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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment