The year is 2018 and Judgment Day has come and gone. Those who have survived the nuclear apocalypse face perhaps an even worse fate: a war with the machines whose only goal is to eliminate the human threat to their existence. John Connor (Bale), the prophesised saviour of the human race, is nothing more than an ordinary soldier of the Resistance. His military superiors don't think much of him, and he's starting to doubt the future his mother described.

Enter Marcus Wright (Worthington). Having just awoken with no memory of where (or when) he is, Wright meets up with a young man by the name of Kyle Reese (Yelchin) and together they set out to find the Resistance. Unfortunately for all involved, Skynet is plotting something big that will leave the fate of the human race in the hands of the most unlikely of saviours.

Director McG, best known for his Charlie's Angels films, does his best to honour the existing legacy while pushing it forward in a brave new direction. He brings with him an intense and capable new cast as well as whole host of new Terminators to populate the film's bleak post-apocalyptic landscape, including the rubber-skinned T-600s and Moto-Terminators that resemble motorcycles.

After years toiling in an underground lab, Dr. Sebastian Caine (Bacon) and his team of military-funded scientists have developed a serum that turns living things invisible. His obsession with the project has cost him dearly, however. His ex-lover, and co-worker, Dr. Linda McKay (Shue) has left him and he has become increasingly out of touch with the outside world.

Fearful of losing control of his life's work, Caine opts to hide his success from his backers and use himself as the first human test subject. Physically, the test is a roaring success but Caine struggles to cope with the power that invisibility grants him. Upon discovering that Linda is secretly getting busy with fellow researcher Dr. Matthew Kensington (Josh Brolin, who I'm sure the ladies would agree is much more of a catch) as he snoops around unseen, Caine wreaks havoc upon the unsuspecting occupants of his research facility.

There's no denying that Hollow Man is a step down from director Paul Verhoeven's three sci-fi classics Robocop, Starship Troopers and Total Recall, but it isn't nearly as big a step as you might think. A lot of the criticism against the film when it was first released was a result of the film not being what many were expecting. Hollow Man deliberately lacks the clever political and sociological allegory of Verhoeven's other sci-fi flicks. Instead it is an unashamed pulpy B-picture (albeit one made with an A-picture budget and Oscar nominated special effects) whose characters and plot have a lot more in common with the sleaze on show in Verhoeven's more notorious Basic Instinct and Showgirls. It is also one of those movies whose supporting cast all seem to have greater fame in the years since. Hollow Man is a late-night gem.