The action sequences were beautiful and cutting edge, yet character development, humor and a good story were never sacrificed. I've read some critic's reviews that the plot was hard to follow, but I brought my mom with me, who was by no means a TF fan, and she loved it from beginning to end and had little issues understanding the plot. Now she wants to see the first one and the older 1980s movie with me. I love this movie simply because it made a TF fan out of my mom.
As a Terminator fan, I noticed a few plot holes as I was watching it, but McG had said in some featurettes that he was taking some creative liberties with the story. Besides, the story McG was telling and the cool action scenes made up for them. It's debatable that anybody would really notice the plot holes anyway. Some of my friends noticed them and some didn't. Overall, Salvation's a straight up action flick that makes up for the teeny few inconsistencies with the storyline with all the other subtle shout-outs to the original fans. I rank it 3rd out of all the Terminator movies so far, and I definitely recommend seeing it.