The fourth movie in the Terminator franchise began a new chapter in the movie series' life cycle in which it followed a trilogy of straightforward action thrillers with a trilogy of increasingly complex reboots and retcons that grew further and further out of favor with audiences.
It's been thoroughly washed from canon now, along with most of the Terminator sequels but is Terminator Salvation truly deserving of its bad reputation, or are there aspects to the movie that make it worth reappraising? Let's look at some of the best and worst aspects of the movie to determine whether it really is as bad as people say it is.
Isn't: It Breaks Free of Time Travel
Terminator Salvation was the first Terminator movie to break free of the time travel aspect of the franchise and, considering how much of a burden it's been on the following movies alone, it's proven to be a wise decision.
Allowing John Connor to finally be the main character out from under the shadow of Sarah Connor and the T-800 also allows Salvation to be more than just a linear chase movie and more of a multi-threaded adventure story.
Isn't: Kinetic Action Sequences
Embracing the legacy left by Terminator 2, Salvation focuses on its action sequences above everything else and it's not a wrongheaded approach to the material.
Not only does the action sequences propel the plot forward and develop the characters' relationships, they methodically structure themselves to continually raise the tension and the thrills beyond the audience's initial expectations.
Is: A Needless Romance Subplot
Though a large chunk of it was cut from the theatrical version of the movie, there's still too much of a needless romantic thread between Sam Worthington's and Moon Bloodgood's characters.
Their emotional connection mostly feels like a device to facilitate parts of the plot and ultimately amounts to nothing in terms of drama.
Isn't: A Great Cast
Perhaps it was always too good to be repeatable but Terminator Salvation assembled an eclectically talented cast for its key roles.
The proximity of Christian Bale and Sam Worthington to The Dark Knight and Avatar made them seem like two of the only actors big enough at the time to really fill the shoes vacated by Arnold Schwarzenegger and they're only the leads in what is one of the series' most well-rounded casts.
Isn't: It Does John Connor Justice
Taking into account, once again, the following movies in the franchise and how they would both metaphorically and literally butcher this aspect, the characterization of John Connor is the best a Terminator fan could hope for.
The legendary resistance leader is not only fearless, heroic, and decisive but he's tested in ways that the franchise has never shown before or since. He isn't a supreme leader even at the height of the war and he fights for the respect of the audience and the other characters rather than just assuming that it's automatically guaranteed.
Isn't: It Makes Terminators Scary Again
Though not as horror driven as the original movie, Salvation does more than perhaps any Terminator sequel to make the titular killing machines seem genuinely imposing and scary.
Since the T-800 essentially became the heroes of the series after Terminator 2, Salvation does a commendable job of turning the robot skeletons back into iconic movie monsters.
Is: The Plot Doesn't Really Make Sense
The breathless pace to the action is beneficial also in making the audience less likely to pause and notice that the big holes in the movie's plot.
Though there may be answers to certain puzzling questions that are just never explained, Skynet's apparent awareness of Kyle Reese's importance makes his survival seem all the more improbable but the plot to lure John Connor into a trap is generally quite convoluted to the point of being nonsensical.
Isn't: A Low-Tech Vision of the Apocalypse
Terminator Salvation was the first movie in the franchise to really expand the vision of the post-apocalyptic world in a meaningful way and it makes the world after Judgement Day its own.
Eschewing the plasma weapons seen in earlier movies and forgoing the liquid-metal-inspired nanotechnology of later movies, Salvation's aesthetic is decidedly low-tech and bridges the gap between the future and the present in a way that no other sequel has.
Is: Underdeveloped Characters
A number of the main characters benefit from the fast-paced nature of events as they work better while being mysterious or because they're well-established by previous movies.
Others, however, feel saddled with one or two defining characteristics that never evolve into anything meaningful during the course of the story and it makes a large chunk of the core ensemble forgettable.
Isn't: The Potential for a Bigger Story
As the heroes quite literally ride into the sunset at the movie's close, John Connor delivers the obligatory closing narration and does something that none of the other Terminator movies ever did and contextualizes the fight against Skynet as being global.
Like every other movie in the franchise, Salvation takes place in Southern California and nearby areas and the prospect of changing the scale and scenery of the war against the machines is one of the best ideas ever floated by the series, and it's one that any future installments would be foolish not to pick up on.