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urbanamazonSo I finally got about to seeing Terminator Salvation. This marks number two on my ‘To-See-for Summer-2009’ list, after X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
Now, as far as Wolverine went, I had moderate expectations. I already knew a few spoilers going in, and I knew that I was going to particularly enjoy one specific performance. There was some decent banter, some wickedly perfect casting and far-too-short screen time, and there were some supremely wretched plot points and holes. I liked about half of Liev Schrieber’s Sabretooth, I liked about half of the rest of the cast (even if it was only for looking badassedly pretty), and seeing Taylor Kitsch’s Gambit made me realize that some things will never, ever translate properly. It was better than the mess of X-Men United, but not by much. I’d likely pick it up from the pawn shop after release just to have it. In fact, I appreciate it more for putting the Deadpool movie in the works, which I will have much higher hopes and standards for.
And if anyone says that one can’t successfully break the fourth wall in an enjoyable movie, I will point them at Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Stark Raving Mad.
I think I should note as well that I should have put Star Trek on that summer list. I ended up seeing that with my brother, and… well, without going into any particular detail of the thing, I must say that it was fun. The casting was great, and I could feel my fellow theatergoers waiting on the edge of their seat for particular people to say particular lines, and being happily overjoyed when they heard them. Plot-wise, it was a movie that reminded me that this was a universe where the source material dealt with Tribbles, utterly ridonkulous aliens, and dance numbers, while also being confidently epic.
As epic as it can get without Jean-Luc Picard, but I digress. It was fun.
Snapping that one up, special edition if I can, because damn it, when you can see a cast having that much fun in a movie, anything behind-the-scenes will be glorious.
So, back to my topic. Terminator Salvation.
Now, first and foremost, I know that no matter how many steps McG might have taken to make a Terminator movie that honors its roots, he will never, ever be James Cameron. I am a James Cameron nut. My first college-level essay in my media arts class was an examination of his directing CV and style. Aliens remains my favorite movie to this day, and the first two Terminator movies are still on beloved VHS on my shelf. Kyle Reese was probably one of my first crushes, and I still geek out over the two-man-club of Bill Paxton and Lance Henricksen (mega points to you if you know what that club is).
So I wasn’t looking to have my mind blown. I was looking for three things.
First, the Terminators themselves. I was looking for a movie that was dedicated to Stan Winston (which it was) and a movie that was committed to his original designs and style of the machines he made terrifying more than two decades ago. The sound editing was superb, sculpting the wordless presence of the machines in yawning, metallic noises, like the stresses of giant struts and sheets of metal mixes with the blaring bellows of giant diesel ships or Wellsian walkers. I was perfectly satisfied and delighted in that regard. The machines were intimidating, articulated, and the perfect postapocalyptic nightmare.
Second, and spoilers ahoy, I was looking for Sam Worthington’s performance as Marcus Wright. Now, it’s a given that the trailers ruined any kind of suspense for this character, but frankly, the way Worthington pulled it off, I didn’t care. I’d only ever seen him in the Australian crocodile horror flick Rogue, with enjoyable results, but he drove the movie like a stolen truck. I’ve seen reviews and commentaries on the film that mentioned a lack of heart, a bland kind of inhumanity in a series where the audience was made to mourn for the once-villain. Frankly, I think those review are a bit too heavy for Marcus’ displayed character arc. Yeah, the movie has clearly suffered in the editing stages, but Worthington holds it perfectly together from his camp, from suicidal-calm acceptance to confused horror, to shining moments of humanity, rage, and a clearly damaged psyche… this is a character being forced to rediscover things like friendship, trust, and self-sacrifice after waking, very nearly literally, into hell.
Plus it doesn’t hurt that I could watch him walk around half-battle ravaged down to the coltan-steel chassis any day of the week. And listen to him breathe shakily and howl in horror. It was very, very perfect. My little xenophilic heart went squeeble.
Now third and final, I was looking for Anton Yelchin’s Kyle Reese. Frankly, Yelchin was great to watch along with everyone else in Star Trek, but he was also like a puppy in Starfleet uniform. He looked like a teenager.
