Movie Review: Terminator Salvation (2009)

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To sequel or not to sequel, that is a franchise's question. It's also one that's invariably asked of its three main participants: a) Hollywood who will always vote to sequel if the first film struck box office gold; b) the audience who must decide if they've had enough of a franchise to justify going once again; and c) the critics who need to figure out just how much preparation to undergo when reviewing yet another installment.



For example, if it's a James Bond film and it's a direct sequel, it helped to view Quantum of Solace directly following Casino Royale (in understanding the plot perhaps rather than being prepared for just how dismal the follow-up would be in every way) but traditionally, we know the man named Bond and we're able to walk right on in.

And sure, for most sequels, it's kind of fun to build up anticipation by viewing earlier titles but due to time constraints sometimes it's not at always possible and this was the case for this particular reviewer when it came time for Terminator Salvation (the fourth movie in the franchise).



But allow me a moment to digress and confess as I should begin by sharing that T2: Judgment Day is one of my all-time favorite action movies. Honestly, it's a movie I still study for its beauty and brilliance, the complexity of the situations, intense orchestration of the action, and the emotional investment we feel for the characters. Likewise, it's one that additionally I feel elevated the franchise from its first very good--if now pretty dated-- introduction to the world of Terminators, Judgment Day, and the prophet that will become John Connor who is man's only hope for survival in a future where machines turn on us.

The third film was entertaining if a noticeable step down from its predecessor in what I believe most of us assumed would be the end of the series in a nicely structured trilogy. Yet with the announcement that the franchise was starting up again with director McG (We Are Marshall, Charlie's Angels) filling in for James Cameron and Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Prestige star Christian Bale as John Connor-- I don't think I'm alone in admitting that it seemed like a strange fit. I mean picture this for starters-- it's the guy who instructed Cameron Diaz to dance to "Baby Got Back" in Charlie's Angels stepping in for "King of the World" Mr. James Titantic Cameron while directing the underrated, critically lauded serious thespian Bale in an action movie. Huh? Exactly.

However, even after Christian Bale's public on-set tantrum-- made infamous on late night talk shows and YouTube-- as a fan of The Terminator, I was eager to see which direction this film would take us and the sad answer is that it wasn't a good one and somebody should have stopped to ask for directions.



Simply put: if it walks like a Terminator, talks like a Terminator, it's essentially a Terminator which seems to have been the goal for the picture via a wooden script where actors repeat phrases that have now become iconic like "Come with me if you want to live" and "I'll be back" as though they were flippant throwaway lines.



Likewise, T4 (if I may be so bold) is one that uses the franchise's incredible action sequences as jumping off points in a series of successful homages that never fail to entertain even when it draws inspiration from the unlikeliest of sources including (as I scribbled in the dark) Apocalypse Now, Jaws, Transformers, Jurassic Park, and even some of the cinematography from Requiem for a Dream.

While the crashes, explosions, and fights aren't quite as impressive as they were back in the earlier days of CGI when T2 was new, ultimately as far as this film's concerned, the action is its "salvation" indeed, bridging one dull plot point to the next. With Bale virtually continuing on in his portrayal of Batman's Bruce Wayne complete with the faux comic book tough guy voice that makes me want to giggle, I wonder if the poor guy would've been better off with a longer break between summer blockbusters since he literally appears at times as though he thinks he's sliding into a remodeled Batmobile and Batpod.



Of course, in The Dark Knight it worked to sort of push Batman into the shadows and bring forward the Joker to steal the movie away. However when Bale is now playing the franchise's legendary John Connor a.k.a. the leader of the dystopian resistance that's occurred after Judgment Day hit the planet, it's not exactly helpful that he's the least charismatic and/or likable character in the entire movie.



