh can be - that mere scratch from a Terminator becomes this legendary scar. I will admit that Skynet is a pretty slow-learning-curve machine - it doesn't adapt very well to new information nor does it think out its plans. I mean: they find JC's daddy and decide to use him as bait for the JC himself? Why not just kill him and let none of this happen in the first place? It was a plot worthy of the cheesiest of comic book villians.

Long review short: great popcorn muncher. 4 out of 5 stars.

**Not the "Big JC" - just John Connor JC. Though, there are similarities, no? The last great hope for mankind and all that?