"Terminator: Salvation"

When a movie franchise stretches over an arc of 25 years like Terminator has, there is bound to be a difference in the thinking and aesthetics that go into the production of the films. Each movie represents a different iteration--in most cases, a technological iteration--that either pushes the franchise forward into new and exciting territory, or cripples it by abandoning the classic foundation it was built on. The jump from Terminator to Judgment Day was an example of the former: new technology was infused and created an epic film that perfectly built upon the first.

If you pretend that Rise of the Machines never happened and skip directly to Salvation, the technology doesn't make that jump (even though it was produced in 1992, Judgment Day set the bar high). In fact, Salvation seemed to intentionally replicate Judgment Day--including a final scene involving terminators chasing humans through metallic staircases in a steamy abandoned factory that ultimately involves liquid magma as a resolution--and didn't bring any new ideas to the infinite possibilities of a post-nuclear world. What Salvation should have done is focus on the human condition within the technology, much like The Dark Knight did with the Batman franchise. Sam Worthington's character touched upon this aspect, but it seemed more gimmick than anything, and the more I think about it, didn't make any sense within the context of the movies that preceded it.