I thought both T3 and Salvation were....ok. Nothing great, but not godawful. What they are mostly is an utter waste of fantastic potential, which is, I think, their real damning feature.
One thing I'll caution people on, though. Imagine if, prior to Salvation's release, someone had published a similar report saying "This time we'll finally be in the future, and we'll get to see John Connor's initial forays into leadership of the resistance itself. We'll see new kinds of Terminators that pre-date the Arnold model, as well as how they evolve into the Arnold model. And we'll see the first stages of the post-apocalyptic wasteland that came in the wake of Judgment Day."
All of the above is absolutely dead-on accurate as a description for what you see in Salvation. But you'll note that the devil is in the details, and it is these details which ultimately snarl the film and leave it as mediocre rather than the awesome-fest that some might predict based on the little blurb I typed up. And yes, you could easily type up a not-so-flattering blurb that'd be just as truthful in what it describes. That's my point. Dribs and drabs of information cannot possibly give us an accurate picture of whether this film would suck or rock or just turn out "meh." I think you're better off looking at history, although even that could cut either way. Obviously, the first two Cameron films were quite well received and (I think MOST people would say) pretty good. Personally, I think the first one stands alone as a fantastic story, whereas the second film is merely a "pretty good" film that took advantage of then-amazing special effects. Although the extended version is actually a bit better. Anyway, the new writer is apparently, actually the OLD writer (or one of them), so that cuts in favor of the production. On the other hand.....it's a terminator sequel that Cameron isn't doing and Gale Anne Heard isn't doing. And those have tended towards "meh". Likewise, the film talks about actually bringing Arnold back. Are you friggin' kidding me? Forget it. Leave him at home or CGI him like they did (pretty well, I might add) for Salvation.
