How can they have a Terminator movie without Arnold Schwarzenegger? Worse Arnold has to say his tag line, “I’ll be back,” right?

Well, with the help of CGI, Arnold is both in the movie and didn’t have to break his vow to abstain from movies while serving as governor of California. It was fun to see and not see Arnold as a Terminator for a couple of minutes. And, although it wasn’t Arnold, someone did say “I’ll be back.”

Terminator: Salvation, had all the explosions, chases, special effects and action required for a good summer flick, and a restart of the classic sci fi series. What it didn’t have was character development. Those who follow the series know that John Connor (played by Christian Bale) is the savior of humanity in the war against the robots. They also know that Kyle Reese is sent back in time (to the first movie), ends up fighting the Terminator (played by Arnold in the first movie) and fathering John Connor. In the current movie, John Connor has to ensure that Kyle Reese, a teenager, played by Anton Yelchin survives to be sent back in time to meet his destiny and Connor’s mother. The movie has all the complications of time-travel, but none of the fun, as we’ll have to wait for a later movie in the series for Kyle to actually be sent back. There is no time travel other than the usual mundane moving into the future one day at a time.

That’s where a new character, Marcus Wright, played by Sam Worthington, comes in. At the beginning of the movie, he is on death row, about to be executed for the crimes of killing a couple of police officers and his own brother. He apparently, believes he deserves to die, and signs some papers to have his body given to science. Ten years later, he arrives in the future presumably having been in stasis or with loss of memory to become a potential key piece in this new future. Worthington has an eerie resemblance to Arnold Schwarzeneger. Is he the new Terminator? Is he good or evil? Can he be trusted? You’ll have to see the movie to find out. But, I will say that we never really know what he did to end up on death row, why he was so resigned, and nor do we see why he would now become a good person or not. His character is key to the plot of the movie, but we never see his character develop. Some flashbacks, some inner turmoil, some changing alliances, some self doubt are all apparently more than this summer flick would care to provide the audience with.

OK, so they dropped the ball on Wright, it turns out that Connor’s wife, Kate (Bryce Dallas Howard), at least I think it was his wife, I don’t remember it being mentioned in the movie, but she acted like his wife would act, and her name is credited as Kate Connor, is pregnant, at least I think she was pregnant, she looked pregnant, but I don’t remember it being mentioned in the movie. Perhaps Bryce was pregnant and they just didn’t bother to change any dialog. I suppose it could be considered an advance that women are not overly pampered and are instead allowed to continue at work even if they are pregnant, but having her on the frontlines with no precautions and not even any armor to protect her bulging tummy is ridiculous. Is this baby important? Was she pregnant? Apparently, we’ll have to wait for the next movie.

And who’s this Kyle Reese kid? Yes, we know he’ll be Connor’s Dad, but we don’t learn much about him other than he wants to be part of the resistance. He is not particularly precocious. I don’t think Kyle knew that he was Connor’s Dad in the first movie, he was just trying to save Connor’s Mom, and there’s nothing like fighting a Terminator to get a couple hot for each other. As far as time travel plots go, I’m not convinced that Kyle has to be Connor’s Dad at all. If he’s pampered and protected, will he really be the man to stop Arnold’s Terminator in the first movie? For that matter, why has Connor waited till now to find him and protect him anyway. I know, it’s just a summer flick, but it could be so much more.

Why waste screen time with character development when we they can put in an extra explosion. Too bad, if the movie had bothered to delve into the pregnancy or more dramatically followed the arc of Wright or Reese’s life it could have been a better movie, or at least one that mattered. The good news is the story was followable, I just wish there was more of it.

I’ll give it a C.