Salvation isn't enough to care about

"Terminator: Salvation"
Starring: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Anton Yelchin
Grade: D+

The first two Terminators were successful because they followed the following principles: 1. Make your audience care about the characters. 2. Show the audience jaw-dropping effects and action. The latest Terminator just wants to follow the second rule and abandon the first.

Director McG who helmed both "Charlies Angels", and "We Are Marshall," would seem like a decent enough film-maker to director this series re-boot. The man can blow stuff up real good, but the question going into the film was whether he could add humanity and worth to the characters. The answer is hell no, and the film suffers for it.

The story follows the origin of "The Resistance," which is led by John Connor (Bale). The resistance fighters are dead set on infiltrating the computer network Skynet, and putting an end to the machines reign for good. The story also introduces us to new and unique machines that eww and aww the audience.

Upcoming breakthrough actor Sam Worthington plays Marcus Wright. We follow this man throughout the film wondering if hes human or machine. After his re-awakening from being cryogenically frozen, he bumps into Kyle Reese (Yelchin). Reese as we all know is Conner father, the man sent to protect Linda Hamilton in T1. After the audience is caught up with most of the mythology of the previous films, they can concentrate on the actual story, or lack there of. The plot is lazy, watered down, and boring. The characters either aligned with Conner or Wright, walk around, fight, talk, then do the same, something in a different order.

Bale's character shares the screen with Worthington's, who I preferred in this movie. Bale is still saying his lines with a Batman tone, and not sounding human at all. Worthington shows great potential, but the script here doesn't support either men. There are several other characters, none worth caring about.

The action and effects save this movie from being an all out disaster. McG can shoot action, but lacks in directing actors. The pacing is also shallow and without inspiration. Going into the film, I sure didn't expect much, but throughout I kept shaking my head at the dialogue, the plot devices, and the one-dimensional characters. Skip Terminator and see Star Trek again.

Star Trek re-boot will please fans and non-fans

"Star Trek"
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, Karl Urban, Zoe Zaldana, Bruce Greenwood, Eric Bana
Grade: B+

J.J. Abrams sure knows how to excite audiences nationwide. Not only has he created the sci-fi phenomenon known as LOST, but Abrams also had a hand in last years Cloverfield. Now, Abrams has directed a faithful re-boot to the global phenomenon that has dominated modern television for decades.

Abrams' cast is young and sexy, and oh yeah, they can act. Chris Pine plays the cocky and devil may care Kirk, whose father died while saving lives during a 12-second stint as Captain while Kirk was being born. The film opens with this stunning scene, quickly giving the viewer some humanity in the story. For every Kirk, one needs a Spock, who is played by Zachary Quinto, who plays the uber-villain Sylar on Heroes. Quinto and Pine's chemistry is a solid foundation for the future of this franchise. Both have enough charisma to make us care.

The plot, which is a tad muddled at times, follows the origins of Kirk and Spock and their eventual roles as Enterprise leaders. Eric Bana, who has leading man ability, plays the villain Nero, in an un-recognizable role. Nero creates an alternate time line in the beginning of the film, something that clearly has repercussions for Spock and his family. While most of the film is dedicated to character growth, there is no shortage of action sequences and thrills.

Throughout the film, a certain smile kept sneaking up on me as I was caught up in this awesome world. I had no familiarity with this story, and its characters, and now I can't wait to see this franchise take off. In a summer of many sequels, pre-quels and re-boots, Star Trek should take the cake in terms of caring more about characters than explosions, this is a good thing. I dare you to go into this movie with low expectations, I dare you.