T-4

[Gary Allan]

Wait for the DVD. I mean, you can pay to see it on the big screen ..lots of action and top notch CGI ..mechanized this and that. Not bad acting ...it just felt hollow. You got more out of 1/2 hour of the worst Star Wars movie in terms of rich content.

I don't really know how to describe the missing ingredients. Parts of it worked ..but it had surely sustained heavy damage in the building process.


..oh, there was one remark that made you laugh (everyone in the theater)..and there was a CGI cameo of the original (snort-ach) Terminator.

 

[buster]

I am planning on seeing it tonight. Thanks for the mini-review.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Planning to see it this weekend as well, although my level of excitement isn't anywhere near where it was when the previous installments came out.

BTW, I actually like the TV series, although some episodes are better than others. I hope they return for a 3rd season.

 

[Tempest]

The trailer shows the soldier shoot a Terminator in the head with 2 bullets and that is supposed to show that he killed it?

2 bullets?

Arnie took how many in the other movies?

Even the trailer seems hollow.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: Tempest

2 bullets?

Yeah, but maybe they were silver bullets, you know, like the ones they use to kill werewolves.

 

[Gary Allan]

Oh, man, Tempest, you need to fill in the back story for yourself. There were a few evolutions of Terminators before Der HaKnee mODEl,

While I'm not all that familiar... there are literally thousands of T-geeks that know it all. The Arnie model was the first production infiltrator.

The Sarah Conner Chronicles (TSCC for internet purposes) ..wasn't all that bad. I think I only ever watched it once on cable/broadcast.

The show is canceled, btw. The hardcore fans hope to have it bought by someone like NBC (Sci-fi channel) ...which, given the budget required ..and the offerings that are currently running, isn't too much of a stretch.

 

[BrianWC]

I was a Sarah Connor freak and was one of the angry ones that sent emails to Fox. I liked that show. I can't say I'm excited about the movie. Christian Bale is a like the new Keanu Reeves but stripped of the surfer twang and leaving, essentially, an acting robot. Hey, wait a second...

 

[jigen]

Originally Posted By: BrianWC
Christian Bale is a like the new Keanu Reeves but stripped of the surfer twang and leaving, essentially, an acting robot. Hey, wait a second...


LMAO! Bale is not that great. Comparing him to Keanu Reeves is funny, boy is he a bad actor...

I take that back. He was pretty good as TED THEODORE LOOOOOGAANN!!!

 

[Gary Allan]

Originally Posted By: BrianWC
I was a Sarah Connor freak and was one of the angry ones that sent emails to Fox. I liked that show. I can't say I'm excited about the movie. Christian Bale is a like the new Keanu Reeves but stripped of the surfer twang and leaving, essentially, an acting robot. Hey, wait a second...


I was sorta surprised that they didn't do a 3rd season. I figure that the money (attention span of the viewer) has a 4 season limit for linear continuing story arcs. That's harder to do than the somewhat modular self contained episodic show.

I thought that the show was gonna be lame since it appeared to be competing for the Smallville type demographic and appeared to start out that way. A mutated Smallville and Gilmore Girls (my youngest is poisoned by this matriarchal abomination that accessorizes men that I don't sit through when she's home

) ..but managed to escape to something beyond a simple "throw some stuff out there and have a mandatory para-Chuck Norris kung-fu grip scene".

I'll miss "That's Y yure sigh-berg(ah) is skulking ah-roun'd in my basement"

Pancakes and the signature ratchet arm twist. Some of the deadpans were hilarious.

 

[Quattro Pete]

They seem to have attracted an interesting group of actors on that show... Glau, Manson, Richard T. Jones... each on their own may not have been a big hit, but when thrown together, it was quite entertaining. I didn't much care for Lena Headey, Brian Austin Green, and Thomas Dekker, although I kind of got used to them after a while...

Sucks that it got canned.

 

[BrianWC]

Oh yeah. IMHO, the plot twists in the second season were light years beyond the first. Yes, I'll really miss Shirley Manson and the John Henry AI.

 

[Gary Allan]

Your eyes look tired. Is your soul tired?

 

[buster]

Saw it last night. Decent. I liked it.

I'd rank them in this order:

1. Terminator
2. T2
3. Salvation
4. T3.

I thought T3 was the worst by far. Nothing beats the original IMO, although I think more people like T2 than the original.

I'm thrown off by the time lines. Have to go back and re-read that.

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: buster
Nothing beats the original

+1. I grew up on that one.

 

[Gary Allan]

Quote:
Saw it last night. Decent. I liked it.


It's not that it was "bad", per se~. It was "incomplete". It's setting itself up for sequels if the numbers are right.

Let me try and say this correctly (bear with me and really try to fill in my blanks). Take the Resident Evil stuff. It really didn't matter what the back story was ..but it had one ..of sorts. Evil Empire greedy profiteering corporation ..add totally horrific menace run amok ..throw in unique hero figure (in this case, babage) with many colorful sacrificial lambs. Well done for what it was. Throw in some macho "Lock and load" stuff ..a moral/emotional dose or two

I'll watch them all (on cable). I have no delusions of "art" beyond that it's very good at what it attempts to tickle within me. Your suspension of reasonable belief is a cheap ticket to enjoyment.

