Its been twenty five years since James Cameron's Terminator graced the screen. To commemorate the twenty-fifth anniversary, director McG has taken over the reigns of the franchise and put the focus on something fans have been clamoring for, for what seems like an eternity; the battle between machines and the human resistance.

The majority of Terminator: Salvation takes place in the year 2018, and finds a militant John Connor (Christian Bale) upholding his destiny by leading a resistance against Skynet. Through his hellish ordeal, he comes face to face with a young Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin, who also lends his talents to another recent sci fi franchise, Star Trek) and a mysterious stranger named Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington, soon to be seen in James Cameron's highly anticipated Avatar).

Terminator 3 gets a bad rap in my humble opinion. It isn't at the same level as Cameron's two films, but it's still a kick ass action movie punctuated by Schwarzenegger's sheer star appeal and by an effectively bleak ending. Salvation, while amazing to look at, suffers from an uneven pace and the inclusion of too many unnecessary plot elements.

McG's post apocalyptic future feels more Mad Max than Terminator but I give the director credit for mounting some pretty amazing imagery. The highlight occurs in the first fifteen minutes of the movie and features a single tracking shot that lasts for what felt like ten minutes. The impressive sequence opens with Connor sparring with a Terminator and ends with him boarding a copter, only to find his flying vehicle being shot down from the sky. It's a breathtaking sequence. There are other visual treats worth noting in the film. There's an intense showdown between a squad of freedom fighters and a colossal droid that blasts robotic speeder bikes from its mechanical legs, and there's also a much talked about bout between Connor and a familiar face from the past. As cool as these isolated sequences are however, Terminator: Salvation is unable to sustain any kind of consistent rhythm. It almost feels as if McG and crew went out, shot a bunch of stuff, and didn't know how to put it all together.

Furthermore, Terminator: Salvation is far more interested in making stuff go boom than it is giving us characters worth giving a crap about. And in fact, if you aren't well versed in the Terminator mythology, chances are you wont know what the hell is going on here. Salvation relies heavily on your having seen the earlier movies. The best sequels (i.e. Wrath of Khan, Godfather 2, The Empire Strikes Back, Terminator 2, etc.) expand on their plot threads, but also serve as great stand alone entries. Salvation is unsuccessful in this manner. Rather than existing on its own, it feels more like a set up for further installments.

There's been a lot of talk about Bale's on set tirade, and I wish I could tell you that his work trumps his verbal antics, but the truth is, this is a one dimensional turn. If this were Connor's introduction to the franchise, you wouldn't find anything particularly interesting about him. Bale does bring intensity, but for the most part, he spends the majority of the film yelling in an over the top pitch. Newcomer Sam Worthington is charismatic to be sure, but Anton Yelchin is the only actor in the picture who brings any sort of emotional complexity to the table.

Of course, the majority of folks who go to see Salvation could give two shits about emotional complexity. They want to see Terminators in action. And they'll get plenty of that. Props to the effects team for their exceptional work. There are a couple of brief moments when one of Terminators looks like a man in a suit, but for the most part, the visuals are stellar.

Terminator: Salvation didn't quite gel with me. There are aspects of it that I liked, but there was nothing particularly memorable about it. I can pick out several key moments from the earlier films, that stand out. Furthermore, McG and screenwriters John D. Francato and Michael Ferris over complicate matters by introducing unnecessary elements to the plot, one of which reminded me of something right out of Ridley Scott's brilliant Bladrunner (in fact, this plot point is ruined in the trailer for the film). There's also a ridiculously underdeveloped bond between Marcus Wright and one of the freedom fighters. There was a lot going on in this film, but after it was over, I had a hard time recalling half of it.

Watching Terminator: Salvation sort of reminded me of watching Matrix Reloaded. The original Matrix eluded to things that Matrix Reloaded expanded upon, and I found that the ideas hinted at in the first film were better left to the imagination. I suppose what I'm trying to say, is that I liked the little glimpses at the future war as presented in the earlier Terminator films far more than I liked seeing the entire battle front and center in this slick, but ultimately shallow movie.

I quote music guru Kyle England; "Terminator: Salvation isn't a bad movie. Its just a terribly average one." I couldn't have said it better myself.