The L.A. Times recently interviewed Arnold Schwarzenegger and Terminator Salvation was one of the topics discussed. Most people have seen the teaser trailer, so what does the original Terminator think about our first glimpse at the relaunched Terminator franchise?

“I’ve seen very little footage so I don’t really have a feel for it. I hope they do well, and I hope it is a huge hit. I do hope it creates a spectacle on the screen. That is what James Cameron created.”

“With Batman and Terminator, those big movies, there’s a certain expectation and if you don’t live up to it, if the movie is not a 10, then the business will be soft, if ['Salvation'] is pushing it forward, it will be breaking records all the time. If [director McG] has the T4 and the kind of shots that has the audience thinking, ‘Now how did he do that?’ — then it is ‘Terminator’ and you can blow everyone away and every record at the box office.”

It seems Schwarzenegger has high expectations, and rightly so. James Cameron’s Terminator movies kicked all sorts of ass and pushed all sorts of boundaries. It was clearly a business decision to reboot the franchise and if they do it half-heartedly it will not live up to the expectations and a lot of people will be pissed. The teaser trailer doesn’t reveal much but thats because it is a teaser. So far I haven’t seen anything that suggests Terminator Salvation will push boundaries or give us the ‘WOW’ factor the previous movies did. (We’ll forget T3)

Arnie may be more enthusiastic about it when we get another trailer with Quantum of Solace in November.