Terminator: Salvation - Review

First the background. I am a casual fan of Terminator, I mean casual fan as in I tried to follow the television show and just couldn't, Ive liked all three previous films and really don't get why people complain about Rise Of The Machines so much. It just proved that no one could replace Cameron, but there are interesting ways to tell these stories, and i thought the chase scene in the crane truck in the flick was bad assed despite the sometimes bad effects. The first two however will always stand alone as Cameron's brain children. It's funny as a "fanboy" how my ilk complain about the dearth of original films in Hollywood or the ability to continue stories up to their impossible standards, yet bitch when people do try to do something new or different with the material. I know fine line and bad territory to explore right now. Moving on...

I approached the film not revisiting the previous films and just hoping for McG to deliver a decent film within the world with some mythology that I love. The short version is that, he succeeded, in my eyes. It's is not a perfect film by any means and any preconceived notions of seeing the future war fought out with big bad ass John Connor will not be met. The story starts in 2003 with us meeting Marcus Wright on death row where Helena Bonham Carter visits him after an apparent string of visits asking for him to donate his body so she can give him a second chance at life. Wright doesn't feel he deserves a second chance but not believing it was capable agrees and signs paperwork with a Cyberdyne letterhead. We see Wright's execution and go straight to 2018 where Judgement Day has already happened and the resistance is attacking a Skynet satellite field. We meet John Connor they go through their mission and succeed in finding a signal that can shut down the machines. Connor goes to command and alerts them to this development and a plan is formed to attack Skynet with the signal. Meanwhile Marcus Wright, whose body is seen in the background in the previous scene, crawls from the wreckage of the previous battle and steals a dead guys clothes and begins trekking his way down the dust covered highway. He comes to the destroyed remains of Los Angeles where he meets his first Terminator and Kyle Reese saves his ass. There are some cool moments that tie Terminator 1 and 2 into this film but nothing completely overt winking at the audience. That comes later. Well now the Terminators know Reese and his sidekick Star are hiding out in the area and Reese is apparently number one on their kill list. They have to leave the area and encounter another group of survivor further on down the road where the harvester, a 8 story tall terminator that collects survivors for whatever purpose we find out about later in the movie, but should know if you've seen the previous films. A fantastic action/chase scene follows Reese and Wright become separated and Wright wants to head toward Skynet anyway. He meets another member of the resistance who leads him to John Connor. Going any further would lead to spoiler territory so ill leave it at that.

First and foremost, the cinematography in this film is phenomenal. The action scenes are so well played out and seamless that McG definitely deserves full credit for them. In this age where there are so many quick cut music video editing styles employed on action films, McG decided to stage his large effects laden action scenes with minimal cuts. It was refreshing to see a film where battle sequences and chase scenes take place in nearly singular takes and still have them be exciting and suspenseful. This also says a lot about the cast put together. Sam Worthington as Marcus Wright was note perfect in his role, I would love to see his character explored further. Anton Yelchin, recently seen as Chekov in Star Trek, is first rate as Kyle Reese, cribbing just enough of Michael Beihn's mannerisms to remind you of what his destiny is to become. Christian Bale is phenomenal as usual and i really hope he is able to come back should the franchise continue. The only weak points in the cast is actually Helena Bonham Carter, who isn't given much to do in her short screen time along with Moon Bloodgood who plays her role almost a bit too casually. The criminally underused Common hopefully has a bigger role and more time to shine should the franchise continue as he plays Connor's right hand man and friend.

As far as problem with the film, personally i am hating the trend of planning films as trilogies. I really want to see more but also feel the story of the film was just a bit weak and is purposefully leading up to continuation. Regardless of if the film makers are planning a trilogy ,each film should stand all on its own unless you are doing the films Lord of the Rings or Matrix style and filming them all together at once for release within months of each other. As the film stands it is good and i feel if continuing will make an awesome viewing experience when being viewed in its full context. But still as a stand alone film it is sort of weak in the story department.

