Come the summer, I expect two things, massive, CGI-laden action films and solid roll down the aisle comedies with great creative teams and rich casts. In each instance, I’ll fully admit that generally, I don’t expect much from the overall story. When a movie hits all notes well, as in J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” the audience wins huge! But usually, more bang/laughs for the buck is what goes. In the case of “Terminator: Salvation”: it was just bad.

Even in the summer context, ‘Salvation’ was brutal. The story and character development had so many holes in it that I could use the script as a hair catcher in my tub. Even if I attempt to discount the story, there were things that happened in the movie that I just couldn’t let pass. I can suspend belief pretty damn well but ‘Salvation’ asked waaayyy too much of me. It’s really too bad that a fairly exciting franchise gets re-booted with such a poor installment in the Terminator franchise.

Before I get into a rant about how asinine the film was, I do want to address one thing: McG. I thought he actually did a pretty good job with the movie. The look and feel of the bleak future as well as the pretty decent action sequences were better then I had thought he could pull off. I can actually say that I think he has graduated from his abysmal tongue in cheek ‘Charlie’s Angels’ films. The first 30 minutes of the movie were actually pretty cool. I especially enjoyed his “extended shots”. While none of them compare to Alfonso Cuaron’s shots in “Children of Men”, I appreciated his attempt and find that long scenes without cuts help ratchet up the tension. Unfortunately however, before long, the movie takes a massive dump… and involved Christian Bale running around for half the movie with a Gossip Girl’s Kickstart…

***Spoilers ahead: I hate discussing a film using spoilers but I find there is no choice with “Terminator: Salvation”. I feel the need to rant and unfortunately that means discussing what happened in the movie…

“Terminator: Salvation” picks up in 2018 when John Conner is now leading the resistance against Skynet and the machines. I’m not going to go into the synopsis of the film because I have more questions about the storyline then I do answers but I thought the characters were written by children with ADD. Christian Bale actually had it easy as John Connor. We’ve had three other films to understand him and his mother. Everyone else we met for the first time and their actions confused the hell out of me. Sam Worthington plays Marcus Wright, the half human/half machine and Moon Bloodgood (what name!) plays a fighter pilot who falls in love with him and then risks her life and that of the entire resistance when she is so moved to help him escape from captivity…Did that make any sense to anyone? Did anyone else feel like maybe that was a completely useless action sequence? There was a ton of potential with the whole half human/half machine storyline. I hope they revisit that in future movies.

Also, once they infiltrate Skynet, where the hell were all of the machines!? Those things can kick some serious ass but once John Conner gets in, there are like only three of them…and they pretty much constitute the ‘final battle grand finale’. I find that in the heart of Skynet, once the prisoners are released and they realize the infiltration is underway, the place should be swarming with Terminators. We also didn’t even get to see even a glimpse of this new nuclear T-800!

As a lead in to my next point, I’m calling it now…Helena Bonham Carter is still alive and there are humans in charge of Skynet. For what reason? I don’t know. But it is the only way to explain a few things. First, why is there a manual override in the communications room that Marcus Wright breaches? and second, why, in a machine city, are there touch screen displays that allow John Connor to access any darn nook or cranny that he wants access to? None of it made sense!…unless human control is an eventual twist to be revealed later in the franchise.

Danny Elfman’s score was another point of disappointment for me. It was completely and utterly unmemorable and very uneven…Plus, there was nowhere near enough use of the Terminator theme. When it did chime in, it came from nowhere – the best example of this being the CGI cameo of Schwarzenegger.

Finally, who the hell is Kyle Reese (played by Anton Yelchin) and can someone explain how he is John Connor’s dad?

The bottom line: 2/5. McG’s bleak future setting and some of his action sequences are decent. Otherwise, “Terminator: Salvation” is a waste of time.

Random fact you didn’t ask for: Ivan G’Vera, the actor that played General Losenko used to play a clumsy butler assistant on NBC’s “Days of our Lives”.

What did you think of ‘Salvation’? Did I miss anything crutial to my understanding of the story? Who is Kyle Reese? Leave your comments below or Twitter me @billrusnak.