BEFORE: The robot theme carries over, though I realize I might have jumped the gun by watching "Terminator Salvation" last year before this one. It's best to watch these things in the proper order, but I remember hearing about how the films weren't all that connected - either way, after tonight's film I'll review the John Connor timeline, looking for any anomalies. The reason for saving this one for tonight is sending big birthday SHOUT-out #53 to Arnold Schwarzenegger (last seen in "Commando"), born 7/30/1947. And the easiest way to link from "Bicentennial Man" is to point out that Robin Williams was in "Death to Smoochy" with Danny DeVito, who of course was in "Twins" with Arnold.
THE PLOT: John Connor is now in his 20's, and a female terminator is after him. Another T-101 is sent back through time to protect him on the verge of the rise of the machines.
AFTER: I love love love time-travel movies, though they're often filled with errors. This franchise keeps you on your toes with the conundrums and the conflicts, plus it keeps you guessing - is Arnold's Terminator good in this one, or evil? Who sent him back in time, and what's his mission?
Well, he's on the right side this time (phew!) but there's a newer, more updated, more evil FEMALE terminator. In fact, she's designed to fight Terminators, so she's really a Terminator terminator. Arnold's T-101 is outdated and outclassed, but he's still got to find a way to become a Terminator Terminator terminator. Got it?
The "Terminatrix" has been sent back to kill John Conner's future lieutenants in the Human Resistance, a spin on that "kill Hitler as a baby" thought experiment. But she stumbles onto the real deal, Conner himself, who's been living off the grid for years. Before she can kill him, though, the T-101 is "bahk". (I think he predicted that would happen at one point.)
In the meantime, a weird computer virus is shutting down America's computer network, including those pesky missile things, so the Defense department starts to think about giving this experimental "Skynet" project a whirl. Geez, if only there were a way to predict whether that's a good idea or not. Oh, well.
So it's John Connor vs. Skynet (again), but also it's Terminator vs. Terminatrix, which leads to some really spectacular stunts and chase scenes. The one with all the emergency vehicles blew me away - the Terminatrix can control cars and other devices remotely, so she can fight on many levels at once - all that, and she's easy on the eyes!
Lots of in-jokes and nods to the first two films in the series, though I probably didn't pick up on all of them. Someone has to say a variation of the classic line "Come with me if you want to live!", for example. And Arnold has to beat someone up to get his clothing and a pair of sunglasses. Little things like that link up the films pretty squarely.
NITPICK POINT: If John Connor will one day lead the resistance against the machines, why go to so much trouble to try and save the man who will activate Skynet? It just seems counter-productive, that's all.
NITPICK POINT #2: The only access to the hangar is through the room with the particle accelerator? Why, that's not dangerous at all! Who the heck designed that army base?
I've got no clear agenda after this film - I've been too busy to block out August, I can only hope for some celebrity birthdays to pop up and suggest a direction. I've got no more films on the list with robots or Schwarzenegger in them. I could watch more films about the apocalypse (or robocalypse), but I was trying to save them for the end of this year. I could pick up on the time travel thing, but I'm waiting for some channel to run "Hot Tub Time Machine". I wish I had a copy of "Total Recall", I could go from there to "Mission to Mars", and so on. I'll figure something out - meet be back here in 24 hours and hopefully I'll have some kind of idea.
Also starring Nick Stahl, Claire Danes (last seen in "Romeo + Juliet"), Kristanna Loken, David Andrews (last seen in "The Rat Pack").
RATING: 7 out of 10 rocket launchers
Time-travel action movies like this one are almost the hardest things to do well and it's a miracle that "Terminator 2" worked at all. James Cameron is such a good storyteller that I did not leave the theater thinking "But what was the point of all that? The T-800 from the first movie failed to prevent the Resistance, so they sent the T-1000. The T-1000 has failed, so they'll just send the next one..."
ReplyDeleteThey should have short-circuited the whole thing by presenting a John Connor who was already sharp and canny and realized that it's a no-win game, and that his mission is to make sure that when the Rise of the Machines inevitably happens, all of the infrastructure is in place to effectively fight the war.
It's kind of uncanny how bulletproof the "Third movies in a series is always the worst of the lot" maxim is, isn't it? "Toy Story 3" is the only modern exception. I did like "Return Of The Jedi" but I'd never argue that the first two in the Holy Trilogy were way better.
(Still, I have high hopes for the next Christopher Nolan "Batman" movie.)
The time-travel stuff didn't bother me here as much as it seemed to bother you. John Connor, having fought the Terminators twice before, was led to believe that his actions in the first two films DID change the future.
ReplyDeleteOnly to find out in this film that the Rise of the Machines wasn't prevented, merely delayed. But that was enough to give him hope that the future might not be written in stone.
To me, it's just more of the same - car chases, truck chases, good Terminator vs. bad Terminator. Someone just fell back on what they KNEW to work - no real sea change until the next film, that's all.