As mentioned before there are some nice moments recalling the previous films, the "come with me if you want to live" and "I'll be back" lines are all in place and come from unexpected sources as well as a music cue that just made me smile recalling T2. The big cameo is amazing and caused a real ripple of excitement throughout the theatre even though it was only a few moments of screen time. I believe I'm going to see the film a second time in the next few day so i may weigh back in with some thoughts after a second viewing.

Bottom line: It's an enjoyable film if you lower your expectations. I can't quite recommend it to everyone as i did with Star Trek but I think most of the people who know me will be happy with what is on display.

Until next time guys.

Star Trek - Review

Wow.

If I could get away with a single word review, that would be it. J.J. Abrams Trek reboot, prequel, sequel (it can be looked at all of those ways) has made me a fan. Some background, I've never been a big fan of Star Trek. I remember seeing the movie where Spock was trying to save the whales when I was a kid with my father and watched it endlessly afterwards. I've never seen an episode of the original series... at all. The only episodes I ever watched of The Next Generation iteration were the ones where they used the holo-deck extensively. Never watched Deep Space Nine, Voyager, or Enterprise. I can say with little certainty that i probably saw all of the films post Generations, I was friends with some one who had a thing for Jonathan Frakes, so I was drug to the theatre every time a trek movie came out with Generations being the first one. They grew on me, I enjoyed them but never actively sought them out. There is my history with Star Trek in a few poorly constructed sentences.

Abrams however I am an avid fan of. It seems he has the film equivalent of the Midas touch, anything he is involved with turns into awesome. Lost is one of my favorite television shows ever, the Abrams produced Cloverfield was very fun for me, and even after hating Mission: Impossible 2, his awesomeness brought me back for M:I3 and did not disappoint. So when I heard the Abrams was taking the reins on Trek, I got interested. I followed the casting and what not and the one I was most happy with was Simon Pegg as Scotty. At that point aside from the now and again article about it i let it go. The trailers came out, suddenly I was dying to see a Star Trek movie. The advertising hit on such a level of nostalgia, that it even got me as, once again, not a huge Trek fan and made me excited to see what was coming. Well the wait is over and tonight I saw it, and like i said at the beginning, wow.

So this new iteration as i said can be considered a reboot, or a sequel, or a prequel. Orci and Kurtzman have somehow shut every canon worshipping Trek nerd up. The story involves a Romulan named Nero who watched his planet get obliterated killing nearly every one of his species and is out for revenge against Spock who Nero considers responsible.While going after Spock Nero ends up setting off a weapon known only as Red Matter which forms a wormhole through space and time where he ends up in the "past", which is our films present. You following? He decides that he can undo the destruction of his planet by destroying the federation and Spock. So this film is essentially saying that all of the things that had been done in the original series and the films still happened, however in an alternate timeline/reality. What we are now getting is new adventures of the original crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, which may have some similarities to previous events, but may end differently or the same. It not as confusing as I've just made it out to be but that seems to be the best way to clarify. Abrams, Orci, and Kurtzman have created an accessible Star Trek, for the young, the old, Trekkie, or casual film goer which is by itself an amazing accomplishment. Add to it that it doesn't feel recycled, or trying to hard, or pandering, or playing to the lowest common denominator, and that its just plain damned good fun makes it a masterstroke.

I'm not going to do a person by person breakdown with the cast because it is sufficient to say they all deserve fan recognition for these not quite reinventions of beloved characters. It just felt right to hear Karl Urban's Bones say "Dammit Jim!" and Simon Pegg shouting "I'm giving her all I've got!" and it didn't feel like they were winking at the audience when it was said. I had a damned good time at the movies tonight and have a new object of discussion with friends. I couldn't be happier with the film i saw tonight, only dissatisfaction i have is that it'll be several years before there is another one. I really feel that if this level of quality is kept this series will *ahem* (nerd alert) live long and prosper.

This is a TrailerDaze first, because this is officially the first film I've reviewed on here that i can whole-heartedly recommend that everyone go see. As soon as possible. I'm sure Anthony will drop by in a few days to drop his thought on you unsuspecting masses.

Until next time guys.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine - Review

Funny thing I heard earlier, the movie should have been called "Wolverine and the Amazing Technicolor Magic Laser Repelling Claws".

