Grade: A-

Ever since James Cameron began to facinate our minds with the posibility of time traveling robots that are tough as nails and will stop at nothing to destroy their targets, we have been watching and at times waiting patiently for the action that we know a Terminator film can possess. The newest film does a good job of finding a happy medium between the action packed 3rd installment and the story and character driven first movies. The result is a well crafted cinematic work that most will enjoy.

John Connor (Christian Bale) and his team of resistance soldiers battle against time to rescue Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) and deal a lasting blow to the MCP-style juggernaut Skynet. The story is very solid, without giving too much away. Skynet is as sinister and intelligent as we could have imagined it. The new characters Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), Barnes (Common), and Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood) fit into the story seamlessly. They each play their respected roles well. My main critique is that of Rapper turned actor Common. His performace is lackluster at best. Not having much life or real emotion to his character made him seem relatively expendible in the whole grand scheme of things. Luckily he was just a spporting character. Bale and Worthington stole the show followed closely by Yelchin. Acting wise, the film was solid with the exception of Common, who even with his lifeless performance played the role of tough right hand man adequately enough.

There werre some great scenes in the film a lot of which did not have a lot of CG. The scenes that did were even more beautiful. The graphics work in this film was top of the line. There is a suprise cameo that is very suprising and is also a testament to what we can do now with the emergin technology of the day in film. Another stand out was the music which was done by veteran Danny Elfman. The action sequences we definately edge of your seat material. There were some points in the film where you can’t possibly imagine the humans ever winning the war.

With a running time of 130 minutes its was just long enough for you to get wrapped up in the movie, and just short enough so you didnt start to get bored and wonder when the end would come. McG did very well and hopefully from now on everyfilm he does will use this sort of production as a benchmark. If your expecting Charlies Angels, look elsewhere because this movie is not it. Congrats to McG for finally stepping his game up. This is a great summer movie, next to Star Trek its a front runner for the summers best. Definately worth the 10 bucks.