Capably going into stud-muffin action movie mode (although The Transporter's Jason Statham should rest easy knowing that Bale is zero threat on this level)-- he's nonetheless missing any emotional involvement whatsoever as he physically goes through the motions in this coolly executed, impressively choreographed, and inventively shot action film that ultimately feels like its missing its central processor. (Hmm, perhaps it needs a Windows Vista update?).

But thankfully, while John Connor bogs down his scenes without a flicker of hope (which is easily understood given the situation yet a bit confusing when his wife played by Bryce Dallas Howard is expecting a baby)-- the film's other lead Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) unexpectedly commandeers the entire film.



In an opening prologue, we first encounter Wright on death row when he's persuaded by the terminally ill cancer ridden scientist Helena Bonham Carter to donate his body to science in order to possibly receive a second chance to do something good with his life rather than his prior evil.



As we flash forward to the year 2018, fourteen years after the Terminators housed at Skynet's artificial intelligence conglomerate became self-aware and led to the nuclear holocaust of Judgment Day-- we run into not only the solider John Connor (whom some of his military superiors feel is a false prophet as he's unwilling to accept orders to kill humans for the "greater good" in trying to wipe out Skynet) but also Wright having suddenly awoken in the midst of the war-torn planet.



As Wright finds himself striking a fast alliance with the sharp, quick-on-his-feet resistance fighter Kyle Reese (Star Trek and Charlie Bartlett's Anton Yelchin) and a young girl named Star that Kyle is protecting in their makeshift family as two more freedom fighters sans a sophisticated network-- they all try to get in touch with John Connor.

Frequently, they hear Connor's voice on the radio commanding other remaining humans to keep up the resistance and take on the Terminators who predictably swoop in unexpectedly to kill or kidnap humans in a few scenes that directly seem like they're mimicking the holocaust with a crowded container filled with petrified, malnourished humans.



Providing the testosterone fueled series with a much needed strong female character, the screenwriters deliver us Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood)-- a tough as nails fighter pilot not above snuggling with Marcus Wright for the comforting sound of a heartbeat and body warmth before-- of course-- more violence ensues.



Inexplicably given a rating of PG-13 rather than R (although it falls somewhere in between)-- while it is definitely less gruesome or gory than some of the effects in T2-- it's still a hilarious example of how subjective and nonsensical the MPAA system is since the film will no doubt be far too intense for young teens.



While the excellent production values and score by Danny Elfman (in tandem of course with that original great theme) are impressive as was Worthington-- it was the camera work that was particularly inventive in its use of hand-held cinematography so that we feel like we're spinning in an out of control helicopter or slamming into a vehicle made all the more visceral with its dark color palette and grayish color scheme.

Yet in the end and other than a hell of a lot of great sequences for those involved in the CG, cinematography, and editing departments to put on their respective "reels" of past work, it's a Terminator that doesn't add anything new to the franchise.



In fact, in the debate of to sequel or not to sequel preparation, it's one that damn near requires your complete understanding of the entire mythology (especially the first movie) before this one even begins to make sense. So thereby Salvation ultimately confuses more than it needed to by adding Back to the Future layers onto it (especially in regards to John Connor meeting his teenage father Kyle Reese and we realize with dismay just how boring Connor becomes as though he's a Terminator himself).



Mainly, it feels as though it's trying build a new spin-off of future tales for Reese that will then circle back to the first film and subsequent installments in a bizarre modern day prequel, sequel conundrum a la Star Wars. So all in all-- while it was a definite disappointment, it's still one that I didn't hate as much as most of my colleagues (many of whom are still ridiculing it forty-eight hours later)-- as I even got a few definite kicks out of the action scenes that had me pulling out the requisite ear-plugs within the opening ten minutes.



However, it was a pointless retread so to return to the opening thesis in the case of Terminator Salvation, basically to sequel or not to sequel should be answered with a resounding "not." Thus, please go ahead and just break the "I'll be back" promise while we all enjoy T2 once again instead.

