David J. Williams

Ah, Terminator Salvation. I wrote yesterday about how there’s a lot less daylight between this movie and Star Trek than I think people give it credit for . . . but today I need to tackle T4 on its own terms. And no, this (obviously) wasn’t anything approaching the level of Cameron. Christ only knows what JC would have done with two hours and two hundred million to spend on the future war that we’d only seen in glimpses. Correct me if I’m wrong here, but there was a line in one of the trailers that I don’t think ever made it into the movie—Connor’s statement that “I don’t know if we can win this war.”  That sense of desperation just wasn’t there.  Cameron’s future rebels didn’t even dare to venture out in the day, it was so bad.  You never saw the sun in his Machine War–one more thing that made those vignettes in T/T2 cool as hell, whereas Salvation doggedly went all Road Warrior on us.

Of course,  Salvation also got caned by Everybody and Their Cat for being way too dark, so it would have taken a genius like Cameron to make it (literally) darker still and get away with it.  The writers also clearly had problems deciding whether to focus on Bale or Worthington, and ultimately split the difference in a somewhat suboptimal way.  Yet while Bale never really found his groove, Worthington was an instant star (as soon as we get past that first scene involving Helena Bonham Carter).

And the overall arc in Salvation—that this is all part of Skynet’s elaborate trap—was #$# cool. Of course, if you’re going to lure the leader of the resistance into your HQ, you might want to send a little more hardware into the room to get him than one quasi-obsolete Governor of California.  And while Worthington was compelling, he wasn’t nearly magnetic enough for Moon Bloodgood to act like a total moron and just bail him out so he can go do his Terminator thing.  But I’m sticking with my premise of yesterday–this was a Good/Decent Movie released at the Wrong Time that thus became the Worst Piece of Shit Ever.  The mob will gnash its teeth and howl for blood.  Like Skynet, they shall have it.

Looking for something to get your mind off Salvation? Go buy BURNING SKIES!

But first, the winner of Friday’s contest: Jeff Alsted of Orange County sent in the attached of BURNING SKIES proudly displayed in the front-table of a Borders in Irvine, thereby winning himself both the book (and the ARC) and avoiding the need to shoplift the #$# thing . . . . second and third winners were Sarah Billings in Seattle and “Mr. Scrubs” in Manhattan, so congrats to all and now everyone else can get out there and buy the book!

Ok, onto Terminator Salvation . . .  jesus, this movie sure has been taking its licks, huh?  Aintitcool gave it one of the heaviest bitch-slaps they’ve ever administered, and then Night at the Museum 2 took it out with yesterday’s trash. But folks, let me tell you a tale I call Riding the Zeitgeist.  Picture two Hollywood directors, trying to figure out their next big thing, and trying to decide whether to make that thing Star Trek or Terminator.  Abrams picks the former; McG the latter.  They both (and here’s the part where you have to bear with me) make decent, but flawed movies replete with some serious plot holes and inconsistencies, as well as a wooden character or two.  Abrams is universally praised for his film, and McG totally trashed for his.

Hmm.

Speaking as someone who’s (naturally) totally and ruthlessly objective, it seems pretty clear to me that it really comes down to the fact that once again, timing’s everything.  Because look, it’s spring.  Birds are singing.  Crickets are chirping. We’re trying to get past the fact that the economy is on IV.  This latter circumstance being particularly critical, because a big nostalgic optimistic flashy upbeat SF movie is going to clean the clock of a depressing post-apocalyptic movie EVERY FUCKING TIME under these conditions.  This kind of instinctual nose-for-audience is why JJ Abrams is at the apex of Hollywood, and McG’s handlers are going to spend the next few weeks trying to prevent bad news from reaching him.

But imho SALVATION was a good movie.  Not a great one.  Certainly nothing approaching Cameron level. And maybe that’s the real tragedy here: the Terminator bar is now officially reset to decent-action-movie rather than iconic-classic-you’ll-talk-about-for-decades.  But you know what?  I’m going to review it tomorrow instead, because this blog post is already getting up there and I don’t feel like writing a #$# dissertation.

Not yet anyway.

And while you’re procrastinating over that Tuesday inbox and gnashing your teeth over Terminator, why not check out BURNING SKIES?