for terminator fans only...

I saw Terminator Salvation tonight and lo! It was good. I just took a quick spin by Rotten Tomatoes to see what The Critics are saying and sadly most of them aren't saying anything too much good.

For example:

The ingenious plotting of the first two Terminator films, and the skill and visceral energy with which James Cameron directed them, are a thing of the past.

David Stratton of At The Movies

And then there's:

It’s a catastrophically bad movie whose aggressive dullness and dumbness can best be reproduced by picking up a brick and slamming it against one’s forehead for two hours.

Sukdev Sandhu of the Daily Telegraph (the British one, I expect, with those manners)

and just for third time lucky kind of thingo, I give you:

This latest Terminator may well please the committed obsessive, but the rest of us are left feeling simultaneously beaten about the head and yet slightly underwhelmed.

Boyd Hilton Heat Magazine.

Well, phooey on them, I say. I must be one of those committed obsessives because I'm just lovin' it.

Mind you, I'm not saying it was a perfect film. Of course it wasn't, but name me one that is. The kid was ridiculously cute and completely unnecessary as a character. Kyle Reese left me utterly unconvinced that he would ever have the testicles to impregnate Sarah Connor when the time came. And the Schwarzenator insertion - well, that was just sad.

But who cares? Who cares? Was the plotting as obvious as some critics claim? I don't know - there were a few things I saw coming and a few I didn't. About par for the course for me. Was there zero character growth and no heart to the characters as some of the others say? Well, I'm not sure what they want out of a film that looks like Mad Max on a particularly apocalyptic day. We don't need continual characterisation here - we all know who John Connor is and what makes him tick. We all know what's in the heart of the Good Terminator whether it's played by Sam Worthington or Our Arnie.

Do I think it's as good as Number 2? No, of course not. But I didn't expect it to be. In fact, I made sure to keep my expectations very low going in. In fact, I almost didn't want to see it at all in case it was so bad it spoiled the series.

Remember The Matrix Revolutions? I was absolutely hooked on The Matrix and I waited for the next installment like a girl waiting for her first date to pick her up. When it turned out to be so very very bad, I felt personally betrayed, as if some one had promised me something I wanted very much and then switched it for a lump of coal at the very last moment. I certainly regretted going to see it. It almost took away the pleasure I felt over the original film. I've never seen the third installment. Maybe it's not so bad - but I just don't have the heart to try.

So yeah - I went along to the cinema tonight with nothing more complex on my mind than to see some robots get blown to smithereens and man, I got what I paid for!

I've loved all of these films. As the show was starting, I remember thinking 'What an epic saga this is!' Would I have liked it as much if I'd never seen the other films? What does it matter? Me and about a million or so other complete obsessives will never have to have that experience.

And, oh yeah - I was pleased to see a move away from the cute sassiness of the Terminator as Gay Stripper Leather boy back towards the the darkness of the first.

Christian Bale rocks and Sam Worthington is too sexy for his cyberdene chip. There is an actress named Moon Bloodgood in it and I want to know what drugs her parents were taking.

Overall, my rating is - hurry up and make the next one because ... I'll be back.