I didn't realize that there was no colon in the title. I thought it was Terminator: Salvation. The lack of a colon makes it make less sense.
Which is telling. Not that the movie makes no sense, but that it is thoughtless and pointless.
The first fifteen minutes are a great indication of what is about to follow.
It starts with a horribly written, poorly acted scene. We are introduced to a new character in the Terminator mythos, Marcus Wright. He, more so than John Connor, is the lead of this movie. And he has never been mentioned in any of the previous three films. Hmmmmm...
After that crap, we see a bunch of text on the screen, explaining the Terminator story. Judgment Day and all that. Just a big ole wall o' text. That is lazy writing and direction.
After that we are treated to a great action scene. There is a great tracking shot, following John Connor into a helicopter, flying the helicopter and crashing the helicopter. Best part of the movie, in my opinion. And it is right near the start. All kinds of ominous portents in this review.
Cut to John Connor on a plane. He jumps out of a plane. Cut to John Connor on a sub as Michael Ironside explains his character to us.
Yup.
That is how the movie goes. Jumps from place to place, plot point to plot point, with no care given at all. All the film's attention is on the action scenes. And the action scenes are all well done. The whole film looks and sounds great.
But with no one to care about, what the hell is the point?
There is no point to this film. This story does not advance the 'Terminator' story at all. This film adds nothing to the cannon.
At least T3 ended with a bang. it killed off the world. Which is not how you expect a Summer Blockbuster to end. Sure, it kind of made the first two Terminator movies basically pointless, and it was not a good movie overall, but there is something in that film I can point to and appreciate. Other than the special effects, which are expected at this point.
What I'm saying is this is the worst Terminator film yet. There is no real reason to see it other than the action sequences. There are no characters to care about. Other than the kid who plays Kyle Reese, there are no remarkable performances. The music is forgettable. There is a scene where the whole god damn movie is explained to us. Stopping the movie dead in its tracks. So many nits to pick.
Move along folks. Nothing to see here.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Star Trek
I will be watching The Spirit again to try and dissect where and how badly it went wrong. I will also be re watching Star Trek. Because it is a really well put together film.
It starts with a bang. It is a great opening. Right off the bat, it demonstrates just how different this Trek is from past versions. Space is not sterile blackness. Light explodes across the screen whenever possible. The battles are not the slow, submarines in space affairs of before. The lasers are not solid beams. There is a lot more motion.
And George Kirk dies. That changes the character of James T a fair bit. It changes his motivations, but not his core. But the death of George Kirk also shows how this Trek is a lot closer to the classic Trek than some of the later series. Shatner was cast as Kirk for a reason. As was all the original cast. And there is a reason they are all so easy to imitate/mock.
They are larger than life, they are operatic. They had to be. Most of the original series was shot from a distance. So the cast set their standards to that. They were playing to the cheap seats. When the camera got in close, though, they didn't pull back.
The camera in this movie is almost always close, in on the faces. In on the action. The framing of the action and the actors is operatic, so the actors can be a little less so.
But they are all fantastic. Each actor inhabits their characters, without falling into straight mimicry.
There are some nits that can be picked.
The first for me is the introduction of kid Kirk. I understand that they were trying to show how the lack of his birth father had made him rebellious and angry. But the scene to me just made me think he was a douche. An ungrateful little shit. The bar scene a few scenes later was all does a much better job of setting up his character.
I understand that they wanted the symmetry there: young Kirk - young Spock - adult Spock - adult Kirk. But the kid Kirk is easily the weakest scene in the whole damn film, so I woulda chucked it. But that's me.
I also didn't like the chase scene on the ice planet. It seemed to Phantom Menace-y. Remember that scene with the fish? Yeah. Lame then, still lame now. Like a piece of screenwriting software flagged that section of the film for not having enough action. Superfluous.
And the villain of the piece didn't have all that much to do. I mean he did a lot. A lot. He changed the whole god damn Universe. But he seemed less a foil for the crew of the Enterprise and more like a plot point.
But this film was not about the villain, it was about the crew of the Enterprise. Who they are, how they fit together. And on that point, Star Trek more than succeeded.
It starts with a bang. It is a great opening. Right off the bat, it demonstrates just how different this Trek is from past versions. Space is not sterile blackness. Light explodes across the screen whenever possible. The battles are not the slow, submarines in space affairs of before. The lasers are not solid beams. There is a lot more motion.
And George Kirk dies. That changes the character of James T a fair bit. It changes his motivations, but not his core. But the death of George Kirk also shows how this Trek is a lot closer to the classic Trek than some of the later series. Shatner was cast as Kirk for a reason. As was all the original cast. And there is a reason they are all so easy to imitate/mock.
They are larger than life, they are operatic. They had to be. Most of the original series was shot from a distance. So the cast set their standards to that. They were playing to the cheap seats. When the camera got in close, though, they didn't pull back.
The camera in this movie is almost always close, in on the faces. In on the action. The framing of the action and the actors is operatic, so the actors can be a little less so.
But they are all fantastic. Each actor inhabits their characters, without falling into straight mimicry.
There are some nits that can be picked.
The first for me is the introduction of kid Kirk. I understand that they were trying to show how the lack of his birth father had made him rebellious and angry. But the scene to me just made me think he was a douche. An ungrateful little shit. The bar scene a few scenes later was all does a much better job of setting up his character.
I understand that they wanted the symmetry there: young Kirk - young Spock - adult Spock - adult Kirk. But the kid Kirk is easily the weakest scene in the whole damn film, so I woulda chucked it. But that's me.
I also didn't like the chase scene on the ice planet. It seemed to Phantom Menace-y. Remember that scene with the fish? Yeah. Lame then, still lame now. Like a piece of screenwriting software flagged that section of the film for not having enough action. Superfluous.
