Terminator Salvation

The 4th installment has intrigued everyone for quite a while. The first thoughts weren't good as McG was given the task of rebooting and breathing new life into this franchise, but not only that, bringing Judgement Day to our screens in the present. The future had been hinted at throughout, but now it was time to see it, to see this barren wasteland across our cinema screens.

McG of course is the man who brought Charlie's Angels kicking and screaming onto the big screen, with lots of explosions, thumping soundtrack and a lot of girl power. Not many people liked the idea of this guy being in control of one of the most popular and successful franchises around. Then something happened. He consulted James Cameron, somehow wrangled himself Christian Bale, the man of the hour, and Sam Worthington, the man of the next hour. Then the pictures and trailers hit the net, and people actually started getting excited. Maybe, McG actually had some talent somewhere.

The result isn't much of a disappointment, this isn't quite the future we've been looking for yet, but there's still time and we look to be heading in the right direction. Let's just hope that we've got everyone back on board for round 2.

The film begins pretty suddenly, there's no messing around, straight away Bale is in the shit as John Connor, and nothing really is going well. He is straight away billed as the messiah of the future, and he is a damn sight better of a messiah than Keanu was as Neo. It seems though, that Bale is forgetting how to speak in accents now, immersing himself from character to character, he sounds like Batman with his deep and gruff voice. Eventually he seems to find where he is.

The surprise of the film was Sam Worthington who plays Marcus Wright, a man who we see on death row at the beginning of the film and then he reappears 15 years later with no recollection of what's happened in those missing years. He is the star of the future, fantastic in the role and easily the most interesting character in the film.

Bryce Dallas Howard is utterly pointless, apart from showing that John Connor has a wife, she has no point whatsoever. Moon Bloodgood is pretty decent, but overall it's a boys show and bringing up the rear is Anton Yelchin as Kyle Reese, generally he's OK, but he doesn't really offer much, he's too boyish to fill the role, hopefully he'll be better in a follow-up, but so far he's too much of a kid to make it look believable.

A small annoyance was the shoe-horning of catchphrases into the film. 'Come with me if you want to live' and 'i'll be back' snuck into the mix along with Guns 'N' Roses track 'You could be mine'. It offered a titter in the cinema, but was still a little bit annoying, it's unnecessary, it didn't suit the style of the film, but fair enough, they kind of have to do it.

The storyline is fine, the set-pieces are spectacular. The film starts off pretty confusing, there's no set-up and the action begins straight away, leaving no time to ease yourself in. Around the mid-point of the film, it starts to come together and the last two thirds of the film are fantastic. Once all the actions over at the end, it starts to get pretty useless.

Overall, this is a top film and probably the best of the summer so far. Enjoyable, better than the third film and looks to be the start of something good. Bring on the next installment.

8/10

Remakes, Re-imaginings and Reboots

After watching Casino Royale last night, it came to me that this could be where the trend of rebooting franchises stemmed from along with Batman Begins. These have been done well, but look over at Superman Returns which carried on from where the original Superman films started and just stuttered and fell to the ground as though struck by a hunk of kryptonite.

Studios see the love of characters, franchises and they need them to be successful, so why not just try again? Hulk was released in 2003, with OK reviews, but generally the public weren't happy with it, especially the comic book fans. 5 years later, The Incredible Hulk was released, is it a sequel? well, no not really, it doesn't make it clear though. It's more of a reboot of the franchise, replacing all of the characters and putting lots more action in.

Now, re-imaginings are something altogether more confusing! Really, it's the same as a remake, but a re-imagining is said to be where they take the original film and completely change it to their own way of thinking. Halloween would be a prime example, it would be sacrilege to do a straight remake so Rob Zombie decided to do it his own way and make his own set of films. No one quite knows the point of it, but the studios love it. Especially when it comes to horror films, hence the slew of classic horrors coming back to us (Friday the 13th, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street).

Terminator Salvation is released this week and again we have the same problem, yes it is a sequel or is it a prequel? Because of the way time has confused us, is it a prequel because John Connor hasn't told Kyle Reese to go back in time and have sex with his mum? or is it a sequel because it's after Arnie has destroyed pretty much everything in his path? Really it's neither of these things, because it's meant to have a whole new feel to the film. Instead of being a rampaging machine, we've got a Mad Max looking barren wasteland. Reboot? Sequel? Who knows?

After recently viewing the original Psycho, it shows just why so many people scream and shout everytime something is remade. It may seem boring now, but this film is where the majority of modern horror takes its style from, in some or another it leads back to it. So, what was Gus Van Sant thinking when he decided to direct an exact shot for shot remake with Vince Vaughn in the role of Norman Bates...This is the same Vince Vaughn who stars in Wedding Crashers, Four Christmases and Dodgeball. I needn't go on.

A really genius way of doing remakes now is by not even acknowledging the fact they are a remake, in the way of Disturbia and Eagle Eye, D.J. Caruso is taking Hitchcock films and bringing them into the 21st century, with impressive results. So, it can be done well and appease the general viewing public.

Really, it's all a money game for those big Hollywood producers, but at last take the time to watch the originals or their predecessors before telling your friends it's 'the best film everrr, omg, wtf, so good, loved it 4evaaa'.