‘UP’ REVIEW HERE
‘THE HANGOVER’ IS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS PAGE
MY ‘TERMINATOR SALVATION’ REVIEW IS HERE
A TERMINATOR RETROSPECTIVE
Terminator Salvation is quickly approaching on this summer movie horizon, and my expectations are, I feel, a healthy balance of optimism and pessimism. I have optimism in the fact that Christian Bale is playing John Connor, and that the trailer is exhilarating. I have pessimism in the fact that the director, McG, instills no confidence in me with what he has done up to this point, a career whose shining spot was the ninety minute, substance-free music video Charlie’s Angels. We won’t talk about Full Throttle.
That’s not to say that McG isn’t capable of branching out, giving us humanity in the midst of a pyrotechnic overload, especially with an actor like Bale on his side. Nevertheless, with the fourth installment in the Terminator world less than two weeks away, I thought it would be a good time to look back on the three films that preceded the franchise’s first foray into the future, where men and machine are battling for survival. With a solid beginning, definite highs, and, now, more obvious lows, this franchise has helped define a generation of action and sci-fi while occasionally becoming pop-culture punch lines thanks to the array of one-liners delivered by Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T101:
The Terminator (1984) – With all of its low-budget, low-tech nostalgia, the original Terminator is still a solid starting point for the franchise. Schwarzenegger, seemingly baby-faced in 1984, arrives as the T101, a vicious killing machine sent back from the future to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of future leader of men in the war against machines, John Connor. Sarah, played softly and naïvely by Linda Hamilton, is genteel, innocent, frightened.
The human’s response to the Terminator being sent back is Kyle Reese, played by Michael Biehn, a soldier who is the eventual father of John Connor. Once the two get together in the film, it essentially becomes and extended chase film full of tense moments and ominous visions of the future that, for the most part, still holds up even in today’s world of seamless special effects.
Several moments stick out in the film. Namely, Schwarzenegger’s catchphrase “I’ll be back,” just seconds before he mows down practically an entire police force on the hunt for Sarah Connor. But this scene is shortly after he performs what is still a gruesome and chilling surgery on his damaged robotic eye in a seedy motel room. I can imagine how the scene must have played in the theater in 1984, as the effect is still impacting thanks in no small part to the grit and the garish feel to the scene itself.
Shot almost entirely at night does a few things. It creates a sense of unseen danger, it allows the effects to be shielded by the lack of light, and it also creates quite a bit of tension in and of itself. This was James Cameron’s first foray into big studio filmmaking, and his creation in its initial conception is more a staple in American film history, and a starting point for the franchise, than it is a flawless action film.
B+
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) – One advantage the original Terminator had was its lack of necessity for keeping the space time continuum in check with its story. The second film must, however, struggle to keep logic in tact as much as possible, and there are a few snags along the way. However, that doesn’t keep Terminator 2 from being one of the most exciting, cutting edge, solid pieces of American filmmaking in the last twenty years.
Taking place in 1994, a mere three years before the supposed Judgment Day when Cyberdyne Systems’ computer program, Skynet, becomes self aware and releases nukes worldwide, the second installment in the franchise targets a young John Connor, played by then innocent Eddie Furlong. This time, Schwarzenneger’s T101 has been reprogrammed by the resistance in the future to protect young John, as Skynet has sent back the T1000, an advanced killing machine composed of shape-shifting liquid metal.
Meanwhile, Sarah Connor has since been locked away in a mental institution for her prophecies of Armageddon, and more so for her attempts to stop said Armageddon. Linda Hamilton reprises the role, but seemingly in name alone as Hamilton is a chiseled, muscle-bound female preparing herself for the inevitable battle.
It isn’t long before both Arnold and the T1000, played by a lean and fit Robert Patrick, find John at an arcade in the mall, and the chase begins with a thrilling pursuit through the aqueducts of Los Angeles. Soon, Arnold and young John team up with Sarah and head for Mexico. But rather than simply try and escape the T1000, the trio decides to try and destroy Cyberdyne systems before they can create Skynet, therein thwarting Judgment Day before it has a chance to start.
There are countless thrilling moments throughout T2, starting with the creation of the T1000 by Cameron and his effects team, a shifting, molding liquid-metal creation that still looks good after eighteen years of advanced technology. That, on top of the relationship that develops between John and the T101, coupled with relentless action sequences that grow more and more exciting as the movie evolves, make this film not only the best in the franchise, but one of the best action films of all time.
Of course, when you’re dealing with time travel, there will be some confusion along the way, but the storyline for the most part here does its best to keep the audience from deconstructing timelines by maintaining the intensity and the ominous background of Armageddon running throughout the film. Armageddon appears itself in Sarah’s dream of a burning playground with the Los Angeles skyline in the background, a scene that still resonates today. Along with every other effect seen in the film.
A
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) – This third addition to the franchise, upon first viewing, may seem a solid sequel. However, there are several things T3 suffers from, namely the fact that all of the logic and resolution at the end of the vastly superior T2 was pushed aside in order to make another sequel.
This film picks up after Judgment Day was, essentially, “delayed” by the actions of the second film. John Connor, this time around played by a somewhat miscast Nick Stahl, lives off the grid, still preparing for what, he feels, is still to come. T3 doesn’t bother with much exposition as it jumps right into the action. As in the second film, Arnold’s T101 is sent back to protect Connor, this time from the T-X, a female terminator that is a hybrid of liquid metal and complex machinery. Despite her hybrid status, she somehow still does not seem as threatening as Patrick’s T1000.
This third film is essentially just a chase movie even more so than the previous films. Connor hooks up with Catherine Brewster, his future wife, and they travel with Arnold across the southwest to try and prevent the military from enacting Skynet to correct a super virus running through the American defense systems. Brewster is played by Claire Danes, perhaps one of the dullest female actresses of all time, and her character is as forgettable as you might imagine.
Directed by Jonothan Mostow, T3 is a bit of fool’s gold. The anticipation of a third film in the franchise and the undoubtedly well-filmed action sequences gloss over the flat story line and the overall look of the film. The picture is too polished, too brightly shot in contrast to the grit and darkness of the preceding films. Most of the indoor scenes look as if they were filmed on a set, and several of the outside sets feel that same way. And the uninspired cast, along with the obvious aging of Arnold as a robot who, for all intensive purposes, shouldn’t look older, allows the film to lose steam shortly after the big crane chase scene early in the picture. After a second or a third viewing, it is clear that T3 lacks the punch or the relevance or the pathos of the first two, almost so that it doesn’t deserve the apocalyptic ending that it delivers. That ending should have been on display in a better film.
C-
Judging by the various trailers of Terminator Salvation, it appears that McG, despite what you may think of him, has at the very least returned to a darker, more somber tone. How off-putting would it be if the post-apocalyptic entry to this franchise had a Hollywood gloss to it the way that T3 did? Many people are a bit apprehensive about not having Arnold in a Terminator film. But I argue that a) Arnold is both too old and too busy trying to fix California, and b) the robot itself appears to be a big player. And I also anticipate that Christian Bale will, early on in the new film, help audiences forget that Arnold is nowhere to be seen.