Granted, in Terminator Salvation, Kyle Reese is barely seventeen, but the dedication that Yelchin stated in researching his character from the original film showed. Boy howdy, it showed. I was very, very impressed. I saw a teenager that grew up in a hard, scary world, running like a rabbit and hiding without a breath. I saw a boy who still wasn’t all the way grown up but forced to act like it, and somehow still clinging to those soft and caring bits that make him the human being I remember so many years ago. Yelchin was just as much the driving force of the movie as Worthington, and the moments where they share the screen, either kicking ass, tossing words, or slowly turning Marcus and Kyle into good friends… gah. That was perfect and more than I could ask for.
So all in all, I got exactly what I expected and more. I was very happy for it.
There were, though, downsides.
Remember how I said that the sound editing rocked my socks? The score, sadly, didn’t. In my opinion, Danny Elfman is a niche kind of guy when it comes to scores, and this one wasn’t nearly driving enough to hold suspense, or touching enough to feel like it fit in the parts it needed. Frankly, if sounded like he was trying to recycle some themes from his Planet of the Apes venture (percussion especially), and… dude? No. The opening theme had a bit of the Terminator touch, but not nearly enough. The metallic tones I heard at a few points were missing from the score I later listened to, which further split me toward loving the sound editing and hating the music. It made me want to go home and listen to my Sarah Connor Chronicles soundtrack instead, because Bear McCreary had a far better handle on it. I would have much rather seen McCreary or someone like Klaus Badelt give it a shot.
Second, the editing bit, and bit hard. From what I can tell from satellite communities and comparison even from the trailer to the finished product, a lot of key, or at least appreciated, moments were left on the cutting room floor, and the movie suffered for it. Many of the supporting characters were choppily displayed or not developed at all, and it dragged the movie down because of it. John Connor’s wife is barely called by name. The character of Barnes is one-note and kind of irritating. The script goes from flowing to clunky in a scene change, and a lot of it could have been avoided.
At least I can look forward to a director’s cut… right?
And now the middleground… the stuff I didn’t hate, but wasn’t floored by, either.
The plot and pacing (ignoring the gaping holes at two particular points) worked fine for me, and the action sequences didn’t feel like they were in the way. I mean come on, this is the franchise where the first movie was one extended chase scene, and the second one had an action bit that went on for more than half an hour. I liked it.
The performance by Christian Bale as John Connor… hell, I didn’t have anything against him, really. Unlike the majority of the internet, I avoided the embarrassingly over-publicized recorded rant-out that made headlines, because dude? I don’t want drama in my entertainment. I didn’t want it to kill my experience, because I like Bale’s work, I like Terminator movies, and I didn’t want to let one stressed-out temper tantrum fuck it up.
I didn’t have a problem with the infamous Batman voice. I didn’t have a problem with Connor’s lesser screen time than Marcus and Kyle. In fact, it worked better that way. This isn’t the John Connor, adolescent troublemaker, of Terminator 2. This isn’t the messed up young man of Terminator 3. This is a character that’s had inevitability shoved rather cruelly in his face, as well as denial, disregard, and all the usual hardship that apocalypses tend to bring. He’s not a perfect guy, he’s just the one that’s had to deal with all of this since he was born. He’s hardened, insubordinate, and desperate. He wasn’t a main character in this, I felt, and I was fine with that.
I liked the little details that they tried to inject from all three previous films… though I have to admit, continuity in anything involving canon time travel is amusing by default. The inclusion of John Connor’s scars that were first glimpsed in Terminator 2 - dude, I loved that. The homage to previous terminator battles by both choreography and setting, okay, that was a bit of a blast, though I’m not sure how many of my fellow theatergoers (save my dad) caught it as much as me. The inclusion of the infamous Sarah Connor photograph and tapes… was almost right.
I say almost because I can recite her taped lines in Terminator from memory, and having them even one sentence off grated at my nerves like Terminator fingers on steel grille. If they’re supposed to be the same lines… dude, it’s not that fucking hard to do accurately. As well, when I can tell that the photograph is black and white instead of colour, and inaccurately cropped… come on!
But I digress.
I enjoyed it. I had fun. I laughed, I gasped, I liked it, which is a far sight more than I can say about Terminator 3. It was no Cameron work, and it wasn't anywhere near perfect, but I’ll definitely be grabbing the special edition of this sucker, and director’s cut if I can.
So there’s only one more on my summer list for now, and that one I’ll be (hopefully) seeing with my brother sometime before he gets married. And I’m sure I’ll babble about it here, too.
