First word on Terminator Salvation

John Anderson of Variety gives the early verdict: "Darker, grimmer and more stylistically single-minded than its two relatively giddy predecessors, Terminator Salvation boasts the kind of singular vision that distinguished the James Cameron original, the full-throttle kinetics of Speed and an old-fashioned regard for human (and humanoid) heroics. Only pic’s relentlessly doomsday tone -- accessorized by helmer McG’s grimy, gun-metal palette -- might keep auds from flocking like lemmings to the apocalypse... McG, whose segue from music vids to movies resulted in two Charlie’s Angels extravaganzas and the woeful We Are Marshall, exhibits an unexpected flair for the dreadful, abrupt and awesome. What we get here -- which was perhaps missing on the relatively sunny mental landscapes of Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines -- is a sense of real horror: When humans are snatched up like Cheez-Doodles by skyscraper-sized Go-bots, there’s no slo-mo relief or stalling. Stuff happens as it might were the world actually overtaken by demonic appliances."