'Salvation' for Terminator series?

HOLLYWOOD - With the dust settled and Hollywood hindsight in sharp focus, there were clear winners at Comic-Con International, which ended recently in San Diego.

The makers of

Watchmen

are absolutely living up to the hype, while the wide-eyed

Twilight

team is just now realizing how huge the fan expectation is for its vampire romance.

The Spirit

, meanwhile, quieted some of the anxieties of comic-book purists who have wondered why exactly Will Eisner's gentle noir needs a

Sin City

treatment, and the stylish

Max Payne

, the forthcoming video-game adaptation starring Mark Wahlberg, was a flat-out hit with surprised fans.

The biggest news, though, is that

Terminator Salvation

might actually live up to the second half of its title. The movie came to San Diego with much to prove. The killer-robot franchise looked pretty thin the last time it was on-screen in 2003, and new director McG has his share of skeptics. Star Christian Bale (or is it "Bail"?) didn't show up in San Diego - he was caught up in an ugly family scrap in London.

Even with all that, the new

Terminator

received a huge ovation with its sinister and unsettling look and a story that combines elements of

Blade Runner

and

The Road Warrior

. After the panel, I saw McG backstage and congratulated him on his smooth stage manner. He winced.

"I'm just trying to keep my lips shut these days, really; I want to let my films speak for themselves," he said. "I want to take me out of it.. . . I'm just trying to grow as a filmmaker and let the films be judged."

It's a mature and savvy attitude for Joseph McGinty Nichol, who turns 40 this month. If he seems younger it's because his nickname and public enthusiasm have sometimes made him a target for people who have tagged him as more flash than substance.

You can sense that the

Charlie's Angels

director is on a more serious mission. The director and his team were in New Mexico shooting until 3 a.m. the night before San Diego. "We only snoozed for about two hours, but, hey, we wouldn't have traded it for the world," he said. "This is what we want to do, bring this movie here and then bring it to the world."

It's Elementary, Dear Watson

Guy Ritchie came to Comic-Con to promote his crackling London crime film

RocknRolla

(which, he told me, reflects "the changing meaning in just the past five years of what it means to be British"), but I really wanted to hear about his Sherlock Holmes project, which will star Robert Downey Jr. as Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic sleuth.

"I came to the character through the books when I was young, and what the film will reflect is the intelligence on the page and also the action," Ritchie said. "There are quite a lot of intense action sequences in the stories; sometimes that hasn't been reflected in the movies. It's been a relatively long time since there's been a film version that people embraced. I want to make a very contemporary film as far as the tone and texture."