Articles tagged with: Terminator
Full disclosure: we were completely sober when we watched Terminator: Salvation. And yes, it very much is the most relevant summer movie of the year. Why? The Terminator franchise has a history of being timely, a sort of dark mirror reflection of current society when each film was created. The first film has been described as a punk love story – perhaps the most apt description of the feeling of alienation and disenfranchisement many young people had in the early 1980s. The shadow of some future nuclear conflict wasn’t science fiction as much as it was everyday headlines, and the idea that a relentless killing machine might come back in time and chase one of us down seemed possible if not probable.
It had it all - a furious star, a nonsense story, an oddly-named director - but now Terminator Salvation has more. That's right - Arnold Schwarzenegger. Sort of. Even though it opens next month, Arnold Schwarzenegger still doesn't know if he'll be in Terminator Salvation or not. He might be, but only if producers insert footage from the first Terminator into the new film. Which is rubbish. We want Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator Salvation in real life, perhaps as a demonstration of the time Skynet got drunk and made a murderous robot that looked like a fat old man for a laugh.
Everyone knows that sequels generally suck. Let's face it, the only reason Hollywood comes up with a second helping is to cash in on the success of the original.
Oh, and the fact that Hollywood hasn't come up with any original ideas for years. And when they do they want to make the most of it. But sometimes sequels can actually eclipse the original.
It's certainly rare. For every Godfather Part II there is a Speed 2, Ocean's 12 and Another 48 Hours waiting in the wings. For God's sake, this was going to be a a top 10, but we could only think of five.
But anyway, here goes:
Sarah is back – wife beater and all.
The Sarah Connor Chronicles could be a disaster, and not just because the title is really hard to say out loud. It’s from the creators of Terminator 3: The Rise of Machines, which is not exactly a selling point. The show is also trying to tap into a much loved sequel; it's sci-fi, and with sci-fi there are always die-hard fans who rightly or wrongly are invariably hard to please.
The role of Sarah Connor is also a very big and muscly one to fill – Linda Hamilton owned that character, you believed she could open up a can of whoop-ass at any moment. She said things like “I'll pump him full of this shit; I swear!” and you believed her. So can a series chronicling her life be any good, especially without the likes of Hamilton and Schwarzenegger?
It's been a long time coming, but Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles finally kicks off in America this weekend.
Set between Terminator 2 and Terminator 3, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is the long-promised show that brings the Terminator story to a television audience, only without Arnold Schwarzenegger, the gigantic budget or the rubbishy Guns 'N Roses soundtrack.
And, slightly miraculously, people don't think seem to think that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is crap.