So I'm probably going to catch a lot of crap for this review, but I don't care. From day one of hearing about trouble on the set and terrible script reviews, rewrites, and then the horrendous opinions based on the leaked work print and the trailers I'd seen, all i could say was that it looked like a train wreck. In the interest of full disclosure, I am not a complete X-men fan boy as far as the comics go, I usually defer to others when asked questions about the comics. I am however an unabashed fan of the first 2 films and a much lesser extent the rushed third film. So i know the movie stuff and am kinda not too up on the comic book continuity so I will not be addressing that in this review other than for things i know of.

I walked into the film with such low expectations that i was pleasantly surprised by the film. The review will kind of read like a shit sandwich, something good, something bad, something good. What I was looking forward to most in the film was Deadpool, I really like the character and was glad he was being included. Ryan Reynolds was perfect as Wade Wilson for the five minutes or so he was on screen. The casting was a stroke of genius that just did not pan out well for Deadpool fans, we wanted more! Cool thing number two, Gambit. I was most worried about Gambit thinking they were going to have him with some silly Cajun accent. However I was not disappointed with Gambit other than when he turned into Spider-Man for a brief moment. I don't know if other New Orleanians were worried about this but he actually sounded like he was from New Orleans. Props to Taylor Kitsch for pulling it off.

Sabretooth, Liev Shriber is an amazing actor and a comic book dork apparently so I had no concerns that he was not going to be awesome. Will.I.Am was a pleasant surprise as Wraith in the film and I would look forward to seeing him act again. Kevin Durand is a big sumbitch before putting the Blob makeup on and he was fairly funny in his small role. Hugh Jackman was once again great as Wolverine. Danny Huston as Stryker was really not to great for me. I know the man is a capable actor but i just don't think he was right here. It is hard to step into the shoes of Bryan Cox so I'll give him that.

The film itself however suffers from having all of these great characters, it stretched far to thin trying to give all of them screen time when in reality I would have been happier with a smaller Gambit cameo with perhaps a promise of a Gambit centered film at some point. This is where the film suffers, When the team is together at the beginning of the film its amazing. Once they separate and Wolvie turns into a sad lumberjack with his lady who is just far to understanding of him waking with nightmares of the civil war and sprouting his bone claws for Wolvie to not realize something isn't right with her. Once the action is off and running however there were no more boring moments. The script was just plain weak and there were things you could see were not really thought out before adding them in and they were are very simple fixes but came off as playing to a stupid audience. The adamantium bullets BS, being the only thing that can stop Wolverine? Where the hell did they come up with that retardery? The end of the film having "Deadpool" being the experimental mutant with all of the mutant powers was incredibly silly but i got past it. I can buy no physics exsisting in this dojo when Wolvie is slicing and dicing moving helicopters and humvees, but i cant help but think the deflection of fake ass Deadpool's laser eyes was a bit much. Call me crazy right?

The biggest problem I think i have with the film is that it had such promise to be amazing and stopped at just existing. It is a film i will own on DVD because I am a completionist, but i would not revisit it very often. I am of the opinion however that the hate being raked all over the film is mostly unwarranted. I've heard people call it the worst movie they've ever seen, the worst comic book movie they have ever seen. I counter that they have obviously not seen the 1989 iteration of "The Punisher" or that they simply have not seen many movies. It is far from the worst movie I've seen this year but i don't hold very much regard for it being one of the best. It simply is, which is the worst sin this film could have made.

I sincerely hope that Marvel can somehow get the rights to the characters back from Fox and make their own versions of their own characters instead of letting Fox keep treating them like red headed stepchildren with a lot of money. They only exist when they need cash. On top of this Fox's continued bungling of Fantastic Four, Daredevil, and Ghost Rider should be more than enough reason for any comic book film fan to be calling for the heads of the studio suits who treat us as though we're satisfied with the movies just existing, and not being as great as they could possibly be.

Bottom Line: If you're a hardcore X-men fan, wait on going to see it, if you're a fan of the movies expect less quality. If you want big dumb superhero action movie, by all means go see it in theaters.

Until next time guys.

I may be revisiting this review as I think about and talk about the film more.