Movie Review: Star Trek (2009)

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Last week, Hugh Jackman officially kicked off the summer movie season by clawing his way into the international box office with the number one blockbuster X-Men Origins: Wolverine. To this end, it's probably a good thing that television brainchild turned action director J.J. Abrams didn’t call his take on the science fiction classic Star Trek: Origins. However, as we learn right from the start of this deafening loud but truly entertaining summer popcorn movie, he very well could have.

And sure enough, by cleverly avoiding the trappings of the franchise’s more than forty-year history on screens both big and small—he bravely chose to hit “reset." In doing so, he conceived a work, along with his Mission Impossible III, Lost, and Alias screenwriters Robert Orsi and Alex Kurtzman that started at the very beginning of the Trekkie mythology as conceived by its mastermind and creator, Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s.

While it’s definitely a Paramount Studio classic and not part of the Marvel Studio umbrella (a la Wolverine)-- the film’s incredibly effective opener utilizes two of the strongest elements of last year’s Marvel Robert Downey Jr. double-play in the form of director Jon Favreau's Iron Man and its Marvel companion, The Incredible Hulk from Transporter 2 director Louis Leterrier.

One of the gifts that we've begun to take for granted when it comes to J.J. Abrams that made me an Alias fan right from the start is his truly unique, confident, and powerful ability to draw upon raw human emotion that builds into extraordinarily riveting (yet natural) plot points within the framework of the most complicated action sequences you can imagine.

In the bravura opener of Star Trek that serves as either a literary-like prologue managing to satisfy comic book fans and those who worship at the altar of Russian tragedy, he blends action and drama in a daring pre-credit sequence. Within moments, we witness the birth of the man who will become the notorious James Tiberius Kirk as his father sacrifices his life to save countless others in an escalating war with the monstrous Romulan villain Nero (a nearly unrecognizable turn by otherwise dishy Munich star Eric Bana).

Segueing from dazzling effects work as the battle rages on with scenes of Kirk’s mother in labor—Abrams takes an operatic cue to use simply visuals and a gorgeous score by composer Michael Giacchino as we view the sequence as if it were a modern day silent film until Kirk’s cry as a newborn bursts onto the soundtrack like a crescendo.

Unexpectedly moving and cinematically daring—it takes the opening of Leterrier’s beautiful beginning of Hulk a step further by wordlessly bringing us into the visceral realm of the film. And indeed, this was no accident as Abrams admitted to Bill Goodykoontz in The Arizona Republic that it was “the visceral experience, the feeling, the emotional experience” he “always [found] more critical than the intellectual one” that had made him “more of a Star Wars man growing up.”

And honestly, before I’d even read the article in The Republic, it’s one I referenced in my hastily scribbled screening notes when I wrote that George Lucas should’ve consulted Abrams for the development of his horrific prequels that seem to be a cautionary tale against too much CGI.

Yet, forgetting the sins of the latter day Lucas-- the man's earlier work provides an influence you can spot throughout Abrams’ version of Star Trek. When you couple this with Abrams' dedication to Roddenberry’s source material, it makes a stirring concoction of classic sci fi to reach devotees of both franchises.

And indeed Wars and Trek have become part of this generation's DNA and throughout Trek, Star Wars doesn't seem too far from Abrams' mind as it appeared to influence aspects of the film whether it’s in the way that the young Spock reminded me a bit of Luke Skywalker or Kirk giving off a distinct Han Solo vibe.

However, it’s just one of several post ‘60s works Abrams drew inspiration from as collaborators in Paramount's official production notes cited Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff as another film that lended to Trek's "origin" structure. And it definitely stands out when we catch up with the mischievous ladies man James T. Kirk (Bottle Shock’s Chris Pine), the gorgeous brainiac Uhura (Guess Who star Zoe Saldana), and the paranoid chatterbox scene-stealer Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy (Karl Urban) as they train at Starfleet Academy.

