It's easy to see why Hollywood couldn't resist resurrecting Terminator, which made a deep impression in the pop-culture landscape back in 1984, with follow-ups in 1991 and 2003. Perhaps rivaled only by The Matrix, the ingenious sci-fi concept really gives special effects teams a chance to strut their stuff.

Taking on the franchise is not without risks of course, especially if indulging techies is the major impetus, second only to making piles of money. There's a high probability that machines will get the better of mankind, as they do in Terminator Salvation. I'm not referring to the plot. That outcome might undercut the remaining installments of a planned second trilogy; and the observation would constitute a spoiler. Rather, the best thing about the movie is the computer-generated effects and the action set pieces they enable. The script is lacking and the acting merely serviceable.

On the plus side, the nearly two-hour runtime passes quickly. A fondness for watching things get crushed and/or blown up will help. The targeted demographic tends to overlook or embrace the irony at the crux of the movie: namely, it's about the struggle between humans and machines and yet the machines are what make the experience appealing. As the movie unfolds, the viewer is so distracted by the high-octane action and so intent on following the narrative (plots involving time travel always throw me for a loop), it takes awhile to realize there's very little humanity on display. That's partly attributable to all the lip service paid to ensuring the survival of the human race.

As it happens, we're not doing so hot in the year 2018. On the Terminator calendar it's post Judgment Day and Earth (at least the stretch between LA and San Francisco) is a wasteland. After triggering nuclear Armageddon, the artificial intelligence network Skynet continues to wreak havoc using its assortment of cyborgs and other lethal hardware. It falls to John Connor (Christian Bale), an able fighter armed with foreknowledge, to rally the survivors. Thanks to his derring-do, the Resistance secures a code that will jam Skynet's network and disarm its robots. They intend to attack Skynet's Bay Area headquarters and free the humans imprisoned there, including Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin).

Terminator fans will know Reese is Connor's father, sent back in time to protect Connor and his mother from the Terminators in the first film. Complicating the Resistance plan is the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a death row convict who donated his heart to science in 2003 in exchange for a kiss from a cancer-ridden scientist (Helena Bonham Carter). Now he's a cyborg with lingering human qualities who offers to aid the Resistance. Connor is suspicious, but Wright's connection with a foxy colleague (Moon Bloodgood) helps convince him he can be trusted. They mount an assault on Skynet only to discover their adversary is more devious than they imagined.

Nothing on McG's resume would suggest he was the right director for this material. Certainly not the sports tearjerker We Are Marshall or the fact he's been "a fan of the film series for most of his life," as he confesses in the press notes. Nevertheless, he orchestrates exciting sequences in which the camera does lots of swooping and zooming, and frequently adopts an eagle's-eye perspective. The production blatantly evokes the Nazi Holocaust and Vietnam War, with some Transformers stunts and steampunk design thrown in for good measure. The newfangled motorcycle Connor hops onto looks identical to the one Bale rode as Batman in The Dark Knight.

Bale brings his intensity and raspy voice to the role but it doesn't begin to take advantage of his talents. The same can't be said of his supporting players. Arnie, counting the days until he can leave politics and return to movies full-time, has a cameo of sorts. But why even discuss the acting? This isn't a film about emotion and the human condition, it's about explosions and chases and an unending cycle of violence. The screenplay's philosophical boilerplate concerning human identity and how people are different from machines prompted me to root for Skynet and the cyborgs.

If there's a bright side, maybe a new generation of moviegoers will question whether they've ceded too much control to their electronic gadgets. When it comes to filmmaking, Terminator Salvation is the latest example of how we've allowed our tools to take over and get the better of us. 

(Released by Warner Bros. Pictures and rated "PG-13" for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and language.)