Terminator Salvation (2009)
This review was originally published at Filmwell.
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When Arnold Schwarzenegger first uttered the words "Ahl be bach!", people laughed and cheered. James Cameron's The Terminator was suspenseful, exciting, and funny in a way that only the best B-movies can be. We loved the idea of an android assassin from the future hunting down a pregnant SWF who had no idea that her son would grow up to be humankind's savior during an onslaught of rebel machines. Arnie's wicked killing machine quickly became an iconic big screen monster. We loved him, and we wanted more.
When Cameron's ginormous sequel arrived, the first film's simple ideas swelled to epic proportions. With Planet Earth on a course for nuclear devastation, another Terminator came back to try and kill young John Connor. But a "good" Terminator came after him to save the day. The time travel aspect was interesting, but simple enough that it didn't disrupt the action. And Terminator 2: Judgment Day set a new standard in special effects and action set pieces, becoming one of the biggest sci-fi action flicks ever released. Cameron managed to enthrall us with by developing a style that was both fun and dire, exhilarating and exhausting, clever and cacophonous. He surpassed the Road Warrior franchise by framing his explosive marathon chase sequences within a compelling story about three characters who made us care: Sarah Connor, her son destined for greatness, and their otherworldly protector.
That all feels like a long, long time ago.
Since then, Cameron left the franchise for even more ambitious projects. Jonathan Mostow tried to keep the series going with a third Terminator film — Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines — that was, thank goodness, only disappointing, not a disaster. The action was frantic, the effects impressive. By preserving the personality and humor of our favorite Terminator, Mostow narrowly avoided joining Bret Ratner (X-Men 3) and Richard Lester (Superman 3) on the list of directors who have ruined franchises with lame third installments. But the storytelling began to show signs of strain. Things were getting tangled up as time-travel convolutions became more complicated. And the story's chase-movie conventions began to feel a little too familiar.
The obligatory echo of Arnold's famous line began to sound more like a threat than a promise.
Today, the fourth movie in the Terminator series, Terminator Salvation, is here. This time the director is McG (Charlie's Angels). And if that name makes you think of McDonald's, you're on the right track.
Just as McDonald's burgers never look like what you see in McDonald's commercials, this movie is a betrayal. T4 tastes like it was thrown together in a greasy kitchen by folks who ignore instructions for good hygiene, press heavily processed ingredients together into cardboard containers, and hand it to us with a scowl. And when Arnie's favorite line occurs at last, you're likely to hear the audience protest: "No! Don't come back!" Especially since it comes this time from the film's most annoying character.
But let's focus on the positive. I'll review some of my favorite memories from seeing Terminator Salvation:
- Christian Bale's feverish intensity as the leader of the resistance in a post-apocalyptic world where human beings are struggling to survive in dark, hidden bases around the world. Oh, wait. That was Reign of Fire.
- The slow reveal of the glittering skyline by night, punctuated by bursts of flame. I'm sorry, that was Blade Runner.
- The scene in which ragged, dredlocked survivors try to escape the bad guys in a fleet of 4WD vehicles, leading to a long freeway demolition-derby marathon action scene. Gotta love The Road Warrior.
- The conflicted anti-hero who is "more machine now than man" (I'm sorry, I'm thinking of Star Wars) struggling to know what he/it really is, wrestling with what he's been programmed to do and what his remaining traces of humanity want him to do. Oh, wait. That was... sheesh, where do I start? Blade Runner? Battlestar Galactica? A.I. (Artificial Intelligence)? Rintaro's Metropolis?
- When those nasty, swimming, tentacled beasts with clusters or red eyes — the Sentinels — attack our heroes. I'm sorry, am I thinking of The Matrix? And look, here they come again in Shane Acker's upcoming sci-fi actioner 9.
- When John Goodman staggers through a rainstorm in the night, covered in mud, roaring like a beast. Or was that Raising Arizona?
- The moment when one of our heroes, Bishop (Lance Henriksen), is suddenly impaled by an enormous spike and raised up off the ground spewing "blood." Ah, right: That was Aliens.
