I don't think the movie was that bad. Remember, considering the fact that Arnold plays no part in this movie except for a digital representation of himself, it does a pretty decent job of giving you the back story to the subsequent films. In a world of really bad prequels (Star Wars), i have to say i don't see why so many people are down on this film.

Read this which basically explains the hate. I also liked the movie, decent popcorn movie.
http://thefilmstage.com/2009/05/22/in-defense-of-terminator-salvation/

I think what some people don't like is so many special effects, but not so much depth in story lines. There are also a lot of plot holes in the movies--too many that when you came out of the theater, you cannot find any probable answer but to blame on the script or director himself.

I don't hate the movie, but it has a lot more potential to be a lot better than this with $200 million production budget. The movie is filled with action after action, but I would like to see more about the story. Good movie is not all about CGI, it needs character development, interesting story, and some twists. If you like just action movie with loads of special effects but don't have think much, this movie is for you. More importantly, the marketing and franchise of this movie were what made me see this movie and I hate this trick.

I think there are a couple of problems...

the expectations raised by the trailer, which gave me chills it looked so good and 'deep' in its exploration of character and the themes that make the first two terminators so unforgettable.

T2 can possibly be to blame because its one of the best action movies ever made. I watched it the other day and even now the effects don't feel dated, the seriousness of the film is mixed with the levity of Arnold and Furlong bonding and the action is killer with great pacing (mix of story and action)

Lastly, in response to the article posted by remmy above, its one thing to be 'dumb-fun' which is often received well because of intent. The other movies know they are dumb-fun and offer light and fun scripts to match the special effects. its hard to be dark and brooding and still be dumb fun... this film is like the emo-terminator. If you plan to be serious and brooding, you need some depth beyond the average action flick like a Transformers which is the definition of popcorn fun.

I liked it quite a bit. It may not have been as great as I hoped for but I wasn't disappointed. The problem I keep hearing is it lacks a good plot and good dialog. I don't quite get that. The dialog wasn't great but it sufficient. The plot was pretty decent for me. I liked the story of Marcus and Kyle. We already have the broad strokes for John Conner's character, so I don't know how much we need there. Assuming the make more movies after this we already have an idea of what will happen. We'll just get a more detailed version of what we already know. It is just entertaining to actually see it instead of hearing someone from the future come to the present and explain it.

I see what everyones getting at, personnaly i enjoyed it, a little over dramatic but it was still thrilling and fun to watch. Special effects have come such a long way in the past few years and i think this movie was a great example of that. I'm a guy, and usually when i go to an action movie its not for the acting but for the effects and I think this movie delivered that. I agree with buddy who said the trailor made this look like a bone chilling amazing blockbuster and it wasn't quite that but it was still pretty good. I think everyone can agree when I say atleast this wasn't another terminator 3 waste of my time.

How some people are bitching about Terminator 3 is beyond me. That is in many ways better than T2. This one was without question the worst in the franchise. The best part was definitely when the 'Arnold-esque' T-800 appeared. This 'McG' character is not much of a director. I had more plot in my 6th grade Christmas play. Nick Stahl should have returned as Connor, as Bale's Connor was forgettable, as was every other character besides Marcus. Worthington did a very good job, but otherwise the film was a waste of time, not T3. So if you think 'everyone can agree,' you don't think much at all.

In order to enjoy this movie, I kept two things in mind: I said 1: Simon there's been so much commotion over legal rights over the years, especially since Linda Hamilton called the quits from Terminator creator James Cameron, that the movie will aim to entertain us rather than bet on character development and deep introspections. In that regard, I can understand why the Halcyon company and Warner Bros decided to play ''safe''. Despite mix reviews like the Wolverine prequel, the movie will still be a huge financial success and that will secure the making of the new terminator trilogy they intend to make. Dialogue was weak though, maybe hiring different writers next time could be an idea and in order to add more meet to the bone, either add flashbacks just like in Terminator 1 when Kyle Reese falls asleep or thinks or either add a narrator to put things in perspective and explain the context of war and of course add some some character development: what did John Connor do right after Judgement Day? What did Kyle Reese do? what about his family? Capitalize on the ''father-son'' relationship etc.. People love background information.

mixed*

Wow, someones on drugs. This movie wasn't perfect but it was still worth seeing, and if u think t-3 was better than t-2 then you really need to revamp your movie taste there buddy.

