Alexhead wrote:Well, let's start with the positives. I was really hungry by the time we got to the Alamo so my burger tasted fantastic. The sizzle reel Alamo always puts together in lieu of commercials was hilarious as usual, with lots of bootleg Terminator toys from around the world, not to mention clips from movies of the same ilk. And J.K. Simmons is in the credits! So there's that.
Semi-seriously, you can tell that some well intentioned fans of the original pair were tasked with regurgitating this thing and maybe shocking some life into Arnold's career, and came upon some potentially interesting character and plot twists that might have played out nicely in better hands. Two major updates to SkyNet had potential, at least on a surface glance. And the digital anti-aging they do on Arnold is ten times better than what we got in Tron: Legacy, so it doesn't yank you out of the proceedings the way that one did. A couple of the action setpieces are actually pretty well conceived and executed.
All that said, they looked at another franchise reboot that boldy went where no franchise had recently gone and said "hey, dudes, ALTERNATE TIMELINES!" Many high fives erupted in the writers room, and things proceeded to turn into an unintelligible mess by the third act. The first two almost have you hoping they'll stick the landing, but you're just left with a lot of head-scratching/banging depending on how seriously you're angered by time travel handled poorly (in other words, anyone reading this will probably be throwing shit at the screen by the 40 minute mark), a dumb happy ending that doesn't feel well earned, although the vague "what might come next" talk at the end is right up there with, well, Tron: Legacy as far as pisspoor halfhearted attempt at setting up a sequel. That's probably the good news, there's no goddamn sequel offered here. I of course didn't say there wouldn't be a reboot, though.
Forgot to mention the new Kyle Reese is a complete zero, and since in many respects HE is the central character this time around, they should have worked one hell of a lot harder on casting. Also, as you could probably figure out from the trailers, most of the action is a digital blur that feels like it's in green screen land and the stakes are zero. Methinks Alan Taylor is done with his 'continuing the franchise' gigs, maybe Game of Thrones will take him back.
Well, once again, you and I largely had the same reaction to a movie. Were we separated at birth or something?
I "sneaked out" Friday night and caught a late showing. It was amusing seeing Taylor compile a mix tape of T1 and T2 highlights in the first reel. Emilia Clarke isn't a bad Sarah Connor — her Game of Thrones costar, Lena Headey, may surpass her a tad — but the script doesn't give her much to work with.
Absolutely correct about the nonentity playing Reese — you know, if they can de-age Arnold so well now, why not cast Jeremy Renner as Kyle and knock 20 years off him in post?
(I am not going to spoilerize this next part, because the marketing campaign already gave it away.)
Making John Connor the villain simply does not work. I get that we're into the fourth decade (and fifth movie) in this franchise, and you gotta do things to shake it up, but subverting the hero of the saga in such a way is up there with killing off Newt and Hicks in Alien 3, as far as I'm concerned.
I liked Arnold fine in this entry, much better than in T3. Surprisingly, the "Pops" relationship with Sarah stood out as one of the few bright spots, not nearly as hokey and embarrassing as I'd feared.
I really don't need more sequels, at any rate. Cameron is no auteur, but his sense of pacing, framing and tension in the first two are pretty much nonexistent in this one. This entry makes T1 and T2 look downright Kubrickian.