Thursday, November 09, 2017

Terminator Salvation

   So, I'm watching Terminator: Salvation.  I think I've finally figured out the hate for it, and for the series in general.  I'm not sure it's all deserved.  The Terminator story could have ended after two movies.  They cut the final scene and put a voiceover at the end of Judgment Day in order to keep the option for more movies open, but essentially they told an entire story arc.

   This would have been fine.  Making more movies probably would have been fine.  Unfortunately, they made the third movie and it convinced people with great conviction that the movie should have ended with two.

   Salvation wasn't nearly as bad as people say it is.  It is a bit formulaic.  They do have to tell some of the same story.  The robots do act... uh... robotically.  I think the hate was simply because people had been comfortable with two for so long that they couldn't move forward.

   I'm not saying it was a great movie.  The silent, broken, kid character has been overdone.  Some of the story seemed to have been thrown together - added for the sake of being added.  Action scenes seemed reminiscent of The Matrix trilogy.  I still don't think CGI is where it needs to be for the scenes with Arnold's face, but there you go.  You probably couldn't have a T-800 without Arnold Schwartzenegger.  Still, there does seem an awful lot of the same face for a series that was meant to be sneaky and infiltrative. 

   Is that a word?  I think I made it up.

  Genisys suffered from the fact that it was something like I would write - a lot of backstory for a future franchise.  It had to justify the reboot and explain it away.

   Honestly, I didn't mind either Salvation or Genisys

  - Jim