Terminator 2 was far superior than the third movie. But I didn't think it was as bad as many other people do. I found this one to be on par with that movie. Should have focused more on Marcus and Kyle. Maybe even have no John Connor except for his radio messages.
Also, couldn't some one, be it the writers or the director, have watched the original movies to keep continuity more accurate. Like fighting in the day time was a no no. All the survivors looked out of the Mad Max movies. Here we just got soldiers with very up to date equipment. And someone should have gotten rid of that little kid. He/she (couldn't tell what gender) was just there as a cute device. "Here's a band aide, flare, remote detonator..."
Probably should of also had Christian Bale to more than two readings. Either the low pissed off voice (like Jack Bauer) or just flat out yelling (also like Jack Bauer). And give Common more to do!

I just have to get this straight. Did someone actually call T3 "superior" to T2? I'm sorry but I can't take anything you have to say about the new Terminator seriously if you think 3 was anywhere near as good as 2.

I think the thing that's missing in the Terminator Salvation film is Arnold Swarzenegger. He is what's missing in the film. I think McG did fine as a director. I felt that Christian Bale and Marcus Wright and actually the whole cast all did well with their roles. But it's just that a Terminator film without Swarzenegger is like trying to have a ham sandwich without the ham. It just isn't the same. I know it won't likely happen but I wish that Swarzennegger were allowed to be a major part in the future Terminator movies. I know that Swarzenneger is older now and obviously he would not be doing the extremely athletic scenes such as in the past. But it would be interesting to see him and Christian Bale work together as actors - I think that would be very interesting and would make for a more interesting movie possibly. As to storyline, I don't know-- would like to see Swarzenneger portray a "good cyborg" similar to like he was in Terminator 2 although again, I don't know. Another thing too, I think the fact that the film was set in a post nuclear future - it was dark and gritty and I think McG did as much as he could do with it given the setting of the story. The story this time was just very different than the previous Terminator movies. It's like comparing apples and oranges.

Everyone keeps saying that Arnold needed to be in the movie. But he was in T3 and that didn't do it any favors. In this story line its too early for his character. I liked Salvation I think what hurt it most was the PG-13 rating the studio slapped on it. The editing was choppy and didn't flow well between story lines and I think it was because they had to go back and edit so much stuff out and I think it needed to be a bit longer to fill in some of the gaps. All that said I was still sitting riveted to my chair during many of the action sequences. I also wish people would back off the whole Bale acting thing, i think he did a great job with the character he was given and the fact, if anyone cared to notice, was he shared top billing with Worthington. It said Christian Bale and Sam Worthington at the start of the credits and I think they both did wonderfully. I look at the movie like this its a chapter with more to come and I can't wait see the next installments.

When in doubt turn to Roger Ebert.

He sums up his review of T4 thus: "It gives you all the pleasure of a video game without the bother of having to play it."

The two most important constituent parts of a film are (1) character and (2) plot. The plot should flow from the characters. Action sequences can be useful plot devices but they can never be the A and O of a good film.

T1 and T2 were branded as special effects movies back in the day when special effects were still very difficult to do. Therefore the effects were used to augment the film rather than drown it out.

There have been so many examples of expensive but hollow movies that leave the audience underwhelmed that the industry sooner or later must understand that it is time to once again base their movies on ideas rather than technology.

The technology is still there to support the ideas, but without ideas, movies are just going to become more expensive and more empty.

They've run the Terminator movies into the ground and they're just out of gas as a franchise. Sorry, but outside of the small fanboy niche, the Terminator series stopped ringing people's bells years ago. They should have stopped while they were ahead after the fluke success of the third movie.

the real trouble is there is no script for John Connor! they has Christian Bale for Connor and they don't use him! He has nothing to work! John Connor is a supporting character like another! this movie is a locomotive for Marcus Wright!

