Come with me, if you want to live

Saw 'Terminator Salvation' last night. (I really wish they would have used a colon in the title. 'Terminator: Salvation'. )

it was a great, gritty action movie, but maybe not a great Terminator movie. the thing about the original movies, and even the horriffically-reviewed third one, was that it was always the characters and their roles in the predestination paradox that drew you in and held you there. This one missed a key few moments between some characters that I REALLY would have liked to see - realizations about fathers and sons that could have been fleshed out in dialogue, opportunities to examine at the cause-and-effect/self-fulfilling prophecy/fate vs. will storylines...

Believe me, I never, never thought I would ever say this (because I loooove Christian Bale), but instead of Bale's rendition of Connor as confident leader, I wish that we could have seen some more of Nick Stahl's John Connor opposite Anton Yelchin as Reese. not only are they more physically similar, making their connection more plausible, but I think their acting styles would also be a better match...

All in all, I liked it, but I didn't love it, which is too bad. Here's hoping that the future Terminator installments make a new fate for themselves...