Women don't fare so well in Terminator Salvation. SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
First, we have lying, dying mad-scientist-doc Helena Bonham Carter, who talks poor Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), death row inmate, into leaving his body to science. (The scene in which he dies by lethal injection is barbarous, and I wish someone had warned me that this sequence begins the movie; I found it much more jarring than regular cartoon sci-fi violence.) He wakes up in 2018, obviously "resurrected" from the dead. (Yeah, something weird is happening.) He is now in the middle of the Man-vs-Machine war, the plot-center of all of the Terminator movies.
Sexy Woman-of-Color warrior Blair (Moon Bloodgood) is later saved from gang-rape by Marcus, and thereby cuddles up with him announcing he has a "strong heart." She then proceeds to smuggle him into Resistance HQ, wherein we find John Connor (Christian Bale) and the rest of the righteous. Marcus is discovered to be a cyborg, a new type of infiltrator-terminator, made of real skin, nerves and blood ("blood" is the insignia of the resistance fighters). What happened to the ever-barking watchdogs from Terminator I and II that could always sniff out the Terminators? (Hmm, I guess that would have interfered with the whole Terminator-infiltrator plot.) Helena Bonham Carter made him into some new weird thing. Great scene where he looks down and sees his half-robot self, opened up and all a-blinking with lights: AHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! And once Blair sees this, well, it's all over, people. She is greatly overcome with emotion, calls him "he" instead of "it" (cyborgs are "its" of course) so you know she is already far-gone over (admittedly fabulous-looking) Marcus. Despite the fact that she is a kick-ass resistance fighter and pilot, she risks all to defy her Leader-Prophet John Connor, to aid Marcus in his escape.
Hmph.
Yes, we know even a badass warrior-woman's silly little head can be turned by the first pretty face she sees with a "strong heart"... so she abandons everything she believes in to aid someone who could be an enemy, who is shown to be a member of the other side. I realize this whole segment of derring-do exists primarily to move the plot along and provide more thrills-and-spills, but it made me indignant and interfered with my enjoyment of the movie. Couldn't some guy have done this instead?
Why ruin the only positive, strong female character in the movie by making her a lovesick turncoat? Infatuated with a cyborg, forgodsake.
Ohhhh yes, we find out later that Marcus (surprise!) does actually have a "strong heart" but not before they tie beautiful and disobedient Blair to a chair so there can be a few scant seconds of titillation (this is a PG-13 movie, after all) before getting back to the explosions.
John Connor's lovely redheaded wife (Bryce Dallas Howard) has nothing to do but be pregnant and poignant throughout. Jane Alexander is on hand to be a victim.
The wonderful ass-kicking Sarah Connor of past Terminator movies seems to have been an anomaly; don't look for any women you can be proud of in this movie.
Dumb ending. (Translation: More sequels to come!)