Terminator Salvation

1. McG delivered. Action-freakin-packed. When someone asks you: "What is an action movie?" You say: "This is."

2. Chel and Drei were right though: not much in terms of the story itself - but the action more than made up for it.

3. Christian Bale was amazing. It is hard for anyone to play John Connor and he did a good job of doing it. Method acting paid off, I guess... (and yep, I heard his 15-minute internet audio cursefest on this set... on a side note, continuous cursing is hard to sustain over a two or even three minute period, Bale was relentless for that entire time... THAT is something.)

4. Sam Worthington (Marcus) will probably have a Hugh Jackman-like career from now on.

5. (Semi-Spoiler Alert) The Arnold Schwaenenzggreenegegegr CGI should NOT have been there. It distracted you from the entire action sequence. I was thinking, if you can't put in the "real" Arnold, then DON'T put him in. (on another side note, the movie industry has made great strides in terms of computer animation and graphics for the past couple of years... but this goes to show you how we are still so far off in terms of people CG realism on closeups.)

6. (Major Spoiler Alert) I was really hoping they were going to finish the story. But instead, even after blowing up Skynet's main base, John Connor said something like - "Skynet's Global Network still remains strong, but the fight isn't over..."

7. I can't help but think of parralels between the Matrix and the Terminator mythology. The machines in the Matrix (sentinels, etc..) are way way way way harder to beat than Terminators (even if Skynet had nuclear capability). I'm just sayin.

8. Overall, good action flick. Monumentally better than the last one. However, I just had some issues with the CG and the ending.

3.5 DREIs

1 - DREIs: "Avoid Like The Plague" Why did we watch this in the first place? (i.e. Bangkok Dangerous, The Hottie and the Nottie, Scorpion King 2, etc..)

2 - DREIs: "Shite" No need to see this movie unless you have absolutely nothing else to do. Movies with high expectations but falls short on almost everything. (i.e. Righteous Kill, Max Payne, The Island, etc..)

3 - DREIs: "Okay" Good movies that could have been better. Usually gets half good reviews, and the other half so-so. The experience will also depend also on who is watching. (i.e. Clone Wars Animated, Fast and the Furious, The Devil Wears Prada, etc..)

4 - DREIs: "Great" Almost all facets of the movie were masterfully done. Great in almost all aspects. (i.e. 300, Dark Knight, Transformers, Slumdog Millionaire, etc..)

5 - DREIs: "Revolutionary" It will change the entire concept of filmmaking and how films are made from this point on. It will serve as the new gauge for movies of the same genre. (i.e. The Matrix, LOTR, The Godfather, etc..)