It sounds as if the movie would have benefited by some of the actors appearing under their own names: Jadagrace, Moon Bloodgood, Anton Yelchin. There'd at least be something worth thinking about.

Milk the 'ol cyborg for all she's worth.

I loved T:SCC while it was on.

NOT interested in the movie.

If only they could bring back the TV show.

The TV show actually had something to say.

Let's face it, the movie cannot build the plot line and suspense that fox's Sarah Conner Chronicles built. To cancel the best show on TV is inexcusable. Even more so when fox saved doll house which had the lowest ratings ever for a renewed series. WTF!! We should all boycott the movie to make a statement to WB.

Let's face it, the movie cannot build the plot line and suspense that fox's Sarah Conner Chronicles built. To cancel the best show on TV is inexcusable. Even more so when fox saved doll house which had the lowest ratings ever for a renewed series. WTF!! We should all boycott the movie to make a statement to WB.

What is the point of having Stephanie cover these kinds of movies? Good, bad, she dislikes almost anything that leans towards the fantastic. I could have written this for her.

Who knows, she might be right. I'm just saying, her report was really predictable.

Yes, iconic franchise but was it every really deep or just in that suggested way that the Matrix 1 was deep then fell apart in 2 and 3. Being too young to see T1 in theaters, what I remember was mainly a run-from-the-monster film. T2 had some poetry and raised a few questions about fixing the future and destiny; however much fun, it was still a summer blockbuster flick with a good catchphrase. I didn't even bother with T3 the 3D™ roller coaster ride!

Two seasons of The Sarah Conner Chronicles and _its_ dilemnas about time travel, destiny, man-vs-machine, modern family, teen angst, etc etc already was a great reboot for the franchise. I too mourn TSCC's passing. Borrowing from it would've been a worthwhile injection into the franchise.

And did Bale's tirade really deserve another mention in the media?

I want to find out first-hand whether Zacharek knows her cyborgs.

The first Terminator was good, because it had a story and characters that grew through out it. I don't know many girls who saw that movie who did not fall in love with Kyle. It was not a movie written around it's special effects. Sadly too many movies are written that way now. Mission Impossible actually admits to it. Things like plot, story telling and character development are rare these days. You don't get characters with personalities you get sterotypes and what are supposed to be catchy one liners.

I was afraid to see the new Star Trek and was so happy that there was a story, the characters had a range of emotions and there was real interplay between them and they managed to have special effects too! It is possible!

My husband and I play a game when we see action movies now. We write down how we think the movie will go and see who is closest. Of course we only do this at home because rarely are the summer action flicks worth the 9 bucks.

jojorae - you guys sound awesome.

Stephanie, I enjoyed this review, which has prompted soul-searching on my part, drawing from this quote:

In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face, is that in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than our criticism designating it so.

But there are times when a critic truly risks something, and that is in the discovery and defense of the new. The world is often unkind to new talents, new creations. The new needs friends. Last night, I experienced something new; an extraordinary meal from a singularly unexpected source. To say that both the meal and its maker have challenged my preconceptions about fine cooking, is a gross understatement. They have rocked me to my core.

In the past, I have made no secret of my disdain for Chef Gusteau's famous motto, "Anyone can cook". But I realize - only now do I truly understand what he meant. Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere. It is difficult to imagine more humble origins than those of the genius now cooking at Gusteau's, who is, in this critic's opinion, nothing less than the finest chef in France. I will be returning to Gusteau's soon, hungry for more.

Generally when Stephanie Zacharek damns a movie with faint praise, it tends to be a really, really good movie. Remember, she didn't like Wall-E, for God's sake.

What can one possibly say about this obviously contrarian review?

Nothing.

Under the Arnold exterior he was a "gangly, unstoppable gunmetal-colored behemoths, with all-seeing red eyes." Christ, if you don't even know that much about the franchise why in the hell are you reviewing it?

...some reviewers have a running animus against SF vehicles (a reviewer who, as an editor, I would never hand the assignment of reviewing an SF film is Mahnola Dargis of the Times. She's poison to such a movie and, I suspect, would proudly take her place, alongside Richard Eder, who famously described the film version of Harlan Ellison's pooch in "A Boy and his Dog" as a talking canine, and Janet Maslin, another astute observer who somehow saw the Wachowski brothers' subterranean hovercraft as a "spaceship", in the ranks of clueless Times reviewers of SF movies), I don't believe Stephanie fits that mode (see her praise for the revival of Battlestar Galactica--or am I confusing her with Heather Havrilesky?). I think Steph's between 35 and 40, if that's the case she was probably 10 or so years old when the first film came out and that, perhaps, explains why she committed the faux pas you point out, below:

"Under the Arnold exterior he was a "gangly, unstoppable gunmetal-colored behemoths, with all-seeing red eyes." Christ, if you don't even know that much about the franchise why in the hell are you reviewing it?"

However, it's an iconic pop culture reference, and, as you imply, she should have, at some point, familiarised herself with the first film, in order to fully do her job as a critic.

Count me among the other posters, here, in saying that TSCC (Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles) was shaping up as one of the best shows I've ever seen in my 40 plus years of TV viewing and one of the greatest visual SF works, ever (as I've been saying here and in other sites: I hope its episode, the "Last Voyage of the Jimmy Carter" wins a Hugo--the only SF award that has ever mattered to a grizzled SF veteran of the literary Golden Age of the genre--for the year's best SF television episode) .