- And, awwwww... such a cute-as-a-button kid hanging around with the heroes, serving little purpose except to increase our anxiety when the enemy attacks. That seems awfully familiar...
Has there ever been an action movie that is a great amalgam of other action movies?
Terminator Salvation director McG has constructed what may as well be the first cut-and-paste feature film. It's a flashback-inducing fever dream in which familiar ideas come so fast and furious that you have no room to think about the plot's confounding time-travel convolutions. “A person can go crazy thinking about this," groans the voice of Sarah Connor through a voice recorder. Viewers may conclude that's exactly what happened to these storytellers.
(Note: These are the screenwriting geniuses responsible for Catwoman and the unforgettable The Net 2.0.)
We're living in an age where to recycle is a virtue. But that doesn't hold true for movies, unless you bring something new to the process that infuses the result with freshness and usefulness. Compared to its already-derivative inspirations, Terminator: Salvation is too familiar, too frantic. It's so derivative, even its lessons seem wrung out.
Oh, from time to time there's an impressive flourish of cleverness in the action. There's an insane bravado in the film's gigantic chase sequence across a bridge. But that's not enough to justify the headache-inducing marathon of demolition derbies. It eats up the screen like some acidic secretion from other action movies. Any given five-minute stretch seems to be based on not one but several other popular sci-fi action films. It may well turn out to be a black hole, that sucks so many greater experiences into itself. It's telling that the character who gets the biggest cheer of the movie is, in fact, a sort of digital cut-and-paste taken from another film's footage.
There have been other arguments made in recent years that mainstream entertainment is no longer relating to real human experience anymore, because entertainment is feeding on itself, becoming more and more removed from anything relevant to our lives. I'm more inclined to say that this is nothing new: Storytelling has always been a matter of combining elements borrowed from other sources. There's nothing new under the sun.
But there's something to be said for combining ideas with creativity, and for fusing them into a meaningful whole, in which nothing is gratuitous.
Case in point: Moon, starring Sam Rockwell, will open soon. It's an amalgam of 2001: A Space Odyssey and several other sci-fi films. But it combines these elements with admirable cleverness. It gives us an interesting central character who wins our sympathies. Its special effects are employed in ways that create a mood and an environment we can believe in. It makes us think, ask questions, and want to watch it again. It's not perfect, but it gives us a unique experience that prods us to consider the human condition in new ways. I highly recommend it.
Any "meaning" in T4 is supplied in the form of obvious platitudes and shoved into the dialogue like vitamin tablets into a cake. That way we don't have to do any actual thinking for ourselves. It's pretty obvious that the movie is, for the most part, a desperate attempt to hold our attention through one severe, outlandish, preposterous crisis after another, based on what has worked in other movies, without a single original or interesting character to earn our sympathies.
Terminator Salvation has Sam Worthington, a heavily hyped talent from Australia who seems to be making a career of "re-making." He's already signed on for a remake of Red Dawn (I'm not making that up) and a remake of Clash of the Titans. (Maybe his performance in James Cameron's Avatar will give be as visionary as it's cracked up to be; that could help Worthington escape his likely nickname of "The Recycler.") He may as well be an actor receycled from other action actors, perhaps a fusion of Arnold Schwarzeneggar and Jason Statham.
Truth be told, Worthington's the most interesting presence in the film. But that's more of a slam against his costars than a compliment to him.
The less said about Helena Bonham Carter, the better. It seems like she's decided to draw from her worst big-screen turn — as the Bride of Frankenstein in Kenneth Branagh's laugh-out-loud production of Mary Shelley's Frankstein, instead of from her best work. How can this be the same actress we knew in A Room with a View, Howard's End, or even Fight Club?
