Terminator Salvation Advance Screening Vancouver

Terminator Salvation: a superficial, inconsistent, gritty battle of Transformer-esque proportions, within PG-13 constraints. Director McG is like the poor man's Michael Bay.

So I'm back from seeing the Advance Screening of Terminator Salvation at the Granville 7 Cinema here in Vancouver, and all I gotta say is... the movie wasn't bad. It wasn't the worst thing in cinema history, but it wasn't very good either, or even close to being on the same level as previous Terminator films in the series (minus T3). Not that my expectations were very high. In fact, they were low, very low, but I still came away entertained, despite the numerous issues with the movie.

Fans will be pleased with the amount of action in Salvation, as well with the attention paid to artistic direction of the various robots in the Skynet army, but if fans are looking to connect with the film, on a high level like they connected with Jim Cameron's films, they won't get the chance. Mainly because the writing sucks. The dramatic elements felt lame, forced, and tacked on for the sake of having them in summer blockbuster. Even then, I wouldn't even call them 'dramatic' elements, as they were void of any genuine emotion.

Many, if not all of the characters are forgettable. The only one who holds the film together is Christian Bale, aka John Connor, who was the only one engaging enough in his performance to actually convince the audience that the survival of the rebellion rests in his hands. I mean come on, if there's a rapper, (would-be actor)in the film, you know the film is generally gonna suck. If you wanted to point fingers you could blame the writers, who also penned the not so great Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. These guys just keep butchering Terminator.

Don't get me wrong, the film is watchable, but weak in many areas that I think even director McG knew there wasn't much to work with, so his remedy was using explosions to cover up the lack of story, and even then, the visual effects were uneven, and in many scenes you could tell they were shot on green-screen.

On top of that, there are many inconsistencies all around that make you think the filmmakers were lazy, or just retarded. There were characters that they could have elaborated on, but were neglected, which gives the film an overall cardboard feel, especially in the last half, where things are quite rushed. Not to mention the shoddy editing, that even casual film-goers may notice.

My Tweets after the film pretty much sum up, what I need to communicate about Terminator Salvation. "A" for effort "C+" for execution. And if you've seen the 4 minute clip of Terminator Salvation online, then you've practically seen the entire movie already.

I think I'm going to re-watch Terminator 2, to cleanse myself of McG's movie.

Advance Screening Terminator Salvation Tickets from Twitter! Looks good, how about the rest of the film?

I won my movie tickets on Twitter! Instant gratification.

Earlier this week I won tickets to the Advance Screening of Terminator Salvation, via Twitter. I've never won anything on Twitter before, so this was pretty cool. Warner Bros. has their PR representatives spreading the word of their upcoming films, on the social networking/status update site (tool?) which is great for fans because we can contact these people directly. The WB Rep for Vancouver had mentioned that followers to their Twitter could have a chance to win free tickets if you paid attention closely for trivia questions.

Of course when free tickets to a movie are involved, (a movie I'm excited for, but still on the fence about), I wouldn't mind trying to win tickets, especially since they were FREE. If I end up hating the movie I won't feel so bad anymore.

The WB Rep posted around 5 or 6 questions about the movie, and fans would tweet back their answer. The questions were fairly easy, mostly about the actors character names, directors full name etc. Nothing an online fan wouldn't know.

Expect a blog about my Terminator Salvation thoughts, shortly after the screening this Tuesday MAY 19th!!!

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, it's actually not that bad!

I remember seeing the trailer to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles a while back, around the time of Comic Con 2007. At the time, the very idea of the show made me SICK. How could anyone make an episodic series off Terminator, a franchise that did just fine on the big screen? T2 being the BEST, while T3 being, an unfortunate addition. The third film in the series wasn't exactly the greatest. In fact, it gave the audience the impression that the Terminator storyline was over, ending with Skynet destroying cities around the world, while John Connor and Co. remained in the safety of an abandoned military base. And we all know what happens after that. Yet, the story doesn't end with the last movie. Leave it to Hollywood to bring back a perfectly good franchise.

It's no surprise that The Sarah Connor Chronicles, takes place after Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and before T3, which leaves room for more robot fights, and character development in between. The show has been on for several weeks now, and I'm liking what I've seen so far.

TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES represents an exciting reinvention of the "Terminator" franchise, in which the strong and intrepid Sarah discovers that protecting her son and stopping the rise of the machines is more difficult than she had ever imagined.

Never judge a show before actually watching it. I need to remind myself to do that more often. The Sarah Connor Chronicles actually is quite exciting, and stays very close to the Terminator feel. The visual effects are quite impressive (for a show), and the new female Terminator protecting John Connor, is pretty cool too. Though she is quite skinny and far less intimidating, compared to Kristanna Loken in T3, Summer Glau (Firefly) can still pull off the Terminator attitude, and moves when required to. It's always a hilarious to see such a small girl shove much bigger Terminators through walls. She's a different kind of Terminator and I think what makes it work is the fight-scene choreography, which is very reminiscent of the Terminator films.

The show works, and fans of the Terminator franchise should be pleased. It's a pretty good show, that has potential and I wanna see more of it!

Now on another note, I'm sure I'm not the only one who has serious doubts about Knight Rider the Sequel. It features the Son of Michael Knight, and the NEW K.I.T.T. I'll try not to judge the show before actually seeing it.