If someone asked me to sum up what went wrong with Terminator Salvation then I would simply ask them to watch the last 10 minutes of the movie. I wouldn't talk about the lack of focus. I wouldn't talk about how they changed things to make THEIR storyline work. I wouldn't talk about the lack of total despair that the first two movies showed us. Hell you can even forget the plot holes that run rampant.

The last 10 minutes of that movie showed me one thing: McG doesn't get the ideas behind the Terminator movies at all.

Terminator: We can't give up even if we know the outlook for the future is terrible that's what makes the enduring HUMAN spirit so powerful.
Terminator 2: We have some control over our future and while the machines wish to destroy us there is hope because they can understand.
Terminator 3: You can fight your destiny all you want but that which is meant to be will find it's way to fruition.
Terminator 4: No person is more important than the one that humans want to believe is their savior. That includes the one person that is the perfect link between the machines and humanity.

SPOILER ALERT!!!

Why the hell would John Connor allow someone who is the key to bridging the gap between man and machine, to sacrifice his life to save his own. That completely goes against the heroic idea of John Connor. If there is one thing Terminator had going for itself is that the ideas behind the characters were more powerful than any one character. Now you might say well what about the idea of redemption for Marcus but what is more powerful redemption? Leading the resistance as the icon of what can exist between man and machine or giving up your heart so that one person can live? You think someone would have said: Hey that's not very heroic of John to just take his heart knowing what Marcus could mean to the war.

That is an epic fail that hits home the fact that a bunch of people got involved in a movie without really understanding what exactly they were trying to say with this movie. Hell even Terminator 3, as terrible as it was, had a decent idea behind it.

Everyone raise your glass and have a toast with me.
Here is to killing off the most interesting thing to happen to the Terminator franchise since Terminator 2.
Thanks McG.