What's concerns me most is this: Christian Bale, who is capable of subtlety and nuance (see his turn in Malick's The New World) seems increasingly crippled by Tom Cruise syndrome. He equates one-note intensity with acting. He chooses determination over dimension, angst over exploration. He looks like he is constantly suffering from a migraine. Even the skull-faced androids have more range than Bale in this movie. All of his energy is in his furrowed brow, giving us no sense of any intelligence behind those eyes. Apparently Bale demanded a revision of the script to give his character more screen time. That's a shame; his perpetual brooding burdens the movie, adding to what was already an excess of "grim and bear it."
It may be that his obvious anxiety comes from the fact that the script has given him ludicrous things to say. He's assigned to recap the plot for us every few minutes as if he's been informed that the theater is full of idiots. We know Connor's gone back in time to save his father in order to preserve hope for the world, and yet, late in the film, he's still explaining to his pregnant wife, "No Kyle Rees, no John Connor." The only way to make this John Connor seem like a leader is to make his followers little more than automatons... and that's the case here.
If anybody has done their career a favor in this film, it's Anton Yelchin, who somehow manages to play a convincing, younger version of the Michael Biehn character from the original film. And not once does he make anybody think of his delightfully funny turn as Chekov in Star Trek.
But Yelchin can't save the film. At this point, I doubt even James Cameron himself could pull this series from the damage it has done to itself. It's sinking farther and faster than the Aliens franchise did, diminishing the memory of its previous episodes by dulling the impact of its trademark names, images, and lines—recycling them until they give new meaning to the term "Post-Consumer Waste."
At the climax of the film, Christian Bale staggers into a factory where Terminators are made. He doesn't see anything there that we haven't seen before. "There are so many of them," he gasps, pointing out the obvious yet again. Yep. And yet, the more of them we see, the less interesting they become. That's how it is in this business. Too bad. There was a time when the sight of those red eyes sent shivers down my spine. The thrill is gone.
This franchise, like its villains, has become more machine than man. We'll have to hope that what Michael Ironside says early in the film is true: Every machine has an OFF switch.
Moviegoers... if you're out there reading this... you are the resistance.
Lake Tahoe (2009)
This review was originally published at Filmwell.
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[In Fernando Eimbcke's second feature, Lake Tahoe, a young man emerges from a car wreck and begins a long and maddening search for help. And it quickly becomes obvious that he's searching for something far more profound than a mechanic.
Eimbcke's film feels like a search as well. The filmmaker etablishes a rhythm of expansive, colorful, long-take shots (known to the pros as "master shots"). These scenes are interrupted by bold, sometimes lengthy, blackouts. And as we stare at those dark, blank screens, the story continues in sound. We never know where, or when, we'll be when the picture comes back on.]
[...so each of these marvelously composed shots are like still life paintings. They give us view of the sun-baked storefronts, the vacant streets, and the cluttered interiors of a quiet Mexican town. Eimbcke's canvases are full of revealing details, and he gives generous time to each setting. Actors often enter the scene late, or depart early, leaving us to gaze, wait, and wonder. The more we study the organization of colors, objects, architecture, characters, and space, the more we begin to guess that there is meaning in the arrangement. He never moves the camera during a shot, letting the energy and motion come from the actors… primarily the lean, contemplative youth named Juan (Diego Cataño).
Clearly, this is a film about something more than what the characters do. This progression of richly textured views throughout a Mexican town almost demands that we consider the history of a…]
[…and then, Juan’s red Nissan sedan enters this desolate scene and crosses the screen. The camera does not follow the car. As we continue to gaze at the once-again empty stretch of road, the importance of the car’s passage diminishes. The subject seems to shift. It’s not the car. It’s the absence. The open space. And the feeling that this pause instills in us lends a certain…]
[… but why do we only hear the car crash? Why these long blackouts between scenes?
