I remember as an action movie obsessed teenager I would rue not being old enough to catch the classic action franchises on the big screen, being confined to watching VHS copies on a portable TV. So I must admit whenever a franchise like Terminator gets a new outing I can’t help but muster excitement for it, it feels like a strange sort of privilege but, as such, I also usually hold fairly high expectations.

It’s with great relief then that this Terminator outing is way better than it has any right to be. It seemed doomed from the start once ‘McG’ was announced to direct it, a man who doesn’t even have the decency or professionalism to have a proper name, and instead sounds like some new streetwise Mcdonalds Burger. Whose career so far has consisted of the hopelessly obnoxious Charlie’s Angels movies and the video for The Offspring’s ‘Pretty Fly for a White Guy’. In a way Terminator is exactly what you would expect from the man – it’s loud, it’s angry and it’s pieced together through a series of exorbitant set-pieces. As such, it’s exactly what was required for a war between man and the machines. However, you may wonder in the battle for all humanity why the Terminator’s themselves are so scarce?

Taking up the mantle of John Connor, bravely in my eyes, is everyone’s favourite foul-mouthed method man Christian Bale. The last we had seen of the character he was a mid-twenties drifter, reunited with Arnie’s T800-1 against the T-X, in what was an enjoyable if formulaic retread of numbers 1 and 2. Since Judgement Day he has fulfilled his destiny and become the prophesizing leader of the resistance, sporting a face etched with a permanent grimace and a voice to match, he means business. It’s a mood that carries over to the entire film, it is grim, but this is the battle for human-kind we’re talking about, there is no room for novelty glasses or “talk to the hand” gags. Bale himself is fine in the role without ever really imposing himself. The same can be said for the supporting cast, from Sam Worthington’s forgettable Terminator with a human heart to Connor’s doctor wife. The only exception being Anton Yelchin who brings a great deal of humility as Kyle Reese, it also helps he resembles a young Michael Biehn. Other characters too come and go in an instant, and some, like the mute child, have been done before, better, in films such as Mad Max 2: Road Warrior.

So, granted, it’s not perfect but it is effective. The set pieces are intense and bombastic, the washed-out baron wastelands prove a fitting setting and the mood is just about right. On the opposite end of the scale, character interaction is clunky, and the more you think about the plot the more nonsensical it becomes. But as it stands I would place this above Mostow’s Rise of the Machines but predictably below the original two, but realistically, it would have never reached those heights no matter how hard it tried.