robilad (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} robilad) wrote,@ 2009-06-12 02:07:00 |
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Movies: Terminator Salvation
There are a lot of amusing moments in this one - plenty of references to old Terminator movies, and many highly awkward sequences that feel mashed up from somewhere else. My favorite is the couple of minutes long monologue by none other then Skynet, explaining in typical Bond-villain style with a human voice to its unwitting human-turned-bot tool how its evil plans are unstoppable, only to have them crossed by that Bond / tough dude character names Marcus. For added fun, director McG lets the Skynet offer different faces to Marcus, as if that would make the message more acceptable - an awkward nod to Contact out of nowhere in a sequence that feels like the worst monotonously monologue moments of Matrix Reloaded.
Salvation is very linear, and would be a pretty boring affair if it wasn't for the rhythm of explosions pushing it ahead every couple of minutes. During the course of a couple of days in the movie, two small scale nuclear explosions happen in the close vicinity of mankind's would-be savior, John Connor, one blowing Skynet SFO to pieces and the other one all of Connors combat troops for the day, though he somehow marches on and on, requiring a replacement heart every now and then, but otherwise apparently intact. There is a lot of awkward hand-to-hand combat with humanoid bots, something that feels as oddly out of place in a world supposedly dominated by machines, as do conveniently humanely placed keypads on Skynet's bunker doors. Skynet hasn't heard of RFID technology, apparently.
The explosions are neat, though. There is a scene in which John Connor decides to burn down a small patch of a forest from his helicopter in a sequence that could have been taken straight from a Vietnam War movie, if it wasn't for the Matrix-inspired 'hydrobots' snapping away at Connor's heels and bringing his helicopter down. Helicopters in the future in general crash early, and crash often, but like in Star Trek, that doesn't lead to anyone putting on safety belts. Of course, if nukes were exploding twice a week a few meters away from me, I guess I wouldn't care much about flight safety, either.
The real star of the movie isn't Connor, it's man-machine Marcus. He gets to smash screens, punch terminators and humans alike, walk on mines, develop love interests, get shot at, discover his split machine/human nature and so on. Between the muscled heroes, every now and then a female character gets a bit of screen time. The future is not kind to women, though - resistance's leadership is made up exclusively of men, and beside the single female pilot/love interest, and Connor's wife, female survivors seem to have largely missed out on the charms of joining the resistance and wearing army coats with red arm patches.
Completing the PG 13 picture's main male cast is man-boy Kyle Reese - the teenager destined to be Connor's father some day. The plot centers around the idea that Skynet must not capture & kill Reese, as that would ultimately prevent Connor from being born in the current timeline, which means Skynet would win (and Skynet knows that, as it's initially on a mission to kill Reese). Once Skynet captures Reese, though, for some Bond-villain-y reason Skynet decides not to kill the boy, and instead to wait for Connor to show up for a rescue mission lured in by his newly acquired man-machine friend Marcus. Then the old familiar Terminator show boxing takes place a couple of times, until Connor triggers a self-made nuclear device, MvGyver-style. Boom. Skynet SFO off line, more small scale nuclear explosions to come in follow up sequels, surely.
There are things to like, of course - Skynet and Connor are both relying on sheer luck a lot more then on systematic planning to achieve their goals, which is quite amusing in a movie where both main characters' motivations are centered around the idea of determinism. And of course, the movie has old rock music from the 90s in it - it's been years since I last heard Alice In Chains in a movie. At the same time, the prolonged lack of actual comic relief makes the movie pretty tedious to watch, like a long, witless version of a Mad Max road movie.
There are a lot of amusing moments in this one - plenty of references to old Terminator movies, and many highly awkward sequences that feel mashed up from somewhere else. My favorite is the couple of minutes long monologue by none other then Skynet, explaining in typical Bond-villain style with a human voice to its unwitting human-turned-bot tool how its evil plans are unstoppable, only to have them crossed by that Bond / tough dude character names Marcus. For added fun, director McG lets the Skynet offer different faces to Marcus, as if that would make the message more acceptable - an awkward nod to Contact out of nowhere in a sequence that feels like the worst monotonously monologue moments of Matrix Reloaded.
Salvation is very linear, and would be a pretty boring affair if it wasn't for the rhythm of explosions pushing it ahead every couple of minutes. During the course of a couple of days in the movie, two small scale nuclear explosions happen in the close vicinity of mankind's would-be savior, John Connor, one blowing Skynet SFO to pieces and the other one all of Connors combat troops for the day, though he somehow marches on and on, requiring a replacement heart every now and then, but otherwise apparently intact. There is a lot of awkward hand-to-hand combat with humanoid bots, something that feels as oddly out of place in a world supposedly dominated by machines, as do conveniently humanely placed keypads on Skynet's bunker doors. Skynet hasn't heard of RFID technology, apparently.
The explosions are neat, though. There is a scene in which John Connor decides to burn down a small patch of a forest from his helicopter in a sequence that could have been taken straight from a Vietnam War movie, if it wasn't for the Matrix-inspired 'hydrobots' snapping away at Connor's heels and bringing his helicopter down. Helicopters in the future in general crash early, and crash often, but like in Star Trek, that doesn't lead to anyone putting on safety belts. Of course, if nukes were exploding twice a week a few meters away from me, I guess I wouldn't care much about flight safety, either.
The real star of the movie isn't Connor, it's man-machine Marcus. He gets to smash screens, punch terminators and humans alike, walk on mines, develop love interests, get shot at, discover his split machine/human nature and so on. Between the muscled heroes, every now and then a female character gets a bit of screen time. The future is not kind to women, though - resistance's leadership is made up exclusively of men, and beside the single female pilot/love interest, and Connor's wife, female survivors seem to have largely missed out on the charms of joining the resistance and wearing army coats with red arm patches.
Completing the PG 13 picture's main male cast is man-boy Kyle Reese - the teenager destined to be Connor's father some day. The plot centers around the idea that Skynet must not capture & kill Reese, as that would ultimately prevent Connor from being born in the current timeline, which means Skynet would win (and Skynet knows that, as it's initially on a mission to kill Reese). Once Skynet captures Reese, though, for some Bond-villain-y reason Skynet decides not to kill the boy, and instead to wait for Connor to show up for a rescue mission lured in by his newly acquired man-machine friend Marcus. Then the old familiar Terminator show boxing takes place a couple of times, until Connor triggers a self-made nuclear device, MvGyver-style. Boom. Skynet SFO off line, more small scale nuclear explosions to come in follow up sequels, surely.
There are things to like, of course - Skynet and Connor are both relying on sheer luck a lot more then on systematic planning to achieve their goals, which is quite amusing in a movie where both main characters' motivations are centered around the idea of determinism. And of course, the movie has old rock music from the 90s in it - it's been years since I last heard Alice In Chains in a movie. At the same time, the prolonged lack of actual comic relief makes the movie pretty tedious to watch, like a long, witless version of a Mad Max road movie.