However, prior to their training-- the vastly different childhoods of Earth resident Kirk and Vulcan inhabitant Spock are touched upon in another nicely paced storytelling approach by Abrams and his writing team. While things for Spock are quite difficult as he faces intense prejudice and bullying for being the product of a Vulcan father (Chariots of Fire’s Ben Cross) and human mother (Winona Ryder), Kirk gets an Iron Man-like introduction. Yet to switch things up in a delightful futuristic anachronism, Abrams substitutes ACDC’s “Back in Black” used in Favreau’s film for the Beastie Boys' anti-authority classic “Sabotage” as he’s chased by a flying motorcycle cop while careening down a desert road.

Thereafter we're reunited with the adult versions of the two characters and the primary cast at Starfleet. And very quickly we see the makings of the captain Kirk would become, having to leave his tendency for Top Gun Maverick style heroics and bar brawls behind under the guidance of the tough but fair Captain Pine (The Republic of Love’s Bruce Greenwood) and the half-Vulcan, half-human with a chip on his shoulder larger than those memorable ears in the form of Dr. Spock (Heroes’ Zachary Quinto).

Although those familiar with the series recall the dynamic friendship of Spock and Kirk and the way they complemented each other—getting to that point in this film isn’t reached until the end. Typical for the Joseph Campbell-like Hero's Journey (a George Lucas favorite), it occurs as the U.S.S. Enterprise crew members (also consisting of John Cho’s Mr. Sulu and Anton Yelchin’s Chekov before Simon Pegg’s Scotty arrives very late into the picture) find themselves jeopardized when Bana’s über-villain makes a recurrence.

Easily setting the audience up for an inevitable sequel by crafting a new Star Trek mythology that builds from the preexisting one as in-jokes, signature lines and even an extended cameo by Leonard Nimoy abound—it’s a highly satisfying “reintroduction” to the characters.

Despite this, it’s safe to say that die-hard Trekkies may resist change and even those—like myself—who’ve only seen one of the films and a handful of classic episodes definitely missed the intellectual allegories that existed on the small screen. For beneath the cheesy pretext of the Shatner era series-- vintage Star Trek also managed to comment on race, religion, prejudice, politics, war, disease, diversity and more during the Vietnam era by providing an atypical science fiction version of a positive and damn near Utopian—as opposed to doom-ridden and dystopian—view of the future.

And while overall, it’s a blast and a true big screen cinematic experience, I wished that some of the awesome Star Wars like action sequences may have been infused with the same level of Abrams intelligence he imbued into the film’s opening. Moreover, even though he revealed to Goodykoontz that he “thought the original show was too intellectual” and wanted to emphasize the adventure based pleasure of Lucas’ universe that enraptured him as a child—I’m hopeful that, along with his talented screenwriters-- they’ll pack a little more brain crunch into the next delicious bag of popcorn they manage to “beam up” in the future.

Star Trek

Charlie Bartlett

Director:
Jon Poll

In Charles Schulz’s beloved Peanuts comic strip, eight-year-old enterpriser Lucy van Pelt ran a psychiatric version of a children’s lemonade stand offering questionable advice for the budget price of a shiny nickel, and in the hit 1970’s television series Happy Days, the compulsively leather jacket clad Fonzie commandeered the men’s room at Arnold’s which he turned into his “office” in order to share his own brand of questionable pearls of wisdom to the Milwaukee teens, preferring his age group’s highly coveted currency of cool points in lieu of coinage. More than thirty years later, when it comes to the perilous task of coming-of-age-- whether you’re eight or eighteen-- popularity still reigns supreme. And in the feature filmmaking debut from both director Jon Poll and writer Gustin Nash, the two combine the aforementioned pop culture concepts with pharmacological precision, managing to mix in classic teen films from the decades that followed including Harold and Maude, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Say Anything, Clueless, Rushmore, and Mean Girls to create the perfect prescription cocktail with minimal side effects, aside from a high likelihood of audience addiction to their film, Charlie Bartlett.

