Terminator Salvation: Will He Be Back?

Anyone who's anyone knows what the Terminator franchise is. Even if you haven’t seen the movies, I'm sure you know what the basic idea is. The Terminator films are a series of apocalypse stories about intelligent machines that decided to terminate the human race. They use every weapon at their disposal, including time itself. The series is best known for his low budget special effects and bringing Arnold Schwarzenegger to stardom. Recently, people have been getting excited about the fourth movie called Terminator Salvation. Is it any good?

To truly understand the nature of Terminator Salvation, I want to give you a brief history of the previous films. Originally, the director (James Cameron) wanted to do a low budget film about a machine who goes back in time to kill a young lady. Originally it had a limited release, but Terminator quickly became a cultural phenomenon. It's creative story and impressive visuals made it a worthwhile movie.

It didn't stop there. James Cameron went on to direct Terminator 2. If you thought the first movie was good, Terminator 2 blew minds away with even better visuals, a better story, better characters and went on to win 4 Oscars. On AFI's website, Arnold Schwarzenegger became the first actor to be on both the 'best hero list' and the 'best villain list' for playing the same character.

However, there was a slight downturn. James Cameron stopped directing the Terminator movies. Terminator 3 was made without his help. Many thought it was a sequel that could have been better. Released in 2003, many believed it was more oriented around visual effects and not the story.

Just for trivia sake, all three Terminator movies are rated R. They are violent, gory and contain strong language. They are good, but I don't recommend the faint in heart should watch them.

Now it's time to get to the real subject of this blog post. The fourth Terminator movie is scheduled to be released May 21, 2009. Sadly, James Cameron was not involved in production. Warner Bros decided to make the film without his help. However, I've got several good reasons why this film is going to be good.

The movie is going to be rated PG-13!!!!!!

I don't know about you. PG-13 is a surprise. All the Terminator movies before were rated R. The director (nicknamed McG) openly said the rating wasn't their biggest concern. They wanted to reduce the rating because kids were going to see the movie anyways. However, I don't know if the rating can still be trusted. The rating company (MPAA) is not the most stable company in the world. They have given bad ratings before. Either they are mistaken, or Terminator 4 might actually be toned down so more people can see it.

Christian Bale--->

Aside from the rating, the cast might impress you too. Sadly, Arnold Schwarzenegger will not return. John Connor (the hero of the series) is going to be played by a different actor too. This time, he will be played by Christian Bale. Previously, Bale has played Batman in The Dark Knight. Obviously, any movie that stars Christian Bale is a big deal. He originally didn't want to be in the movie because he thought it would be trash. But the director convinced him that the story would be oriented around his character, instead of the visual effects.

All in all, I wasn't interested in Terminator Salvation. But when I looked into it, I was surprised how promising the movie seemed. It might be too good to be true, but I think the movie might actually be lovable. Because of the nature of the Terminator series, I won't recommend you watch it. However, I won't recommend for you to stay away. I am 75% sure it will be a worthwhile film, but only time can tell.