I've been watching some old (and new) horror movies lately, including John Carpenter's The Thing (slow to get started, but awesome once it does), the original Nightmare on Elm Street (pretty dull), and the new Nightmare on Elm Street (cool-ish and icky, but Freddy talks to much and is never really scary). I'm not going to talk about them, though.
What I would like to talk about is the movie I just finished watching on Blu-Ray via a disc a co-worker lent me,
Terminator Salvation. After the insulting; disastrous; utter cash-grab that was Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, I completely avoided this movie when it was in the theaters last year. Terminator 2 is one of my favorite movies of all time (and perhaps the most perfectly-executed action movie of all time, IMO), Terminator 3 had already dumped all over it, and I didn't want to subject myself to seeing that movie defecated on again. It also doesn't help that the same co-worker also recently loaned me the PS3 movie tie-in game saying it was kind of decent, which...suffice to say I thought it made Terminator 3 look like fine art. Having just finished the movie, though, I'm sad that I avoided this movie on the assumption that it would be terrible. It's well-shot with plenty of good action moments and a story that
feels like something that's part of Cameron's Terminator universe, with a plot that boils down to the age old question of "What is a man?" It's an action movie with a soul, at least compared to most of the crap we get in the theaters these days (*glares at Transformers 2*). And it's pretty obvious that the production staff are huge fans of Terminators 1 and 2, from making what looks like an absolutely perfect T-800 replica of the Arnold model, to throwing in callbacks to the first two films, to showing how older John Conner got those scars on his face, to having audio recordings of "Sarah Conner" that sound remarkably like Linda Hamilton, to even having the T-800 model move like it was done in stop-motion like the original Terminator movie. And these callbacks feel natural, not exploitative like you would expect.
Setting aside my continual irritation that this movie exists at all (Terminator 2 seemed to wrap up the overall storyline quite well and didn't leave much room for sequels), my main complaint with this movie is the Goddamn Batman himself, Christian Bale. Simply put, he doesn't really do much in this movie, and he's not particularly interesting when he is on screen. He's just kind of...there, as is "Central Command" with its assortment of scenery-chewers (complete with Michael Ironside, naturally). The Resistance is also surprisingly well-armed and organized for an army that previous movies have depicted as living underground and fighting at night with trucks, laser rifles, and rocket launchers.
There's also some portions of the movie that feel extremely rushed and contrived, particularly as the movie reaches its conclusion.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised and satisfied with Terminator Salvation, though I'll be perfectly happy if the relatively poor showing for this movie means the intended "trilogy" never comes to pass. The movie stands just fine on its own and ends just fine, sliding neatly alongside Terminators 1 and 2 in the overall storyline.
Topic: Rate the last movie you've seen (Read 1927854 times)