In the titular role, television actor Anton Yelchin turns in a winning performance as the mischievous yet terribly bright wealthy high school student Charlie Bartlett who, after getting ejected from the latest in a string of prep schools for unacceptable behavior including running a fake ID laminating press in order to be liked by his classmates, finds he’s left his exasperated, neurotic mother Marilyn (Hope Davis) no choice but to pack him off to public school. Fearing he’d make the wrong impression by arriving via his family’s chauffeur, unfortunately Charlie (like Jason Schwartzman’s Max Fischer in Rushmore) neglects to realize that perhaps wearing his prep school uniform and packing an attaché case isn’t the wisest way to fit in and sure enough, after first accidentally boarding the “short bus” for challenged students with special needs, he arrives only to find himself the victim of a toilet “swirlie” by the school bully Murphy Bivens (Tyler Hilton). Undaunted, he continues to try and put his best foot forward by greeting everyone with “Hi, I’m Charlie,” even going so far as to write it in a note to Susan Gardner (Kat Dennings), the beautiful girl who’d originally caught his eye but assumed he was a teacher, although ultimately Charlie ends up sitting with his friends from the short bus at lunch.

After spending time with the family shrink they have on retainer and being erroneously prescribed Ritalin, Charlie has an epiphany to recruit Murphy to become—if not his friend—then his business partner in selling the prescriptions at the school dance. Soon enough, Charlie’s access to mood altering medication makes him the go-to guy for all of his fellow classmates who begin lining up in the hallway for their opportunity to have a psychiatric consultation with the precocious new kid. By this time, Charlie has not only begun reading psychiatric and medical books to aid what ails his classmates but has also started shrink shopping to get the right pills in the hands of the right students who want to avoid parental embarrassment and HMO woes on their path to mental stability.

Naturally, the long lines for the men’s room begins to garner the attention of Principal Gardner (Robert Downey Jr.), who not only has professional concern for the well-being of his students but is especially irked when he realizes that his daughter Susan has become the target of Charlie’s affections. Worried the boy is just after his daughter for bragging rights, Principal Gardner tries to put a stop to all of Charlie’s extra-curricular activities, alienating himself from his colleagues, students and Susan in the process before viewers begin to realize that-- despite their age and situations-- Gardner and Charlie have much more in common than one would think as they both desperately want to be liked and are prone to self-medication,with the principal's preference being unwinding with a bottle of booze while piloting a motorized boat in his family’s pool. In a different world, it’s apparent the two could have been friends but when fatherhood and professionalism enters the equation, all bets are off. However, it’s the genius of the writing by Gustin Nash and in Jon Poll’s sensitive direction, that they never manage to sweep these issues under the rug, making every character equally vulnerable, equally innocent, and equally culpable in the scheme of things.

And while it seems like it’s the darkest subject matter for a teenage comedy to involve such a plethora of prescription medication, the filmmakers don’t handle this lightly at all, as Charlie’s actions do involve consequences, yet the tone of the film is far sunnier and more approachable than the superior yet icy Wes Anderson film, Rushmore. With a strong homage to Harold and Maude throughout as Cat Steven’s “If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out,” is utilized numerous times to great effect, Bartlett seems to be the latest Generation Y incarnation of Matthew Broderick’s Ferris Bueller in that you just know he’d never do anything to actually endanger a fellow human being, instead realizing that-- much like his clueless friends-- he’s also lost the unattainable map directing them on their path from adolescence to adulthood as they struggle to find their way.

And while Bartlett's final act seems a bit rushed and far fetched to believe, the intelligence of the writing and the refreshingly earnest and sweet natured approach to the otherwise tired and overpopulated genre of crass, highly sexualized and cynical teen films, not only reminded me of a junior companion piece to Lawrence Kasdan’s Capraesque Mumford (also starring Hope Davis) but also earned Bartlett a spot at the head of the class of 2008 as this reviewer’s pet.