And the villain of the piece didn't have all that much to do. I mean he did a lot. A lot. He changed the whole god damn Universe. But he seemed less a foil for the crew of the Enterprise and more like a plot point.
But this film was not about the villain, it was about the crew of the Enterprise. Who they are, how they fit together. And on that point, Star Trek more than succeeded.
More Spirit
I don't know how to approach this. I almost want to re-watch the movie to help me remember how bad the movie was.
But I won't. Not yet. But I will.
I have always maintained that you can learn a lot more from failure than success.
But I won't. Not yet. But I will.
I have always maintained that you can learn a lot more from failure than success.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
The Spirit
Wow.
Huh.
It is hard to put in to words what I think of The Spirit. Mainly because I have no idea what I think of The Spirit. I mean, I know that it is in no way a good film. It is poorly put together. In many ways.
But everything wrong also seems to work. At least, for me. I know that the writing is horrendous, but I dug the hell out of it. Same with the acting and the editing and so on and so forth.
It is amazing how singular this vision is. I no way do I believe that this is Will Eisner's vision. This is all Frank Miller. This is all tits and hatred of eggs and strange weirdness.
I am so glad that Frank Miller got to make this. It was his first film, and he was coming off the cachet of Sin City and 300 and he was given free reign to do whatever the hell he wanted. And he did.
Anyone else, I'd imagine, would have listened to some sort of voice of reason. I'm not really sure that Miller has any reasonable voices in his head.
The purity of the WTF-ness of this movie is...
I think I need to stop now and try to organize my thoughts.
Huh.
It is hard to put in to words what I think of The Spirit. Mainly because I have no idea what I think of The Spirit. I mean, I know that it is in no way a good film. It is poorly put together. In many ways.
But everything wrong also seems to work. At least, for me. I know that the writing is horrendous, but I dug the hell out of it. Same with the acting and the editing and so on and so forth.
It is amazing how singular this vision is. I no way do I believe that this is Will Eisner's vision. This is all Frank Miller. This is all tits and hatred of eggs and strange weirdness.
I am so glad that Frank Miller got to make this. It was his first film, and he was coming off the cachet of Sin City and 300 and he was given free reign to do whatever the hell he wanted. And he did.
Anyone else, I'd imagine, would have listened to some sort of voice of reason. I'm not really sure that Miller has any reasonable voices in his head.
The purity of the WTF-ness of this movie is...
I think I need to stop now and try to organize my thoughts.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Joel Plaskett
Dude put on a hell of a show. Not a huge rock spectacle, but rock-y, acoustic-y, indie-y goodness. with two encores. And he also played the opening set. Dude played for near three hours, near as I can tell. I can tell you that I missed most of the first set. Tickets said doors opened at 8. So we grabbed a cab at around 8:30.
Cuz that's how it works, right?
Nope. Joel Plaskett was on the stage doing his thing before 8:30. Colour us surprised.
Also surprising, no Emergency with him. But his dad was there. That was cool.
His dad looks old, but not. And Joel doesn't look old at all, considering he's been doing this since forever. I saw him when he was a part of The Super Friendz, way back when I was in University. Dude still looks and acts young. And skinny. And scrawny. A very Ichabod-ian body has he.
And he was mingling amongst the crowd between his sets, he passed right past me a few times.
And he was always talking. Between songs, during songs. Built quite a rapport with the audience. They were clearly digging was he was doing and he, in turn, dug their digging. As did I. I loved the vibe, everybody was in high spirits, and that is not code. It was just a purely positive experience.
And Mark was there, and it is always nice to catch up with that guy.
Cuz that's how it works, right?
Nope. Joel Plaskett was on the stage doing his thing before 8:30. Colour us surprised.
Also surprising, no Emergency with him. But his dad was there. That was cool.
His dad looks old, but not. And Joel doesn't look old at all, considering he's been doing this since forever. I saw him when he was a part of The Super Friendz, way back when I was in University. Dude still looks and acts young. And skinny. And scrawny. A very Ichabod-ian body has he.
And he was mingling amongst the crowd between his sets, he passed right past me a few times.
And he was always talking. Between songs, during songs. Built quite a rapport with the audience. They were clearly digging was he was doing and he, in turn, dug their digging. As did I. I loved the vibe, everybody was in high spirits, and that is not code. It was just a purely positive experience.
And Mark was there, and it is always nice to catch up with that guy.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
More
Lewis Black was funny. And got funnier the angrier he got. He is angry about a lot of things. Including his failing memory. He spent a lot of time umming and uhhing and then saying fuck really loud. I felt a little bad for the guy. But he has an iphone and I don't so fuck'im.
Also, I forgot to put my ring back on after my exercises yesterday and I felt all weird and out of sorts and off balance the rest of the day.
Also, I forgot to put my ring back on after my exercises yesterday and I felt all weird and out of sorts and off balance the rest of the day.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Lewis Black is a Really Angry Man
I listened to him rant and rave for over an hour and a half. It was very entertaining.
Age had not mellowed that man.
The lady sitting next to me laughed a lot. She had an odd laugh. High pitched and surprised and pleased, like each time she laughed she was discovering anew how nice it was to laugh.
And she also blew her nose a lot. Loudly. And it did not sound like she was getting anything done, they didn't sound snotty, they were just loud.
Yeah.
Age had not mellowed that man.
The lady sitting next to me laughed a lot. She had an odd laugh. High pitched and surprised and pleased, like each time she laughed she was discovering anew how nice it was to laugh.
And she also blew her nose a lot. Loudly. And it did not sound like she was getting anything done, they didn't sound snotty, they were just loud.
Yeah.
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