In recent months I have been quietly gathering my thoughts on the direction that the new Terminator (Terminator: Vista/Terminator/Terminator: Genesis) movie is taking, it’s become a difficult subject for me to fully articulate my views of…
The Terminator franchise played a big part in my movie-watching adolescence; it became one part of an amazing spectrum of cinema history- shaping the future of cinema with its mind-blowing advances in special effects, its tor-d-force acting performances and outstanding directing. It became justifiably legendary.
If your childhood contained Terminator, RoboCop, Predator, Die Hard and Rambo you were in a good place- these movies didn’t just give you a story- they gave you a world to escape into, with cyborgs, soldiers, bad guys and aliens.
Terminator was accepted by fans all across the world- people with differing tastes and experiences. It understood 100% what it had and what it was saying and it did those things with an unashamed directness without losing the heart of the story.
My views on Terminator 5 are as follows:
Writers: Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier… Kalogridis is known mostly for Shutter Island and Avatar- she didn’t create the story of Shutter Island- she wrote the adaptation from book to script for the movie. Avatar is shit.
Lussier is known mostly for Drive Angry and My Bloody Valentine 3D- Drive Angry made me hate Nicolas Cage a little bit and My Bloody Valentine 3D I won’t even bother to watch because even the premise makes me want to rip out my own uvula with pliers just so I don’t choke on my vomit.
Director: Alan Taylor is mostly known for Game of Thrones and Thor: A Dark World with Liam Hemsworth- I’m probably one of the only people who thinks that Game of Thrones is grossly overrated, I really do though; It’s pompous, arrogant and more than a smidge flippantly lascivious. Thor makes me realize yet again that if you want the right version of a superhero- you read the comic.
Studios: Skydance Productions and Paramount Pictures…
Skydance is known mostly for World War Z (the kids zombie flick starring Brad Pitt) and Star Trek: Into Darkness. I feel I’ve just covered my views on WWZ so… Star Trek: Into Darkness is a so so movie- I didn’t mind watching it.
Paramount Pictures is known for making and distributing such movies as World War Z (the kids zombie flick starring Brad Pitt) and Star Trek: Into Darkness. My views on these two movies haven’t changed from above.
NOTE: Skydance have only produced PG-13 movies, every movie on their slate so far has been certified PG-13.
Skydance have a close working relationship with Paramount Pictures and every movie that they have produced together has been certified… you guessed it; PG-13.
Terminator 5- PG-13?!!
It’s looking like it from here.
Lead Actors/Actresses: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke, Jai Courtney, JK Simmons.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is best know for… I won’t bother with Arnold’s back catalog as I’m sure you already know it, instead I’ll step straight to my opinion… I think he came back to acting too late.
Emilia Clarke is best known for Doctors (UK morning soap opera) and Game of Thrones. Doctors is the least appealing of the UK soaps due to the fact that the acting is as good as the writing… enough said.
Game of Thrones, what can I say that I haven’t said before? My opinion of Emilia Clarke as an actress is simply that I have no proof she can act. It’s not a criticism, it’s that I do not believe she has been stretched yet and don’t believe that with the writing talents of Lussier and Kalogridis she will be tested enough to prove otherwise.
Jason Clarke is best Known for Brotherhood a Showtime series and the Annapurna Pics project Zero Dark Thirty. Brotherhood was a strong series with solid acting and an interesting storyline- Mr. Clarke showed promise. Zero Dark Thirty had moments of greatness with strong acting and well used dialogue.
Jai Courtney is best known for Jack Reacher with Tom Cruise. Jack Reacher is an enjoyable action movie, firmly shot with tongue in cheek and with a good cast- this includes the subtle and mostly monosyllabic performance of Mr. Courtney.
JK Simmons is best known for the TNT series The Closer and The Lady Killers (remake) with Tom Hanks. The Closer is well acted and performed with great chemistry and dialogue. The Lady Killers (remake) was disappointing in comparison with the darkly humorous original, despite having a great cast and an intriguing premise it manages to miss the mark rather grandly.
I don’t believe that the casting is right, at all, in fact I’d go so far as to say it stinks; the casting for Terminator 5 shows a lack of insight and imagination- the studios picked people they already had on the books- really thinking outside the box huh?
So, here we are, we’ve arrived at the snippets of plot which have escaped the Hollywood grapevine and had a giant shit all over my computer/mobile phone/life…
Hollywood went and turned Terminator into a TIME TRAVEL movie! I’m sure plenty of you are thinking to yourselves/writing sarcastically in the comments; that it was ALWAYS a time travel movie… bullshit. That is such Hollywood propaganda bull-shit.
Terminator was a science fiction masterpiece of action, romance and death- time travel was only an aspect- not the whole bloody story.
Terminator 5 looks set to flip flop between eras and space, changing everything we as fans, believed to be canon, to be writ in stone. I’m filled with arse-clenching worry as I write this, as it seems T5 beckons yet more time inconsistencies validating the addition of new characters and new twists in the very heart of the story. It will be a free-for-all for any and every bullshit merchandising scheme and collectible known to man, but will it be whole? Or will you be buying the extras which should have been in the movie?
The studios boast that the movie will be stand-alone (something we at www.TheTerminatorFans.com have been preaching stalwartly for years) but yet again it seems it could be just another excuse for studio complacency and story-butchering as it allows for whole new universes to be created with each new movie. Any distortion of the original story will devalue everything which came before, a lesson which clearly wasn’t learnt after T3 or T4- and is arrogance to the point recklessness.
I fear that the studios are only hearing the fans in mono and that our wishes and hopes will end up being shoddy, sad half-truths used to whet our appetites with all the gusto and facade of a half-price fireworks display at a kids party.
I don’t look forward to the release of Terminator: Secondary Title- even the fact that it’s going to be released in summer is a bad sign… PG-13 summer flop-buster, fun for all the family during the kids hols.
Shit…
This looks like a massacre and I’m not sure I can watch.
What do you think of Terminator: Genesis? Let us know in the comments below.
DISCLAIMER; The views expressed in this article are the views of the writer (Endo Morgan) and NOT the views of www.TheTerminatorFans.com as a whole.