I still have the toy of the endoskeleton, the one with the red plastic in its head that made its eyes glow; I loved that figure! Incredibly well preserved too; his legs are really wobbly and his power-punch ability... isn't too powerful anymore. A few years ago I found a McFarlane endoskeleton figure with working pistons. Awesome! He stands next to my Alien figure now.
I remember in Primary School I made a talk about my "favourite villains" in film. The T-1000 from Terminator 2 was one of them. That means my parents let me watch that film as young as ten. True... the nightmare scene about Judgement Day terrified me. It really did.
It was a long time before I actually saw The Terminator, the original film, which is a lot more of a horror film than a blockbuster sci-fi like T2. But god is it good. Arnold Schwarzenegger's best role (undoubtedly!) as a relentless killing machine hunting down Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor.
Interestingly, the idea for this film was based on an illustration James Cameron had painted depicting a metal skeleton rising from fire. No wonder the plot of this film is so messed up!
The future has already happened but we are in 1984. John Connor, leader of the resistance against SkyNet - an artificial intelligence bent on destroying the human race - sends one of his soldiers, Kyle Reese, to 1984 to protect his mother Sarah after the machines send back a Terminator. However, Kyle Reese is actually John's father!
See... the series started with a paradox! It is already broken!
Still, the film itself is excellent and for its time and budget had some incredible special effects; the Terminator becoming increasingly battered and having to cut its own eyeball out, to a fully functioning,
life size endoskeleton! The film is intense, a constant chase sequence that doesn't let you go until the
very, very end. Great music, incredibly well paced and good use of colours and lighting to make a bleak, harsh mood that only exaggerates the killer's presence even when he isn't on screen. Classic.
This film undoubtedly catapulted Arnie's career. While the narrative of the once merciless, butchering machine now being a protector is greatly entertaining, the public took to Arnie's Terminator being the good guy too far. (see Terminator 3)
The film is incredible and won many awards for ground-breaking special effects from ILM, stunt work and action sequences. I was obsessed with it for a long time. While he is quipping immortal one-liners, Arnie still plays the Terminator well, walking the cliche line of a machine learning what it is to be human, without becoming unbearable. But it is the action that make this film; from Arnie reloading a shotgun by flipping it around in one hand while riding a motorbike, to the finale at the steel mill.
One of the greatest action films ever made? Without doubt.
Terminator 3 is a parody of Terminator 2, with the script that a 12 year old could write. I am not kidding when I say that, when I was that age I thought of two things: a female terminator, and a terminator endoskeleton coated in T-1000 liquid. OH, if only I knew I'd just invented the villain for a film ten years in the making.
From the word go, this film is not a good Terminator film. The awesome main theme is gone. There's NO music, and not even the Terminator typeface for the title. What, they couldn't get the rights to the original material?
Next, we are presented with the Terminatrix (gettit?) or T-X, who does the classic arrival sequence, but in a clothes shop window. Naturally this Terminator is played by blonde fashion model, later seen in Bloodrayne (I guess T3 did wonders for her career) and has inflating breasts. I'm not kidding.
The film is just bad. Bad and broken. From Arnie having to take the clothes from a stripper at a hen night, wearing stupid rose-tinted star glasses, to just really clunky action sequences which feel drawn out and boring. The music also continues to suck; not playing at all before reappearing randomly in the middle of an action sequence.
It isn't just these obvious problems with it that bother me. Terminator 2 ended with a great, inspiring conclusion that only science fiction can deliver, the chance to fight the future, and as a kid that had moved me. Terminator 3 just ditches it completely, it takes that moving philosophical debate and shouts "You cannot stop fate!"
So finally, after years of waiting, we get to see the apocalyptic Future War of the Terminator series. Finally we aren't rehashing the "Hunt Connor family" formula.
Terminators are everywhere in this blasted and ruinous future, humanity is on the brink of extinction, and John Connor has grown into the saviour-to-be his mother had been always told he would become. My inner child was pleased.
Surprisingly the film was hesitant to revolve around Christian Bale's Connor entirely, preferring to develop Sam Worthington's Marcus and his backstory. Is this bad? Not exactly, Marcus allows us to see a little more of SkyNet and how it functions, both in the past and in the future.
The set pieces are simple but effective, unmemorable characters and a few notable cinematic flaws, however to see real (not CGI) Terminators again, and to see a reconstructed Arnold, was a chilling blast from the 1980s! Plus, could this be the only film that is almost a sequel and a prequel? Also, if you ignore the dates and the "nuclear fuel cell" nonsense, you can pretend Terminator 3 never happened!
It is no T2 is terms of action, or T1 in its integrity, but it beats the prosthetic skin off T3.
So, how do I feel about the future of the franchise? Well I knew that Salvation director McG had big plans for a "Future War" trilogy, and while I would love to see that realised, what I had read of the storyline felt a little nonsensical. I don't think Salvation did enough for him to keep the gig anyway.
What about the rumours (I nearly wrote humour there) of Arnold Schwarzenegger returning? Ugh... I really don't agree with the idea. Unless they do some crazy CG work on his features the film will not take place in the future, and I heard rumours of him playing the scientist who created the T-800 Terminator. All I can imagine with this idea is Terminator's answer to Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Hmm, and when has Arnie ever played a scientist...? Hmmm.. oh yeah, Batman and Robin and Junior.
Yeah, no.
Can people PLEASE stop asking for him to reprise the Terminator? Salvation pulled it off as best you can get, deal with it. Its just depressing when these timeless, ageless characters start showing wrinkles.
I could go into Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show... but while there were some decent performances and soundtrack choices, I never really got hooked on it. Summer Glau as a Terminator was unique but unconvincing (Shirley Manson as a T-1000 though was pretty special for me, as a fan of her rock band Garbage!) and alas it remained firmly rooted in the "Hunting Connor Family" formula, which I have already expressed my opinion of. However, kudos are given for completely bypassing Terminator 3, literally; they create new canon for the franchise that ignores that film's existence. That is gold.
Consider yourself terminated having read such a long post!
Agreed entirely with the scoring; almost exactly as I would've had them.
ReplyDeleteGirls can't be Terminators. And if they CAN, it's solely to work in the Terminator canteen.
Cheers TotoMimo. I like to think of the real trilogy as T1-T2-Salv. Or: Salv-T1-T2! I've not tried that second marathon yet though.
ReplyDeleteThe Terminator Canteen where they serve Nuclear sandwiches and Nuclear tea?