Terminator Salvation Review: Is it Really Salvation?

Terminator Salvation is not as bad as it could be, nor is it as good as it could be. But it is a step up from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.

Salvation is going to trick you. Because you think you are going to go see a movie about John Connor. Think again. John's in it but he's not the story here. The story is about Marcus Wright, played by the newcomer Sam Worthington, a convict that wakes up in this apocalyptic future and has no idea what is going on. Kind of like 28 Days Later but not as well done. Worthington does a good job as the man feeling the weight of his condemnation and he's fun to watch when he plays the tough guy. The problem is that we, as an audience, care about John, and never really get past that.

Now the bad. The film has has very little dramatic power. Aside from a few scenes between Marcus and John (Christian Bale, struggling to make the film better than it is), most scenes of dialogue feel like a waste of time.

The good. This movie is fucking exhilarating. The action sequences are mind-blowing to watch. There is an explosion approximately every three seconds. You will not see more things blow up - ever. Michael Bay is eating his heart out now because he just got one up'd. You can feel your heart pounding through your chest for pretty much the entirety of this film. It's an adrenaline rush that will be hard to top.

And the ugly. A lot of the effects left me wanting more. Overall, they are pretty solid, but when they fail, they fail hard.

And that is sort of the way of this film: it exists in extremes. Where it succeeds, it knocks it out of the fucking park. Where it fails, it sucks chunks through a straw. Fortunately, the film succeeds more than it fails.

And as final note: Fuck you, Danny Elfman. Rule number one about scoring a Terminator movie is that you use the fucking Terminator theme. You don't dick around with that. If you can't find a place where you think it fits in the film (btw it fits anywhere because it is the fucking Terminator theme), then you throw it in over the ending credits. You do not, and I repeat do not, compose a score that sounds like your fucking Spiderman score. Go fuck yourself Danny Elfman.

That is all.

Star Trek Review

I was going to make some clever pun using the title of the film, but that would seem to cheapen me.

Full disclosure: I am not, have not been, nor ever will be a Trekkie. As such, I have no strong feelings one way or the other for the Second Coming of Kirk. But that is kind of the point.

J.J. Abrams has made a film that appeals to everyone. At least, enough to get you to go see it. And it is worth it. Abrams takes out some of the science, adds a little more action, and grounds the whole thing with character - a typical move from his playbook as a director. And when Star Trek concentrates on character is when it shines. Case in point: the first scene of the film is heartbreaking, character-forming, story-defining, well-acted and written - it's the best scene of the whole movie.

Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto are the stars here as the young Kirk and Spock. Both actors bring a fresh take to the characters, adding their own touches without making the character unrecognizable. Watch out for these guys because they just became stars. Also notable are Anton Yelchin as Chekov and Simon Pegg as Scotty. These two are comedic gold.

The storyline is a bit of a mess. On the basic level of creating an Enterprise for Kirk to take control of, the story is fine. It is when it gets bogged down by adding time travel subplots and then trying to explain these subplots becomes difficult.

Minor note: No film has, or will ever need that much fucking lens flare. And I love lens flare. But honestly?

To sum everything up, Star Trek is good but not great. It's fun but not really exhilirating. It's a solid foundation to build upon.

Indian Blues

I like flash animation. I think it is a funny, cute little style. It's good for internet videos. Would I consider it an art form worthy of a feature film? Absolutely not. Then Sita came into my life.

Sita Sings the Blues is an impeccable film...and it is animated using flash. That sound you hear is me chocking on my words as I eat them. Sita tells a love story, an Indian mythological love story. But don't expect any Slumdog Millionaire epicness. Sita is told by an Indian with a healthy sense of humor about the culture and the stories she is telling. Helping the lovely visuals, is some fantastic blues music from the 1920s - hence, the title of the film.

The best thing about all of this? You can watch the film in its entirety online. Check it out here.

The Brothers Bloom

Rian Johnson is a guy I wish I was. He made his feature debut with a brilliant little film, Brick. Brick is a great twist on the noir genre. It has all the elements you need and want - drugs, murder, sex, mystery, cryptic clues, secret gatherings - but places them in a new environment. The dialogue is so cool. It's Bogart cool. And never once does it sound unnatural coming out of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's mouth. To get to the heart of it, Brick showed a lot of promise.

Johnson now appears to be making good on that promise. He's been working on his second feature, The Brothers Bloom, starring Mark Ruffalo, Adrien Brody, and Rachel Weisz. This looks like it will be a funny, charming, heartwarming movie...about conmen. I would go into an explanation about the premise but I think it is better to let the trailer speak for the film.

Also, check out this scene what was released.

What do you guys think?

Indonesia Kicks Ass

This is more of just a heads up alert. I love martial arts movies. There are few things that get more excited than a great looking martial arts movie. Enter Merantau.

Merantau is an Indonesian film that looks to continue the trend of the new wave of Asian martial arts film. What that means is incredibly intense action that looks to me to just be choreographed fights - they don't seem to pull punches in Asia anymore. The story is weak, but that is not what you're going to a movie like this for. This movie looks to deliver on the kickass action requirements with sequences to spare.

Check out this trailer. I guarantee after you watch it that you will want to break something with your elbows.

Terminator 5 Fucks up everything.

I was very skeptical about Terminator Salvation. One might go so far as to say I was pissed off that Warner Bros would continue to shit all over the franchise that James Cameron created. To put it simply Terminator 3 did not inspire confidence in the future of the franchise. However, when I found out Christian Bale had signed on to play John Connor, a seed of hope was planted in me. When I found out Jonah Nolan was brought on to work on the script, that seed began to grow. Then the trailers have made me very excited to see this film. There appears to be some solid action and interesting ideas and themes that are going to be explored.

Today, I found out what McG has planned for Terminator 5 and that seed was uprooted. He wants to make a movie where John Connor goes back in time to 2011 and tries to warn the world about Judgement Day. But the machines send an army back after him and all hell breaks loose. In essence Judgement Day begins.

This creates problems galore. First of all, by all current accounts (Terminator 3, the Terminator Salvation production notes) Judgement Day happens in 2004. So why would John be going to 2011 to prevent it? Also, now Judgement Day is a robot invasion and not Skynet becoming self-aware. Now an alien force invades our domain. We don't create our own destruction. What the fuck McG?

And this is my problem with this new trilogy on a fundamental level. The more films that get made, the further we get from the point that James Cameron was trying to make with the original Terminator movies. The original message was our quest for advancement will be our downfall. However, our paths are not predtermined. "There is no fate but what we make for ourselves." Terminator 3 spat in the face of that, saying that the future is inevitable - we can't do anything to change it. And Terminator 5 looks to say that our downfall is not our fault, that outside forces overpower us.

My point: Terminator Salvation looks good, but tread lightly McG. Tread fucking lightly.

Welcome

So I decided to create a blog to talk about movies. I do this a lot. Pretty much every moment of every day. I thought this would be a good venue to talk about rumors, news, as well as post reviews. So this is my opinion on the film world, unfiltered.