Now, as far as Wolverine went, I had moderate expectations. I already knew a few spoilers going in, and I knew that I was going to particularly enjoy one specific performance. There was some decent banter, some wickedly perfect casting and far-too-short screen time, and there were some supremely wretched plot points and holes. I liked about half of Liev Schrieber’s Sabretooth, I liked about half of the rest of the cast (even if it was only for looking badassedly pretty), and seeing Taylor Kitsch’s Gambit made me realize that some things will never, ever translate properly. It was better than the mess of X-Men United, but not by much. I’d likely pick it up from the pawn shop after release just to have it. In fact, I appreciate it more for putting the Deadpool movie in the works, which I will have much higher hopes and standards for.
And if anyone says that one can’t successfully break the fourth wall in an enjoyable movie, I will point them at Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Stark Raving Mad.
I think I should note as well that I should have put Star Trek on that summer list. I ended up seeing that with my brother, and… well, without going into any particular detail of the thing, I must say that it was fun. The casting was great, and I could feel my fellow theatergoers waiting on the edge of their seat for particular people to say particular lines, and being happily overjoyed when they heard them. Plot-wise, it was a movie that reminded me that this was a universe where the source material dealt with Tribbles, utterly ridonkulous aliens, and dance numbers, while also being confidently epic.
As epic as it can get without Jean-Luc Picard, but I digress. It was fun.
Snapping that one up, special edition if I can, because damn it, when you can see a cast having that much fun in a movie, anything behind-the-scenes will be glorious.
So, back to my topic. Terminator Salvation.
Now, first and foremost, I know that no matter how many steps McG might have taken to make a Terminator movie that honors its roots, he will never, ever be James Cameron. I am a James Cameron nut. My first college-level essay in my media arts class was an examination of his directing CV and style. Aliens remains my favorite movie to this day, and the first two Terminator movies are still on beloved VHS on my shelf. Kyle Reese was probably one of my first crushes, and I still geek out over the two-man-club of Bill Paxton and Lance Henricksen (mega points to you if you know what that club is).
So I wasn’t looking to have my mind blown. I was looking for three things.
First, the Terminators themselves. I was looking for a movie that was dedicated to Stan Winston (which it was) and a movie that was committed to his original designs and style of the machines he made terrifying more than two decades ago. The sound editing was superb, sculpting the wordless presence of the machines in yawning, metallic noises, like the stresses of giant struts and sheets of metal mixes with the blaring bellows of giant diesel ships or Wellsian walkers. I was perfectly satisfied and delighted in that regard. The machines were intimidating, articulated, and the perfect postapocalyptic nightmare.
Second, and spoilers ahoy, I was looking for Sam Worthington’s performance as Marcus Wright. Now, it’s a given that the trailers ruined any kind of suspense for this character, but frankly, the way Worthington pulled it off, I didn’t care. I’d only ever seen him in the Australian crocodile horror flick Rogue, with enjoyable results, but he drove the movie like a stolen truck. I’ve seen reviews and commentaries on the film that mentioned a lack of heart, a bland kind of inhumanity in a series where the audience was made to mourn for the once-villain. Frankly, I think those review are a bit too heavy for Marcus’ displayed character arc. Yeah, the movie has clearly suffered in the editing stages, but Worthington holds it perfectly together from his camp, from suicidal-calm acceptance to confused horror, to shining moments of humanity, rage, and a clearly damaged psyche… this is a character being forced to rediscover things like friendship, trust, and self-sacrifice after waking, very nearly literally, into hell.
Plus it doesn’t hurt that I could watch him walk around half-battle ravaged down to the coltan-steel chassis any day of the week. And listen to him breathe shakily and howl in horror. It was very, very perfect. My little xenophilic heart went squeeble.
Now third and final, I was looking for Anton Yelchin’s Kyle Reese. Frankly, Yelchin was great to watch along with everyone else in Star Trek, but he was also like a puppy in Starfleet uniform. He looked like a teenager.
