The First Movie Tribute

I love movies probably more than anything. I honestly can say they even have a slight edge over poker. I even like them more than regular pilsner girls. But not over blond haired pilsner girls. I'm not going to delve into more abstract concepts like God here, or family, lets just avoid adding such things if I'm going to make a list of my favorite things. All that God/ religion and family stuff should be just assumed I'm not going to put any number value there. In order I probably love:

1) Blonde pilsner girls
2) Movies
3) All other pilsner girls
4) Poker
5) Baseball

What is your favorite things in life? Its a hard list to make, especially when the public can view it, you feel the need to avoid adding such things as psychotropic substances or alcohol cause anyone can see what you have written. Well if this was top 10 instead of top 5 you just may have seen a few of those pop up, and that goes for everyone so who cares that I've just admitted it publicly. When I run for president in 2018 you can ask me if I inhaled.

I will actually be eligible by then cause I'll be 35, the minimum age. And I wanted mention to year 2018 cause theres my segway onto what this post is all about. Terminator Salvation. The 4th installment of the Terminator Series, which started in 1984. This new ones is all about the future war we heard so much about in the other three movies.

I love movies so much and Terminator 1 and 2 were some of my favorites when I was young and they made very interested in the whole movie making business. I just was so impacted by them I felt I had to be creative myself, but always feeling like I could never conceive of an idea for a science fiction story so ridulously awsome. So I just have no choice now but to do my first movie review/tribute ever on this site. Since I've decided to just write till I'm dead, and have been writing for almost a year now and still do not ever see a reason to stop, I'm gonna have to throw a movie review/tribute in every now and then. It might happen once a year or even less, but certain movies are just very important to me and I'm gonna feel the need to talk about them.

Before I go into it, I need you to understand how obsessed I was with making movies when I was little, and a lot of it was spawned by Terminator, the first installment. Ya see I wanted to be a baseball player since I was very young but never could hit the ball. I became very interested in movies and writing books when I was around 8 or 9, somewhere before college I once again loved baseball and other sports more and wanted to go into the sports broadcasting field. Figuring if I can't be a player I mine as well be around it all and write and talk about it. But there was always this sinking feeling deep down that it wasn't really what I wanted to do cause its not really accomplishing anything, just talking about other accomplishments that you wish you were really doing. So in college I became very disenchanted with it and wondered how far I was really willing to go with it since I probably should of just went to film school. Then I started playing a lot of poker my sophomore year and really have only cared about poker and nothing else for a long time.

Now I see I want to just make enough money to do whatever I want, like make my own movies with my friends. And no, the editing on The Penicilin Advance is still not fully complete. I'm sure it will entertain you when its done, and our next production will definately be better. I can safely say I love movies above all the obsessions I have had in my youth. Sadly none of them have made me enough money to live off of. Which is partly my own fault in a way if you wanna really think about it. But I take from it all the fact that I need to do spread myself out among all the things I love as oppossed to making one particular hobby mean everything.

Anyway, my bad for rambling, Terminator Salvation. There are several aspects of the film I would have done differently, and certain scenes I did not like. But whats weighing on my mind is that I have to give you an overall statement about the film, yes obviously nothing is perfect, but did I like it or not? See it? Skip it? If I had to give a yes or now answer here I'm afraid a part of me wants myself to like it so bad it might sway my decision. I still don't know if I'm making this decision based on my will to keep the franchise strong, but overall, yeah I fuckin loved it. Even though there are countless things I would have done differently. And if it was a movie in itself without all the backstory, I probably wouldn't have liked it as much. One big problem I had which took away from the experience is that one of the trailers revealed to much information and I would have been more surprised when I saw it if they had never released that fuckin damn trailer. This goes back to my same heated argument from a few weeks back.

http://daysoffrank.blogspot.com/2009/04/range-of-ideas.html

Once again I'll say it. Someone needs to step up and stop worrying about money and do like Alfred Hitchcock did. Come on people! Spielberg? Cameron? Someone step up..............
Moving on, now for the movie review.