First off, I like "Terminator 3" a lot. It's no "Judgement Day", but it's way entertaining and possibly one of the better R-rated action flicks of recent years.

I haven't seen "Salvation" yet, but I'm going to take a crack as to why people don't like it. It seems that "Salvation" is missing the humanity and likability of the first three films. Let's compare this to the recently released "Star Trek", shall we? There's a ton of plot holes in that film too, and the script isn't all that great (not horrible, just not Oscar worthy by any means). But what we have are a great cast of lovable, enjoyable characters who we truly get behind, along with some excellent special effects. "Salvation" seems to be missing the former, although it has plenty of the latter. From what I hear, Bale is basically playing Batman again, except he's even more one-dimensional this time. So if we can't get behind the main character, why should we care?

On a different note, how lame has this May been? I'm just hoping "Drag Me to Hell" and "Up" will deliver next week (and I'll make a bet that at least the Pixar film will knock it out of the park).

Personally, I enjoyed it -- but the ONE thing that would have made it a SIGNIFICANTLY better film?
Cut that last scene from right after Kate speaks about John. CUT THERE.

I feel as though the movie did miss the mark. I feel as though Cristian Bale might not have been the best choice for John Connor, i mean i don't have some one better i just felt like he lacked the something that he had in the batman movies.

I experienced the first film as a 13 year old, who went to the theater to see a cool movie about a unstoppable machine, and Ahhnold, of course, after Conan I couldn't wait...ok I was a kid, I think everyone my age loved that movie. Even then I thought the flashbacks looked cheesy, but it didn't matter, the movie delivered the goods. T2 came along and exceeded everyone's expectations...once again I thought the whole "I swear I will not kill anyone" take was cheesy, but once again, it didn't matter, the movie delivered the goods. Then T3, ok.....next we have T4 and it was a new take visually and I felt like I was 13 again...I didn't want lenghty dialogue or exposition, I know these characters and I thought the film was great, although the last 20 minutes fell short for me, it didn't matter, the movie delivered the goods. Thumbs up, 3 stars, whatever...thank you McG for resurrecting the franchise after T3 virtually killed it...bring on the next one.

sorry...that would be lengthy, not lenghty

T2 was great, T3 was very good and now T4 was just good. Each movie is different and thus it’s like comparing apples and oranges. This franchise is one of my favorites and I truly wanted this film to be awesome. I agree that Bale did not have a lot to work with script wise, but does he have to always use that “batman” low voice? This film had plenty of action and tremendous effects, but I left the theater wanting more! I am no expert but this film had lots of potential and it ended up being very forgettable!

I don't think the franchise is dead. The machines era is the most interesting part of the story. It's what we really wanted to see back when T1 and T2 came out. But it was unfilmable then. So they blew it in some way.

I am glad that more people point the finger at Bale. The characters in the first two movies were likeable or really scary. So the audience cared. Bales non-persona just leaves you indifferent. It's like he's there but you don't really see him.

I finally saw it...

And to answer the question, not much... not much is wrong with it at all actually. My previous post still makes sense to me about raised expectations whether from T2 or the trailer but I thought it was well done. Expertly photographed and choreographed. Well acted, even from Bale he just doesn't have much of a part to run with AND i think this is why it turns people off. That John Connor is not the lead in a terminator movie. It is Marcus Wright's movie and Worthington was awesome. Every body gets on Bales case cause of his voice-work, there is more to acting that speaking the dialogue (which as mentioned before, isn't brilliant but gets the job done) and he handles all the scenes just fine. Of course there are a few miscues in all aspects of the film, but when isn't there. This was no T2 but I'd say as good as T1 and a helluva lot better than T3. PLus this sets up Bale/Connor to be the lead in the next film which is supposed to move back in time to show how John Connor became John Connor... a very good, not great but not bad, film.