Terminator Salvation

I had the privilege to go out on a date with my wonderful wife last night. All our kids had ended up making plans to spend the night at friends' houses, so we had a night to ourselves. With no kids, what do you go see on the opening weekend of "Terminator Salvation?" Duh! And so we did. I would like to very briefly just share my opinion on the matter.
For starters, here's my two cents on the original movies: first one-classic, and because of that you allow your 2009 movie mindset to forgive some of the 1980 effects. Second one - my favorite of the three and still holds up fairly well today from an effects point of view. Third one- While there was one particularly cool chase scene somewhere near the beginning, this movie made it clear that the franchise (and Arnold) had possible run out of steam.
Fast forward a mere six years to a reboot. I'd have to do my homework to make sure the timetable matches up in the films, but six years doesn't seem like a very long time in the whole scheme of things. Rocky: 17 years, Rambo: 20 years, Diehard:12 years, and, of course, Batman: (counting the final Schumaker debacle) 8 years...if you count where the franchise really died (when Tim Burton stepped down) it was 13 years. My point being (the mediocre Batman Forever and the horrid Batman and Robin aside) there seems to have been quite a bit of downtime between the originals and the reboots.
My opinion on Terminator Salvation? Here it is: in one word, "okay." Christian Bale was great as usual, and McG placed himself on the map as an innovative director (at least in some areas), but the story itself was only okay. When I left Transformers a couple of summers ago I wanted to go right to Walmart and buy the toys to add to my collection. I left Terminator and thought, "Okay, I need to got o Walmart and pick up filters and coffee..." I didn't have that psyched up feeling when I left, which I usually do from an action movie that really gets my adrenaline or nostalgia going.
My biggest beef was that they gave away the biggest plot point in the trailers (and as such I'm giving nothing away here). The stranger that makes his way to the base of the resistance fighters is, in fact, part machine...a terminator. That was the only really big twist. I mean they try to make you think that John Connor is going to die, but we know that he can't. I wish they had left the fact that Sam Worthington's character was a terminator (of sorts) be kept hushed so it would have been a surprise when I saw the film.
Aside from that, the only other thing I wasn't sure about (other than some of the dialogue at the end) was the appearance of the T-800 that looked like a CGI Arnold. It took me out of it a bit. However, the acting is solid and the visuals are first rate and entertaining overall.
As much as I like Bale and thought that his little infamous tirade wouldn't effect me at all, I admit that I found myself wondering from time to time, "Is this the scene he blew his top? No, no...it's got to be this one."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg9ooaozu-8