WARNING: Stop reading if you have not seen it and care. If you don't care read on, but I'm gonna tell you the whole movie for like all 4 movies and disect them, yeah thats right. Okay if your not familiar with Terminator series, here's a chronological timeline. In 1984 a women named Sarah Conner is on the run from a terminator who was sent back in time to kill her. This terminator was from some time between 2003 and 2032. At the same time humans in this future sent back Kyle Reese to protect Sarah Conner. So now Kyle and Sarah and a terminator are in the year 1984. Sarah has always been there, Kyle and the terminator were sent there from the future, got it? The terminator looks human, with human tissue, but the metal endoskeleton you see above is what it really is underneath. This role was played by the famous Arnold Scwarzenegger. Anyway, why is the terminator trying to kill Sarah Connor? Because she is the future mother of John Connor, the leader of the human resistance in the future (time after 2003 when the machines take over). The machines figure sending a terminator back and killing the mother of John will make John not exist and therefore they can start an alternate reality where they can wipe out the earths remaining humans easily. The humans in the future who send Kyle back, are most likely led by John Connor. Know one really knows yet. Confused yet? Imagine this conversation, "Hey Kyle, I need you to do me a favor, I need you to teleport into the past and go fuck my mother."
Anway back to 1984, Kyle successfully protects Sarah and they kill the terminator, however Kyle is killed in the process. But luckily Kyle makes sweet love to Sarah a few days before his demise, which leads to the birth of the savior John Connor. That's basically what happens in Terminator 1. Now for Terminator 2.
In 1995 Sarah Conner is in a mental institution cause everyone thinks she's crazy cause of all the terminator and future war stuff she's always talking. John Connor has been born and now lives with a foster family, he's like 14 or something. A T-1000 liquid nitrogen terminator is sent back from the future again to 1995. It is not after Sarah but after John. A T-800(regular terminator) was reprogrammed by John in the future is sent back to 1995 also to protect his young self. So John and the good terminator reunite with Sarah and they are on the run again from this T-1000 (liquid nitrogen super terminator). They make a short detour to blowup the main building of a huge corporation called cyberdyne, where all the technology that allowed the machines to become self aware is. They figure now they have set up an alternate future where the machines never take over, and Judgement Day never happens (Judgement day is the day where the machine set off nuclear bombs that destroy almost every human in the population. This is suppossed to happen in 1997, the few survivers are led by John Conner and won't seem to die out. This is why the machines start sending back terminators in the first place)
Confused? Back to 1995, Sarah, John, and the good terminator have destroyed the T-1000 and think they have stopped Judgment day/stopped machines from ever becoming self aware. The good terminator is also destroyed in the end to erase all remnants of this horrible future.
Terminator 3 tells the story of John Connor about 8 years later.
In 2003, John feels he definitely stopped Judgment Day and the machines are never going to become self aware, blowing up cyberdyne in 1995 definitely did the trick. Sarah has died of leukemia sometime between the second and third movie(1995-2003). John feels like he really has created an alternate future. Until he is once again hunted by another super terminator with human tissue, disguised as a hot girl, sent from the future. He once again is protected by the T-800 (regular/good terminator/different model) sent back again. He asks the good terminator how the hell he can exist since they stopped Judgment day and blew up all remnants of cyberdyne systems that made it possible for the machines to become self aware. The good terminator tells him that Judgment day was inevitable and they only postponed it. So just hours later, and about 6 years from when he thought it would happen, Judgment Day came into fruition. The machines, now otherwise known as Skynet have become self aware and launch nucs that destroy the entire world. John and his girl Kate with help from the T-800 destroy the girl terminator that was after them and get to a bomb shelter before the nucs are set off. They are one of the few human survivors left after Judgement Day.
Now your ready for the latest film, Terminator Salvation. Its 2018, approximately 15 years after the third film. John and Kate are older now and the earth is populated by machines who are hunting and slowly wiping out the remaing humans. And now I'm ready to actually do this movie review, but I've written to much and am too tired. I didn't have to explain the whole thing cause you most likely still don't understand the story if I had to bet on it.
It doesn't really make sense that Kyle Reese is John's Father, yes he did impregnate Sarah back in 1984, but he was from the future, so was he living in two time periods? No one really knows and now I have confused even myself.
