I hope you're taking all of this in...SKYNET! (google)

Let's try to keep this Terminator ball rolling! So there's a lot of talk on the internets about how HORRIBLE Terminator Salvation was, and while I will admit that it probably wasn't the most well written installment of the saga, and maybe the acting isn't quite the best of 2009, there are plenty of reasons why it's not as bad as people make it out to be, and here are 10 of them.

1. Gritty Visuals - While it doesn't conjure up quite the bleak future a lot of us expected, visually this movie is gritty as hell, and gritty means badass.
2. Amazing sound design - I don't care if a script is written in piglatin, great sound effects can carry a film a far way, and in this case it makes me squirm with delight. Every electronic buzz, every robot groan (similar to the only reason anyone should watch War of the Worlds...robots making noises that sound like some kind of enormous electronic cello), every DUNDUN DUN DUNDUN gets the job done.
3. Iconic Scenes - Everyone focuses on the CGI Arnold, which I thought was extremely well done, but my favorite part is that in every other Terminator movie, the terrifying future scenes all begin with some robot crushing a human skull under foot (or tread), but in Salvation, the first glimpse of the future begins with a Resistance Helicopter landing on a T-600's FACE. Take that, Skynet.
4. New Terminator Vision - Check it:
   
5. John Connor - Face it, everyone loves Christian Bale, no matter how hard he hits his mother, and he does a great job portraying John Connor, who at this point is a soldier and a figurehead and not (yet) the leader of the Resistance. He's overconfident due to his mother's tapes that tell him all about the future and how to deal with it, and he's beginning to lose it because a lot of what was SUPPOSED to happen is happening differently, more quickly, or not at all (the result of messing around with time, folks). It's also interesting that (even though he does look like a hardass military dude) his character remains true to the series in that he fights like a hacker- for instance, in one scene, he rapes a Mototerminator (motorcycle) and hacks it so he can ride it to Skynet HQ and beat some metal ass.
6. Kyle Reese - It's always cute to see Kyle Reese as a kid (esp. in The Sarah Connor Chronicles), but in this movie, he eerily reminded me both of Kyle Reese from The Terminator and John Connor from Terminator 2.
7. Skynet gets crafty - In the past Skynet just throws robots around through time and hopes they just blow up whatever it wants blown up. In Salvation, Skynet plays a mean game of chess, toying with humanity, baiting us, experimenting with us. It's definitely a more sinister and manipulative Skynet, no doubt because of the thriftiness of a forewarned Resistance.
8. In the future, even Alice in Chains is cool - There's a scene where a kid hears Alice in Chains for the first time, and it may be the first time she's heard music at all (with good reason, Terminators are very sensitive to sound), and you realize how easy you have it, being able to listen to your iPods and your streaming music and video.
9. Different viewpoints - The war against Skynet isn't just people shooting at robots. There are pro-Resistance folks, anti-Resistance folks, Raiders, and much more. This movie finally paints a picture of a dynamic future, perhaps more bleak than originally because (as zombie movies have taught us) instead of just having to worry about a giant metal skeleton shooting lasers at you, you also have HUNDREDS OF JERKS.
10. The aforementioned Mototerminators - In earlier installments of Terminator, you pretty much figure "Hey who even cares about Terminators? The only go like 1 mile an hour!" And then Arnold got on a Honda 750. Holy crap. What do I do now? Terminator + Motorcycle = INSTANT TERROR.* This has been established since day one. In Salvation, not only are there robocycles all over the place, but now they're MADE BY FREAKING DUCATI. Sorry humans, 'You have no chance to survive, make your time.'

AH HOLY CRAP TERMINATOR. I'll try to shut up about it, but don't count on it.

*It's also well known that- Even the Most Badass Human + Scooter = Pathetic: