Why Terminator needs to terminate
Bl'eader,Theatrical blood and gore don't disgust me, don't turn me away.
I am an aficionado of George Romero and the many zombified incarnations which spawned from his Dead series.
It's not violence that turns me away from Terminator.
Last Friday night while lounging in a Hartsville establishment known for their stellar coffee a friend (to keep his identity private, we'll use his MC name "Killa Manhattan") invited me to see "Terminator: Salvation" at the local Hartsville theater. Now, I am not one to see a movie I really want to see in the Hartsville movie theater. It's a much-more respectable establishment than a few years ago, but the video quality is still not what I want to experience a film I am salivating to see.
Yet, I wasn't salivating to see Terminator.
"Why?" asked Killa Manhattan, hurt that I and my girlfriend would not want to join him.
"It's for religious reasons, Killa."
He didn't understand, but let me explain something to you Bl'eader (Can I call you B'R? B'RD? Or BIRD? How about BIRD? That sounds like a nice street name. A bit of martial arts training and a Cockney accent and you'll be the baddest moe-foh in the Pee Dee area).
Terminator has meant so much to me. Since I was five years old, I have watched this movie many many many many times. My parents were quite terrible when it came to censoring me and my sisters from the more saucy films on the pop radar. So, early on, my siblings and I know exactly what Governor Arnold's buttocks looked like.
I say Terminator, but I really mean Terminator 2. Terminator, although great for its period, cannot stand next to the masterpiece of T2 (and contrary to my college screenwriting professor who vigorously declared that T2 had a huge hole in its story because "how can John Connor be in danger of being killed by a T-1000 sent to the past when he is alive and well in the future," she told the class, blasphemously. BIRD, it's all in the way you frame your universe and James Cameron apparentally did the Terminator universe with time conceived in quantam packets rather than in a linear format and based on cause and effect. So there, Dr. Fields.).
The series was left open-ended. The final image of a road indicating time's relentless movement and reincarnation in different ages. Beautiful. Artistic.
Well, Hollywood took a big crap on it with Terminator 3.
The Big A was back, but they used the same schtick of a more advanced humanoid, except this time it was a more advanced version of the T-1000, Kristanna Loken in a tight body suit. Sexy potential, but not pleasing to Terminator nerds (or Terminerds) such as me.
With that action, I permanently distanced myself from the series. Irrepairable damage was done. My heart was broken as I watched the same story played out and the hopes of a fully functional trilogy banished.
The quadlogy or dynasty or what have you is something like a teenager. It's awkward, says strange things, sort of makes up its own rules and not many people want to deal with it. That's Terminator is now. Awkward. Fellow Terminerd Donald Quist said it looks as if Terminator 5 is in the works as well (to fit with the 2018 date in Terminator 4). Well, why don't we just ruin the world. How about that Hollywood? (You're so filthy, Hollywood. I want to smack you in your dirty mouth.)
What Terminator 4 is doing is admirable in theory, trying to take back the series with something new and with strong star power to boot (Christian Bale), but it was something to doomed to fail from the beginning.
I have not and will not see this film in theaters. I may rent it on DVD, but I'll probably wait until it makes its way to Hulu (if Hulu is still around after Skynet takes over).
Posted by
on 05/28 at 10:14 AM