Kyle Reese is one of the main characters in this movie, where he is just a teenager. This is way before he is eventually set back in time to 1984. This film is in 2018 and its probably not until like 2029 that the machines start time traveling to kill Sarah and then he has to start traveling back himself. Kyle Reese 2018---->
So this is the first we see of him since the first movie that was made 20 something years ago. Unless you count the deleted scene in T2. And ofcourse you have John Connor, the main character who is portrayed by Batman himself. John Connor 2018---->John and his wife Kate played by today's pilsner uptop are leading the human resistance against the machines/skynet/terminators. Kate Connor(such a cutie pie) ----->Everyday John gets on the radio to send the message to all surviving humans that they must stay alive and fight and not let the machines exterminate the human race. Kyle has never met John, and as of now is just another random civilian struggling to survive. John embarks on a mission into skynets base to gather Intel on the enemy, he returns as the only survivor from his squad.
These scenes are very well done and action packed. The intensity, the explosions, and the creative camera work all served well. Its just what you would expect to see from a future war. John seems invincible because his mother has already explained to him about what he is in the future, so it feels like he knows he won't die until years later.
Elsewhere, a man named Marcus Wright arrives in this crazed world, unaware of what has happened in the last 20 years. He crosses paths with Kyle and they form a friendship. Marcus Wright------>Little does Marcus know he actually is a terminator with a human heart and brain that has just awoken from chryogenic sleep or some shit. His only memories of who he was 20 years back, is a life filled with mistakes, he now has a second chance in this future. Kyle and Marcus attempt to destroy a huge terminator who is capturing humans to use their flesh on the eventual terminators who look like humans. (The ones they will eventually send back in time)
Kyle is captured and Marcus sets off to rescue him. He needs to find John Connor so he can lead him to skynet. Confused? Skynet is basically the machines/terminators/enemy. When Marcus gets to the resistance base, John finds out Marcus is not human. This comes as a surprise to Marcus as well.
And that would of come as a surprise to me as well if the fuckin trailers didn't show the whole fuckin movie. There is my first critcism.
Anyway Marcus actually is human but no one believes him and you can't blame them. John has been running from terminators disguised as humans his whole life and he doesn't know if Marcus is from the past or future. Eventually he learns to trust him and they go to rescue Kyle together.
Kyle must be rescued because John knows he's his father and if anything happens to Kyle, John's entire existence could be negated.
It really pisses me off that someone else thought of this idea for a movie before I did. Not necessarilly this installment but the whole thing overall.
There is a lot of complaints I have about this film even I loved it overall. Ya see its so hard for a science fiction movie to get all the way through without having a couple of parts make you cringe.
There are several scenes with this little girl who follows Kyle around and is captured with him. Thats fine, perfectly plausible, but why the hell is she in the ending scenes where they are being chased around skynet by like fifty terminators? Realistically she wouldn't of made it, and it was kinda stupid and cartoonish to have this little girl running around with them.
The setting of this post apocalyptic future was for the most part well done and really made you feel like you were in that world, especially in the beginning. But as the movie went on some of the people portraying survivors were oddly reminiscent of the people on Zion in The Matrix two shitty sequels. It had that same kinda feel to it and made it less believable at times.
The Star Wars prequels and Matrix sequels all share a common trait with this film in which we finally get to see all the crazy cities/time periods that were talked so much about in the highly sucessful original films. And for the most part it delivered, save for a few scenes here and there where I was zapped out of the world and just felt like it was a movie set. But in hindsight I believe this future world that was only glimpsed at in the other films was handled much better than that of Star Wars or The Matrix, with Matrix a distant 3rd, that series really should of stopped after the orginal.
Anyway another complaint I have is the whole taking of the prisoner scene. They don't kill the prisoners and it is plausible that John and his soldiers would have to come rescue them. It is totally possible that they would have to keep the human prisoners alive because the whole purpose for capturing them was to use their skin and organs to begin making the terminators who are disguised as humans. But it is stressed throughout the movie that the machines are after Kyle Reese and want him dead, he is a prime target for termination. Because they are aware he is the key to the humans survival, cause he protects Sarah, who gives birth to John, who is really the key.