Perhaps Eimbcke lacked the financing to to film a car wreck. But surely there's more than a low budget driving these decisions to keep certain things offscreen! The blackouts aren’t cop-outs. We’re meant to lean in and ask questions about the gaps. Did the driver fall asleep? And what would provoke someone on such a straight, open road to suddenly…]
[The day goes on like a nightmare. When Juan walks into an auto repair shop, it seems at first to be deserted. Then we hear a voice respond, “We’re closed.” But we never see the speaker. This whole world seems closed. Every location, every life seems to be stalled. Everything and everybody in this town is missing vital pieces …]
[… like Juan’s little brother who spends the day in a tent in the front yard. Their mother is almost invisible, lying in a blue bathtub behind a half-closed shower curtain. Only her hand holding a cigarette is visible. (When was the last time you saw an actor deliver a performance with only her hand and a cigarette?)]
[…a dog ever given a better performance than the beautiful golden boxer that plays Sica? With his back to the camera, the motionless canine becomes the compelling center of a remarkable scene in which…]
[Everywhere Juan goes, he’s entering situations that will help him consider ways to move through his depression.
As he continues his search for the harness, his requests for help from strangers often inspire the strangers to request help from him.
There’s the old mechanic, Don Heber (Hector Herrera), who might be able to help Juan fix his car. But Don Heber is much more interested in finding out what Juan can do to help him, or rather, his enormous boxer dog.
Then there’s Lucia (Daniela Valentine), a young single mother, who seems capable and even confident. But she also seems watchful for a babysitter. And there might be something more behind her question. Might Juan be father material?
One by one, we learn about the troubles and disappointments of these characters by looking over Juan’s shoulder. And one by one, we observe how they respond to those problems. Is Juan learning from their examples? There’s something hopeful in the way that Lucia and David respond to their own challenges with sudden decisions and cathartic action.
Lucia, disappointed that her evening plans have fallen apart, joins Juan in a few moments of solemn disappointment. But while Juan seems paralyzed, Lucia acts, seizing the moment for a gesture of profound (but rather extreme) consolation.
The most impulsive and endearing character of all, a lanky teen named David (Juan Carlos Lara II), is obsessed with Bruce Lee and Shaolin workouts. This seems, at first, to be just an adolescent’s obsession. But David’s single-minded commitment to sparring with a difficult world enables him to rocket through his days, weathering various setbacks, and maintaining a “can-do” spirit. David’s an unlikely mentor for Juan, but if anybody’s likely to get that car fixed, it’s him. “If you think something is impossible,” he says, “you will make it impossible.” And before it’s over, Juan will try his hand at…]
[Juan also learns from his encounters with his elders. Some are gruff, some suspicious, some eager to evangelize. (During breakfast, David’s mother reads Scripture verses about the resurrection. Juan suddenly excuses himself from the table.) Others greet him with a caring embrace.
Later, when Juan drives the old mechanic, Don Heber, out on a search for something lost, the search leads to an unexpected discovery. Perhaps the loss was for the best. Perhaps the thing lost has arrived somewhere better. Considering Juan’s own trials, this suggests a new perspective…]
[… obvious comparison, of course, is Jim Jarmusch. Jarmusch’s deadpan, long-take scenes in Stranger Than Paradise and Down By Law introduced me to this kind of storytelling, to a connect-the-excerpts approach. But Jarmusch works in wry comedy, absurdity, and existentialism. Eimbcke’s style draws me toward empathy rather than irony. He has more in common, I think, with director Aki Kaurismaki, finding warmth, humor, and the possibility of grace in these ragged environments. And his eyes for painterly settings and dilapidated structures recalls The Man Without a Past. ]
[… seems at times to meander, but Eimbcke has a clear destination in mind, and we can sense it. Sure enough, in the last 20 minutes, we learn things that are both surprising and inevitable. What else could the movie’s secret have been? Once we learn the cause of Juan’s malaise, images we have already considered take on extraordinary significance, such as the sight of Juan reaching into the cradle and …]
[… and I find myself wanting to spend time in this neighborhood. These streets and storefronts, which once seemed so empty and lifeless, are now so full of possibility.
But I’m also beginning to wonder if Eimbcke isn’t encouraging us to consider Juan’s experience as a metaphor for this whole Mexican town.
The town seems like a ruins. Something has broken down. An authority, a source of help and guidance and provision, has vanished from the world. The glory days are over. The absence is palpable and profound.