They "work" for the most part.

Now take Lord of the Rings. At the end of the first installment.. I was asking (as one critic put it) "Are we there yet?". Tons of character development ..but really no point to the action ..rather anticlimactic. You were watching one movie in 3 parts.

"They" worked. IT struggled.

The success of the T1-T3 ..and all the Star Wars offerings (however good or bad you may feel they were) is that each was complete unto themselves, imo.

With Arnie, we got to see tons of cliche moments that we've grown to expect and ..more or less, depend on. Would the bar tender really just stand there with an unarmed man walking up to him with a shotgun trained on him? Would he have even bothered after what he saw in the bar? ..but it was fun for the sunglasses part of it ..as it was in the next one.

They all worked ..some better than others.

This had the disadvantage of no comical Arnie antics yet was already in high gear from the get go due to the rest of the Terminator offerings. The majority of the dwell time on character development was spent on a character that probably can't return. He should be toast.

But I paid my money and I hope that it makes enough to justify the next installment.

 

[moribundman]

The original The Terminator was a simple, effective horror movie with sci-fi elements. It was made in a raw manner, similar in that regard to Assault on Precinct 13 and Mad Max. T2: Judgement Day was an action movie with sci-fi elements, carried by top-notch f/x that were there to aid and assist the story. Remember the awesome scene in which the T-1000 stabs a woman with liquid metal spike (arm and hand) through a milk carton? That was excellent! T3: Rise of the Machines was blah. T4: Salvation is a war movie with sci-fi elements.

T4 is mostly lame and boring. I almost nodded off a few times. I've seen all this elsewhere in one form or another. The movie is no fun either, it's just grim on a PG-13 level, which is, well, just plain lame. The meager story fits on half a paper napkin, but the movie is over two hours long.

Bruce Wayne is fine as John Connor, although his role in the movie was too large. His role should have been reduced to a few combat scenes and that of the Wolfman Jack of this post-Judgement Day era: he should have been for the most part the voice on the radio, motivating the resistance fighters. The main story arc was clearly that of Marcus Wright (Freudian name, or what?), and the script reduced his story unfortunately at the cost of having more Black Knight scenes. This is primarily Marcus Wright's story, and the movie does not reflect this sufficiently. I hear Bale worked on the script -- unfortunately it shows, if the overly extended Johnny Connor story arc is to Bale's credit. The ending, in which
Warning, Spoiler:
Not that this is an issue, because through the convenient magick of time travel, everybody can come back from the dead and history can still be changed in the nick of time.

Speaking of the look of the movie, I thought the digital mattes sucked, especially the ones in the first extended combat sequence in which we meet JC (Another Freudian name) for the first time, well, those mattes looked about as unconvincing as did those of Jabba's desert palace 26 years ago. Other than that the movie has a great look, with obviously no expenses spared. The over-the-top giant terminator is a blatant rip-off, reminding me very much of Transformers and the human-snagging tripods from WOTW.

Performances: As I said Bale is okay, although I suspect his tense manner would have been more effective, if only his role had been reduced to proper size. After looking at his face for a 30 minutes, I was seriously hoping for a "Shane, you dumb #*@$, get the #%@# off my #%$#$#%%#$ set!" type rant. The Kiwi (I think) who played Marcus was a good choice. Alas, his role was diminished at the cost of Bale's ego. The fellow who play Kyle Reese, he's the new Checkov (Freudian name -- again?) in ST, he was very good. I don't care for him combatting terminators together with a little girl. I thought that was silly, not to mention we we've see the little-kid-as-sidekick in Alien 3 (Remember Newt?). Ron Howards' spawn is a little freakish. She was pregnant during the shooting of the movie, and it shows. I suppose JC is an expecting daddy? Maybe they actually said it, but I may have nodded off after all.

I regard T4 a missed opportunity. It's not outright bad. It's competently crafted, but it lacks that what makes a story and the characters in it interesting and moving. James Cameron knew how hard it was to hit the right spot twice. That's why he made T2 a very different kind of movie from the original. It's also why he passed on making T3 or T4.

 

[Gary Allan]

Thank you for that fine forensic analysis, Mr. Bodine. Of course, the experience of it was... somewhat different. ...

 

[ericthepig]

Was planning to see it on the big screen (we see about one a year) - but now I'm second guessing myself.

 

[moribundman]

Originally Posted By: ericthepig
Was planning to see it on the big screen (we see about one a year) - but now I'm second guessing myself.


Why? There's only one way to find out if you like the movie. You might love it! In no way am I trying to dissuade people from going to see any movie. What I wrote was merely my personal take, based on my criteria and on my gut feeling.

Of course, if you see only one movie on the big screen per year, you better make it count. Watch 'Up.'

 

[Quattro Pete]

Originally Posted By: moribundman
T4 is mostly lame and boring.

Watched it today. Sadly, I must agree with this opinion. If you're expecting to see the type of movie that T1 was, then you'll be greatly disappointed. This was some kind of Transformers/War of the Worlds/Mission Impossible impostor with a very shallow story line. Wait for a DVD... and if you're not a Terminator fan, don't wait at all.