Terminator: Salvation

The latest installment of the Terminator series was right in that in-between period. It was far better than Terminator 3 (but hey, what isn't?) and not quite as good as Terminator. Judgement Day remains the best movie of the series, of course.

I really enjoyed this movie, but at the same time I left the theater just a little disappointed. Because they were so close. They really hit on a solid storyline, kept the characters believable, maintained the continuity of the story... they even basically tied up the loose ends from the previous movies.

Here's the problem: they tried too hard. There were a lot of nostalgia moments-- "come with me if you want to live," "I'll be back," etc... which I kind of enjoyed, but it made it a little cheesy at times. And there were a few cringe moments, like when it got a little overdramatic. With a very predictable moment close to the end of the movie (Marcus Wright's fate...you should see it coming). Although that still didn't make it any less enjoyable for me. The thing is, all these little things simply took the movie down from what had great potential to be very memorable. Instead, it's just a summer blockbuster. It's good, but not great.

That being said, I absolutely loved the unexpected comedy in it. It may not be a good thing that most of it was unintentionally funny...but there were a few moments that were actually hysterical. Maybe I'm twisted, but the scene with Blair and the three country guys she runs into was worth the price of admission. Cliched and predictable...but the way they went about it was absolutely hilarious. Just inspired comedy there ("Well, what have we here?" "Antibiotics are hard to come by..." "I GOT two friends..."--seriously, this had me cracking up).

In short, I would recommend you see this movie. It's enjoyable, there's a lot of action, and if nothing else... it pretty much brings closure to the Terminator series.

Edit: As time went by, and I thought more about this movie, in addition to the vast amount of glaring errors it had, and other problems pointed out to me-- well, it's easy to think of this movie as kind of a piece of shit. But I still enjoyed it, maybe my expectations were at the same level as some others. I'm just saying, how can you get really really hyped to see a movie by a director who calls himself "McG"? Seriously. Anyway, I'm lowering my rating from a 3.5 to a 3, and I simply can't go lower than that. The unintentional comedy is too good.

Rating: 3 stars

Weighted Rating: (brought up because of the hilarious scene) 3.2 stars

Star Trek

I have to admit it: the Trekkies were right all along. Star Trek is back, and it's sexier than ever.



As a hardcore Star Wars fan, I long scoffed at fans of what I saw as the decidedly inferior, er, geekdom. But while my beloved universe has gone the way of the Jar-Jar and Midichlorian, Star Trek has suddenly gotten... awesome.

I'd watched a couple of the old Star Trek movies (the Save the Whales one, some newer ones) in the past and maybe an episode or two while channel-surfing, but I'd never been too impressed. Honestly, I'd always thought Trekkies gave real Sci Fi fans a bad name.

I take it all back now.

Anyways, so I came in to the movie with a limited background... and still got plenty of the delightful references it made. And I loved 'em! At this point Star Trek has really become such a part of the pop cultural lexicon that you can't help but laugh at the Vulcan salute, or "phasers on stun" or "beam me up", I mean, I could go on... you'd think that would've made an origin film a bit of a challenge. But Abrams not only makes this classic trek stuff work, he makes it fun. Even as a novice to this franchise, I enjoyed the hell out of this movie --- just as many lifelong, die-hard fans did.

...Or did they?


Trekkies Bash New Star Trek Film As 'Fun, Watchable'

Seriously, this movie's a must-see. It has it all: Sylar in space, Kumar with a sword, hot green alien chicks, crazy bad guys with brain slugs, a giant bug battle and, if all that was not enough, a full-on disruption of the space-time-continuum.

Bottom-line: Star Trek blew me away. So much so that I suddenly find myself watching old episodes online.

I'm already looking forward to the sequel.

Rating: 4.5 Stars