Man vs. Machine

The fourth installment of the Terminator series follows an adult John Connor (played by Christian Bale) as he attempts to organize a human resistance force which could prove to be mankind's last true hope in the war against the machines. Opening in the year 2018, Terminator Salvation finds John Connor's certainty about the future shaken by the sudden appearance of a mysterious stranger named Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), whose last memory is of sitting on death row and awaiting execution. Unable to determine whether Marcus was sent from the future or rescued from the past, Connor begins to wonder whether there is still any hope left for the human race as the robots grow more powerful and aggressive than ever before. It appears that Skynet is preparing a devastating final attack designed to eliminate the human resistance once and for all, leaving Connor and Marcus with no choice but to strike back at the cybernetic heart of Skynet's operations. Once there, the two battle-scarred soldiers discover a devastating secret regarding the potential annihilation of all humankind. Anton Yelchin fills Michael Biehn's shoes as a young Kyle Reese in the first installment of a planned Terminator trilogy from director McG (Charlie's Angels). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The mother of all destiny. Her son, the future leader of mankind. Their protector, a terminator from the future. Together they must take back the future as Sarah Connor (300's Lena Headey) prepares her son to fight the war against machines determined to annihilate the human race. The clock is ticking. Can they stop Judgment Day? The man-vs.-machine tale that's thrilled millions gets a reboot in this series set after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Now the battlefield has shifted to the present. Will John Connor (Heroes's Thomas Dekker) seize his destiny? Will a cell phone salesman's chess program evolve into Skynet? Can the sweet but deadly cyborg (Summer Glau of Firefly) be trusted? Answers – and the fight for the future – are here and now.

The untold story of the Battlestar Pegasus comes to the screen in this special, two-hour episode of Battlestar Galactica detailing the transformation of Major Kendra Shaw into a fearless tool of war known as a "razor." As the Cylons prepare to launch a genocidal attack on the Twelve Colonies, Major Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Jacobsen) arrives on the Battleship Pegasus reporting for duty. In the aftermath of the devastating attack, Major Shaw is trained by Admiral Helena Cain to employ suicidal fighting tactics and commit atrocious war crimes against her own people. Any sense of hesitation or doubt is methodically stripped away from Major Shaw, rendering her a living weapon driven by murderous instinct. But such a weapon can ultimately do as much damage as it does good, and it isn't long before this severe form of warfare takes a heavy psychological tool on the tormented Major Shaw. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

One of the last remaining human rebellions left on Earth makes their final move against a deadly robot force in the sci-fi action flick Transmorphers. Asylum Entertainment, the same company behind such other direct-to-DVD rip-offs as Snakes on a Train and The Da Vinci Treasure, brings home to audiences the ultimate fight between man and machine that their $1.98 budget can afford. Three hundred years after a race of transmorphing alien robots took over the planet Earth and decimated it, a team of rebels cryogenically unfreezes a hero in hopes of giving them the edge in the fight for all humanity ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

George Lucas draws the Star Wars film series to a close with this dark sci-fi adventure which sets the stage for the events of the first film and brings the saga full circle. After a fierce battle in which Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) and Anakin (Hayden Christensen) join Republic forces to help free Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) from the evil Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) and his minions, Anakin is drawn into Palpatine's confidence. Palpatine has designs on expanding his rule, and with this in mind he plants seeds of doubt in Anakin's mind about the strength and wisdom of the Jedis. Anakin is already in a quandary about how to reveal to others the news of his secret marriage to Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) now that she is pregnant, and visions which foretell her death in childbirth weigh heavy on his mind. As Anakin finds himself used by both the Jedis and the Republic for their own purposes -- particularly after Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson) expresses his distrust of the young Jedi -- he turns more and more to the Force for help, but begins to succumb to the temptations of its dark side. Many of the Star Wars series regulars returned for Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith, including Frank Oz as the voice of Yoda, Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Kenny Baker as R2-D2, and Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

When an obsessive recluse discovers the cursed parts of the original killing machine, The Mangler takes it's deadliest form yet in this installment of the long-running series inspired by Stephen King's short story. Upon discovering the parts of the original Mangler, a handy fix-it man named Hadley (Weston Blakesley) reconstructs the bloodthirsty machine to horrifying results. As the machine takes possession over the weak-willed Hadley, the evil that festers deep within drives him to become a murderous psychopath whose sadism knows no bounds. When a pair of father/son burglars set their sights on the rampaging repair man's modest home, the carnage they find within has them running for their lives. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

David Eick and Ronald D. Moore's dark reinvention of the cult sci-fi series picks up where the 2003 miniseries left off. An old battleship named Galactica leads a fleet of survivors away from their planets, which were decimated by a nuclear attack perpetrated by a race of machines known as Cylons. Galactica's senior officer, Cdr. William Adama (Edward James Olmos), and the newly sworn-in leader of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol, President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell), discover how relentless the Cylons can be when they briefly manage to track, harass and nearly exhaust the fleet. Worse, the Cylons have created copies of machines that appear human, some of which have infiltrated the fleet as unwary sleeper agents. Lt. Sharon "Boomer" Valerii (Grace Park) learns she is a Cylon after she sabotages Galactica's water supply. And another copy of Boomer uses Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon (Tahmoh Penikett) as a guinea pig in an experiment the Cylons are conducting on the devastated Colonial world Caprica. A suicide bombing on Galactica forces the Colonial leadership to publicly divulge the existence of humanoid Cylons and the likelihood that some are operating within the fleet, fostering feelings of paranoia in an already stressed and depressed populace. Adama and Roslin are tasked with forging a new government and replenishing their supplies of water, fuel and fighter pilots, while they also try to keep hope alive during their search for the fabled lost colony Earth. Meanwhile, Dr. Gaius Baltar (James Callis) must cope with his role in the near annihilation of his people, his place in the new space-faring community, and the intrusions of an incorporeal entity-that only he can see-which has taken the form of the sixth humanoid Cylon model (Tricia Helfer) to guide the troubled genius. ~ Michael Chant, Rovi