Granted, in Terminator Salvation, Kyle Reese is barely seventeen, but the dedication that Yelchin stated in researching his character from the original film showed. Boy howdy, it showed. I was very, very impressed. I saw a teenager that grew up in a hard, scary world, running like a rabbit and hiding without a breath. I saw a boy who still wasn’t all the way grown up but forced to act like it, and somehow still clinging to those soft and caring bits that make him the human being I remember so many years ago. Yelchin was just as much the driving force of the movie as Worthington, and the moments where they share the screen, either kicking ass, tossing words, or slowly turning Marcus and Kyle into good friends… gah. That was perfect and more than I could ask for.
So all in all, I got exactly what I expected and more. I was very happy for it.
There were, though, downsides.
Remember how I said that the sound editing rocked my socks? The score, sadly, didn’t. In my opinion, Danny Elfman is a niche kind of guy when it comes to scores, and this one wasn’t nearly driving enough to hold suspense, or touching enough to feel like it fit in the parts it needed. Frankly, if sounded like he was trying to recycle some themes from his Planet of the Apes venture (percussion especially), and… dude? No. The opening theme had a bit of the Terminator touch, but not nearly enough. The metallic tones I heard at a few points were missing from the score I later listened to, which further split me toward loving the sound editing and hating the music. It made me want to go home and listen to my Sarah Connor Chronicles soundtrack instead, because Bear McCreary had a far better handle on it. I would have much rather seen McCreary or someone like Klaus Badelt give it a shot.
Second, the editing bit, and bit hard. From what I can tell from satellite communities and comparison even from the trailer to the finished product, a lot of key, or at least appreciated, moments were left on the cutting room floor, and the movie suffered for it. Many of the supporting characters were choppily displayed or not developed at all, and it dragged the movie down because of it. John Connor’s wife is barely called by name. The character of Barnes is one-note and kind of irritating. The script goes from flowing to clunky in a scene change, and a lot of it could have been avoided.
At least I can look forward to a director’s cut… right?
And now the middleground… the stuff I didn’t hate, but wasn’t floored by, either.
The plot and pacing (ignoring the gaping holes at two particular points) worked fine for me, and the action sequences didn’t feel like they were in the way. I mean come on, this is the franchise where the first movie was one extended chase scene, and the second one had an action bit that went on for more than half an hour. I liked it.
The performance by Christian Bale as John Connor… hell, I didn’t have anything against him, really. Unlike the majority of the internet, I avoided the embarrassingly over-publicized recorded rant-out that made headlines, because dude? I don’t want drama in my entertainment. I didn’t want it to kill my experience, because I like Bale’s work, I like Terminator movies, and I didn’t want to let one stressed-out temper tantrum fuck it up.
I didn’t have a problem with the infamous Batman voice. I didn’t have a problem with Connor’s lesser screen time than Marcus and Kyle. In fact, it worked better that way. This isn’t the John Connor, adolescent troublemaker, of Terminator 2. This isn’t the messed up young man of Terminator 3. This is a character that’s had inevitability shoved rather cruelly in his face, as well as denial, disregard, and all the usual hardship that apocalypses tend to bring. He’s not a perfect guy, he’s just the one that’s had to deal with all of this since he was born. He’s hardened, insubordinate, and desperate. He wasn’t a main character in this, I felt, and I was fine with that.
I liked the little details that they tried to inject from all three previous films… though I have to admit, continuity in anything involving canon time travel is amusing by default. The inclusion of John Connor’s scars that were first glimpsed in Terminator 2 - dude, I loved that. The homage to previous terminator battles by both choreography and setting, okay, that was a bit of a blast, though I’m not sure how many of my fellow theatergoers (save my dad) caught it as much as me. The inclusion of the infamous Sarah Connor photograph and tapes… was almost right.
I say almost because I can recite her taped lines in Terminator from memory, and having them even one sentence off grated at my nerves like Terminator fingers on steel grille. If they’re supposed to be the same lines… dude, it’s not that fucking hard to do accurately. As well, when I can tell that the photograph is black and white instead of colour, and inaccurately cropped… come on!
But I digress.
I enjoyed it. I had fun. I laughed, I gasped, I liked it, which is a far sight more than I can say about Terminator 3. It was no Cameron work, and it wasn't anywhere near perfect, but I’ll definitely be grabbing the special edition of this sucker, and director’s cut if I can.
So there’s only one more on my summer list for now, and that one I’ll be (hopefully) seeing with my brother sometime before he gets married. And I’m sure I’ll babble about it here, too.