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There's been a lot of internet hype lately about the new Terminator film, thanks in no small part to the juxtaposition of director McG (he of Charlie's Angels fame) and screenwriters John Brancato and Michael Ferris (the duo behind the horrendous Catwoman and much maligned Terminator 3) with trailers that actually made the movie look, well, good. No one was expecting the fourth film in a franchise that has clearly run its course, is missing its signature star and is being handled by a trio of hacks to be anything but crap. But some cool and stylish looking advertising and the promise of a full blown man vs. machines war only discussed and seen for a few moments at a time in the previous films were tantalizing to say the least.

While I'm happy to say that McG has risen above his own shortcomings to deliver the goods visually, unfortunately the screenwriters perform just about as expected. Their story in its barest form is a good one, but as far as character development, interesting dialogue and any sense of pacing these two just don't measure up. Even adding in several uncredited rewrites from the high profile likes of Paul Haggis (Crash, Million Dollar Baby) and Jonah Nolan (Memento, The Dark Knight) wasn't enough to save this script that, as it exists on paper, is simply a mess.

But despite its glaring screenplay flaws, Terminator Salvation nonetheless manages to entertain in other ways. Though Christian Bale's John Connor is woefully underdeveloped, in many ways superfluous and reads his lines like outtakes from his Batman performance, the heavyweight actor still brings a typically convincing and authentic performance. But the real treats are the other two leads; Sam Worthington's Marcus Wright is a scene stealer, a character that should have been the main focus of the film (rumors persist that he was, and that Bale was being courted for the role but turned it down in favor of the iconic John Connor whose part was then beefed up from secondary to lead).  Marcus' arc is the only one that comes close to actually being an arc in terms of development and having a journey,  and Worthington brings just the right mix of bewilderment and bravado to this amnesiac stranger. But an even bigger surprise is youngster Anton Yelchin's turn as a teenaged Kyle Reese, the eventual protagonist of the original Terminator. By all accounts this squeaky voiced weakling should have forever sullied the image of the stoic badass that Michael Biehn brought to life back in 1984, but against all odds Yelchin's very different performance nonetheless works and is darn engaging to boot.

Add in stunning special effects courtesy of ILM and several exciting action sequences - although, to be fair, action sequences that are highly stylistically derivative of recent and better films ranging from Children of Men to Transformers - and you have a film that, while it may not come anywhere close to measuring up to the near perfection of the first two Terminator films, is still a decent addition to the summer movie slate. There's disappointing hints of unnecessary studio interference in the form of the toned down PG-13 rating and several oddly truncated scenes that seem awkwardly edited just to fit the film's running time in under two hours, but even these shortcomings and the aforementioned script deficiences cannot stop Terminator Salvation from being a film that is more good than bad even in spite of itself.

- Jeff Latta