Director Alex Proyas (Dark City, The Crow) helmed this sci-fi thriller inspired by the stories in Isaac Asimov's nine-story anthology of the same name. In the future presented in the film, humans have become exceedingly dependent on robots in their everyday lives. Robots have become more and more advanced, but each one is preprogrammed to always obey humans and to, under no circumstances, ever harm a human. So, when a scientist turns up dead and a humanoid robot is the main suspect, the world is left to wonder if they are as safe around their electronic servants as previously thought. Will Smith stars as Del Spooner, the robot-hating Chicago cop assigned to the murder investigation. Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, and Chi McBride also star. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Ira Levin's best-selling novel about a town where great wives aren't born but made gets a second screen adaptation in this darkly satirical comedy drama. Joanna Eberhart (Nicole Kidman) is a successful television executive until one day her career hits the glass ceiling and crashes to the ground. Looking to take some time off to start over, Joanna and her husband, Walter Kresby (Matthew Broderick), pull up stakes and move to the peaceful suburban community of Stepford. Walter takes to his new environment with real enthusiasm and joins the local men's organization, headed by one Mike Wellington. Joanna, on the other hand, finds that Stepford is just a bit too quiet and well-groomed for her taste, and is taken aback by the aggressively cheerful and servile attitude of Mike's wife, Claire (Glenn Close), and the other women of the community. A notable exception is Bobbi Markowitz (Bette Midler), a happily misanthropic writer who revels in her lack of enthusiasm for housework or exercise. Joanna and Bobbi become fast friends, but as they look closer at the all-too-perfect surfaces of Stepford and its female inhabitants, they slowly discover a terrible secret lurking beneath. Also featuring Faith Hill, Jon Lovitz, and Roger Bart, The Stepford Wives was previously adapted for the screen in 1975, with Katherine Ross in the lead; that version spawned three made-for-TV sequels. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Four public domain science fiction movies -- War of the Planets, War of the Robots, Unknown World, and The Phantom Planet -- are featured on this budget-priced DVD. The titles on Great Sci-Fi Classics, Vol. 4: Cosmos have been transferred to disc in the full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and the audio for all four is in Dolby Digital Mono. The dialogue on all features is in English, with no multiple language options or bonus materials included. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Raising the anticipation level for the two Matrix sequels, the Wachowski brothers opened up the franchise to a handful of animators. The project resulted in nine animated shorts that present stories related tangentially to the feature films. World Record features a track star who gets a brief glimpse of life outside the Matrix; A Detective Story chronicles an old-fashioned private eye's attempts to track down the mysterious Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss); Beyond finds a young woman exploring a strange abandoned building; Final Flight of the Osiris includes events that occur just before those in The Matrix Reloaded; Kid's Story follows a teenage boy as he attempts to break out of the Matrix; Matriculated shows a group of humans trying to reprogram a sentient robot; Program features a battle within a simulated samurai fight-training program; and The Second Renaissance Part 1 and The Second Renaissance Part 2 are pseudo-documentaries that reveal how the machines came to take control of the Earth. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Shot back-to-back with The Matrix Reloaded, the third and final installment of Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski's sci-fi action saga picks up where the second film left off. Neo (Keanu Reeves) remains unconscious in the real world, caught in a mysterious subway station that lies between the machine world and the Matrix, and Bane (Ian Bliss) is still a conduit for Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving), who continues to grow out of control, threatening to destroy both worlds. Meanwhile, as the sentinels get closer and closer to Zion, the citizens of the earth's last inhabited city prepare for the inevitable onslaught. By bargaining with The Merovingian (Lambert Wilson), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) are able to free Neo who, after meeting with The Oracle (Mary Alice stepping in for the late Gloria Foster), decides that he must leave Zion and head for the machine mainframe. As Neo and Trinity venture into the dangerous machine world, with hopes of stopping both the machines and Agent Smith, their comrades in Zion attempt to fight off the attacking sentinels with the odds stacked greatly against them. Other cast members returning include Monica Bellucci, Ngai Sing, and Harold Perrineau Jr. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

The second prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy takes place ten years after the events depicted in Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace. Now 20, young Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is an apprentice to respected Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). Unusually powerful in the Force, Anakin is also impatient, arrogant, and headstrong -- causing his mentor a great deal of concern. The pair are ordered to protect Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman), the former queen of the planet Naboo, now representing her world in the Galactic Senate. Someone is trying to assassinate her on the eve of a vote enabling Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) to build a military force that will safeguard against a growing separatist movement led by mysterious former Jedi Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). After another attempt on Padme's life, Obi-Wan and Anakin separate. The young Jedi and Padme fall in love as he escorts her first to the security of Naboo and then to his home world of Tatooine, where the fate of his mother leads him to commit an ominous atrocity. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan travels to the secretive planet Kamino and the asteroid-ringed world of Geonosis, following bounty hunter Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison) and his son, Boba (Daniel Logan), who are involved in an operation to create a massive army of clones. A vicious battle ensues between the clones and Jedi on one side and Dooku's droids on the other, but who is really pulling the strings in this galactic conflict? In late 2002, the movie was released in IMAX theaters as Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones: The IMAX Experience, with a pared-down running time of 120 minutes in order to meet the technical requirements of the large-screen format. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi