Terminator fucking salvation. Thought I’d start my entry with some cussing, it normally implies some sort of angsty-ness associated with passion or some other emotion. But really, I’ve been looking forward to this movie for the past couple of months especially since watching terminator the sarah connor chronicles. See I spend the weekend on the internet watching TTSCC and after having my mind blown away by it, i get online monday in a TV marathon induced hazed to find out when I can continue my addiction only to find that fox announces on monday that it’s discontinuing it’s contract for TTSCC. Like what the fuck, of all the bad timing coincidences, the day after I finish? But I digress, this was about terminator salvation, not the fuck awesome TTSCC which got prematurely shut down due to a bunch of cock suckers.
So terminator, where was I. Ohyes, since I’ve a simple mind, I’ll break it up into, good and bad :-
Good
- The action was good. Especially as a big nerd to see all those flying things and giant robots.
- The effects. But I might be coloured by my nerdiness. See above
- The idea of the story, not the actual plot and how it played out.
- CG ARRRNIEEEE ! Except I think this model is a tad bit tall.
- Sam worthington’s portrayal
Bad
- The writing was pretty bad, which I’ll get to in a minute.
You’d think with just 1 bad point, this’ll be a winner, but it’s not , not really. The dialogue was kind of weak at certain points, with a lot of pseudo philosphizing. Some parts where quite cheesy, toward the end as well. My first opinion when i started watching was the opening sequence in death row was a unnecessary , especially that part with cyberdyne logo at the top of the release form, like it was trying to set an ominious tone but in a very obvious manner.. The one other bit I’d change was how it started with an explanation of what skynet is and what was going on. Would probably have been better as a cleverly worded monologue from john connor as resistance leader indicating his role as the voice of the resistance and also to give a little backplot to the audience who are new to the series. Now I’m going out on a limb here, but i was hoping that John connor dies at the end of the movie. That and how marcus takes up his role and identity as john connor and as voice of the resistance. The beauty would be there’d be little continuity issues.
About the problems with time travel.
and this will get plenty nerdy.
If john is exist, this means that kyle reese goes back in time to hook up with his mom , which implies that john will survive to be the eventual leader of the resistance and john wouldnt be sending back jailbait. What this means is, that whatever apparent danger john is in, we know it will unfold for the best, because his existance proves he will live long enough to send kyle back. So whatever happens, John must do as it’s supposed to unfold. A bit of a predetermination issue. OR the alternative is :-
The terminator’s know that killing kyle will have no effect on the current time line, which why he was put in a posh jail cell to lure John in instead of being killed. In effect the war can only be won here and now. Which would be strange because skynet KEEPS FUCKING SENDING MACHINES BACK IN TIME.
Lets say for example that kyle or john dies during this altercation, both will have the same outcome of john not being born. Which will mean that the outcome of the war as we know it is different as john will have taken no part in it. So all events leading up to the death of john or kyle in the altercation will probably(could still) not happen. Which implies that the which ever death it was, is unlikely to have happened to cause this current sequence of events.
Just a loop though, we know that john is the great leader of the resistance, causing strife for skynet and this and that. His survival in the past will lead mankind to where they are now. However, there is also the possiblity that john’s death would have leader to an alternate yet positive outcome which we don’t actually know about. In effect, mankind in the terminator series has locked itself in a potentional disastrous outcome.