So after they capture him why the machines take him to a holding cell? Why not just terminate him right there? In Austin Powers they make fun of every movie that does this for Godsakes.
Scott Evil: Dad! Just shoot him now. What are you gonna do put Austin in an easily escapable room? Lets just kill him!
Why don't they just kill him right away? Cause then the movie would be over. Same thing here. And its regrettable that Terminator Salvation has to fall into this tired movie cliche.
Now I think thats my only complaint. Unless you count the oppurtunity I feel the filmmakers didn't see. There is a female character names Blair, the soldier type, who meets Marcus Wright and takes him to John Connor. Her role is relatively small but she has a decent amount of screen time. And John's wife Kate also has a more condensed role. So I ask you this? Why even have the Blair character? Why not just expand the role of Kate Connor? She's suppossed to be John's second in command anyway. She had a big part in the 3rd movie. Why limit her role to that of just a supportive pregnant wife? She shoulda been out there in the field fighting, and it would make sense cause women in this world would have no choice. And it would pay homage to what happenned to Sarah in the second film, the way she was all jacked and battle ready, the complete opposite of how she was in the first film. I feel they definately missed an oppurtunity to give Kate a better character arc, one similar to Sarah's journey, expand her role and not even bother with this other female character who had nothing to do with the other films.
Am I right or am I right? Or am I right? I think I'm right. They must have big plans for Blair in the next installments, then it will make more sense. But I still feel if I told them this idea beforehand they would be down like a clown charlie brown. It definitely would the saga as a whole more complete and gave more credibility and story to this film. John seeing Kate's friendship with Marcus would even add more tension to the whole conflict between John and Marcus, and would have made his finally trusting in the half man half machine even more dramatic.
Otherwise, to focus on the good, the war scenes are very well done and I really did feel like I was in this shattered post apocalyptic world for a good part the film. Kyle Reese was a great character and each dramatic scene with him cuts deeper cause you know him, you watched this character since the first film came out and since then he has not had a place in the story. But now he's back after being out of the loop in T2 and T3.
The part where he is taken hostage in the cages of the giganctic 300 foot terminator and Marcus jumps onto this massive machines legs to try and break him out of the cage.
Here's a pic of it, it snatches people up with its giant claws and then sticks them in little cages nears its waist. This is where Marcus jumps on to try and save the prisoners, but it doesn't work out how he planned. See the movie, you'll see.
There are several scenes involving Kyle that jogged me back to the memories of the first film and tied the story together to improve the overall heart of the film. Its harder for Terminator to pull this off cause so many different people have played the same roles. But there are even parts in Terminator 3, the worst one of the 4 films that truly do hit me. Because of the significance of John's struggle from the other movies, even certain T3 scenes were relatively powerful. And I did like the ending to T3.
Its still tougher to be impacted by certain scenes because its hard to think of all 3 John Connor actors as the same guy, but it is. So in the finale of Salvation when John is fighting the t-800 model (Arnold Schwarzenegger) it is harder to see the significance of this scene. This is the same terminator model that he had such a strong relationship with as boy and then years later as young man. But since it was different actors playing him each time, its harder to see. But still, that scene is powerful when you remember its all the same John Connor. Fighting the terminator he met all those years ago that was from the future, now fighting him in this future which is now the present. Confused? Whether your confused or not, this is good dramatic stuff and makes for an epic story. Here let me try and help you out if your still lost:

John Connor 1995John Connor 2003John Connor 2018Okay, at least will have Batman playing him for the 5th and 6th and no one else. If they knew they were gonna make all these sequels they or probably would have kept the same actors. Clair Danes plays Kate in the 3rd one. How ridiculous is that? Claire Danes in a Terminator movie? I feel like she can't even act, she should just be shopping all the time. She declined to be in this installment when offered the role. Well Bryce Howard took over the role as Kate and is much more pilsner anyway and thats why she is today's hottie. If only they could go back in time and use my idea to expand her role. Or send a terminator back to kill the screenwriters so the script would be different........... All right that's enough for me, that was a pretty lame joke.

I hope you enjoyed this post and I will probably have to come back and write more next time cause I probly forgot something. And that ends the first of my few and far between movie tributes.