I saw this movie yesterday (between my morning and afternoon naps). I’m still a bit conflicted about it and not quite sure what to make of it.

Watching this film, I saw within it scenes from The Matrix, Aeon Flux, I, Robot, and Resident Evil: Extinction. Basically, any post-apocalyptic sci-fi film you can think of. But is it really fair to make these comparisons? In fact, the Terminator series was launched long before any of these other films. This entry just happens to show us a side of the Terminator universe that has been heretofore mostly unseen. (But the T-600 really did remind me of Apocalypse from Resident Evil.)

I guess that this movie just didn’t feel like a Terminator film. The argument there, though, would have to be that none of the previous films really have the same feel as one another. They did, however, share a modern day backdrop that this one was missing.

It was interesting to see the role reversal created between John Connor and Kyle Reese – Reese being the young buck fighting for his life and being rescued by the older, stronger Connor. I think that replacing Claire Danes with Bryce Dallas Howard was brilliant. The creation of a sympathetic cyborg, Marcus Wright, however, may have been a bad move.

Overall, the film was entertaining, if not completely predictable. It struck out in a new direction that could serve it’s following films well, but would be hard pressed to stand on its own. With the Sarah Connor Chronicles‘ failure of to add anything of value to the franchise and the critical maligning of Rise of the Machines. It’s looking more and more as though the producers should have called it quits with T2 – which we all know was groundbreaking. But, with Bale signed on to a 3 picture deal (so I heard), there may be adequate time to turn this ship and bring things full circle. I’ll hold onto hope for it.