Terminator Salvation was not a good film. However, it was conceptually the right direction to take the franchise.

First let me be clear: were it up to me the series would've ended after Terminator 2. The first two are iconic and memorable films that still hold up to this day, and just about everyone over the age of 13 knows about them. They tell a complete story; nothing more needed said at Judgment Day's conclusion.Unfortunately, Hollywood being Hollywood, decided to milk this cash cow franchise dry, and as a result we got three unnecessary sequels with a fourth on the way. With the exception of Salvation, the others have just been retreads of the first two: Skynet sends a Terminator back to kill someone integral to their defeat in the future, someone else from the future is tasked with protecting them, action ensues, and the future is saved...or is it? Throw in a "I'll be back" or two and you've got yourself a modern Terminator movie.Terminator Salvation, at least, felt like it was building up towards the conclusion of what was stated in the first film: John Connor would bring about the fall of Skynet and save humanity. Salvation - put kindly - was messy. The film felt boring. Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) didn't add much to the film and took up way too much screen time that should've gone to John Connor, the man who is tacitly the hero of the franchise (yes I know Sarah Connor and The Terminator/T-800 are technically the main characters and focus of the franchise, but still, John Connor is the one they're all protecting to save the day in the future). Throw in shots and set pieces as dry and lifeless as the post-nuclear wasteland it's set in and you've got yourself an unmemorable film that halts any forward progression of that storyline dead in its tracks. It had some redeeming factors, however, such as Anton Yelchin's performance as Kyle Reese, but overall had too many factors working against it.But with better writing and bolder directorial choices, Salvation really could've breathed new life into the franchise and put it on the path to tell new stories. There's a lot of merit to leaving humanity's victory up to the imagination, but if they're going to keep making movies they should at least show us how that victory gets achieved. There are far more stories you can tell with the underdogs rising up against the machines. You can show John Connor becoming the leader he was meant to be. You can show the birth of the resistance and the rallying of humanity. Show that all of the sacrifices up to this point meant something. You can only do so much with the time-travel plot that Rise of the Machines, Genysis, and now Dark Fate have relied upon. That well is starting to run dry, and audiences are looking for fresher springs; Genysis was the lowest grossing Terminator film when adjusted for inflation. If they keep falling back on that crutch, the series won't have a future left. via /r/movies http://bit.ly/2K8iZbf