But hope can be found through action, as these characters prove capable of surprising tenderness, generosity, and trust. What is broken can be repaired. Those missing pieces can be replaced. And this fatherless boy may yet shake off the paralyzing malaise and learn to take responsibility, to find his way in the....]
*Lake Tahoe has been received by subscribers to Film Movement. It will become available on DVD everywhere in November.
Let's Save Paste!
Those of you who know the substantial piece of publishing that Rolling Stone once was have probably been saddened by what the magazine has become: an ordinary catalog of advertising, occasionally interrupted by an article worth reading.
Even worse, music-lovers lately mourned the loss of No Depression's print magazine.
But Paste?
Paste?
Eugene Peterson, who gave us "The Message," is in Seattle on Saturday.
Eugene Peterson will lecture, read & receive the annual Denise Levertov award, Sat. at 7:30.
The event is free & open to the public.
I am so grateful for Peterson. I'm halfway through his new book, Tell It Slant, and it's changing the way I think about storytelling. I'm also grateful for his words about Through a Screen Darkly, which appear on the book's back cover. And I get a little giddy thinking about how Bono carries around copies of The Message and gives them away to people who have questions about his faith.
I encourage you to take this opportunity to hear Peterson speak. If you're in the Seattle area, this is a rare and exciting opportunity.
Browser: Save Paste Magazine! Daniel Day-Lewis Dances! Movies Based on a True (False) Story
1.
SAVE PASTE MAGAZINE.
Read this urgent message from Over the Rhine and Paste magazine.
2.
The return of Daniel Day-Lewis. And you've never seen him do this before.
Here's the trailer for Rob Marshall's new musical: "Nine."
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJpwwdOomtY
In HD at Apple.
3.
Six "Based on a True Story" Movies that bear little, if any, resemblance to the truth. (Caution: Naughty words.)
I've Caught Aaron Strumpel Fever
The only 5-star album I've heard thus far this year. If Nine Inch Nails sang the Psalms and invited avant garde jazzbos The Art Ensemble of Chicago to the studio, it might sound like this. - Paste music critic Andy Whitman
In the last several years, I've been excited about a few artists and a few albums, and it's been easy to see. I've shouted myself hoarse here on the blog and Facebook, urging people to check them out.
The records that have lit me on fire include:
- Arcade Fire - Funeral and Neon Bible
- Andrew Bird - Armchair Apocrypha
- The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
- Over the Rhine - Ohio and The Trumpet Child
- Joe Henry - Tiny Voices and Civilians
- Sam Phillips - A Boot and a Shoe and Don't Do Anything
and there have been a couple of little-known artists I wanted the world to discover, like
- The Ragbirds - Yes Nearby
and
- People You Meet - People You Meet.
Alas, People You Meet broke up after one sensational album. After a follow-up and a live album, The Ragbirds are still going, and I can't wait to hear what they do next.
But today I'm here to recommend that you invest in this guy.
Aaron Strumpel
Get your hands on his new album, Elephants, and stuff it deeply into your ears. Turn it up loud so that you can explore the mix.
Strumpel won the Bandspotting contest at the Calvin music festival this year, a contest previously won by Son Lux. (And then Son Lux went on to earn all kinds of raves on NPR.)
So you can expect you'll be hearing about him.
Why not climb aboard right now?
Full disclosure: Yes, I know the producer. But I swear to you, I didn't know he'd produced it when I heard it for the first time. I wrote to him afterwards and my suspicions were confirmed. And I didn't know he was capable of such complex, exquisite production. I've heard other things he worked on and enjoyed them, but nothing made me want to grab the microphone away from Pitchfork or Paste to say, "Music lovers, wake up! Don't let this one pass you by!" So trust me on this one.
If you won't take my word for it, listen to Andy Whitman, music critic for Paste:
"So far it's my favorite music released this year."
and
"The only 5-star album I've heard thus far this year. If Nine Inch Nails sang the Psalms and invited avant garde jazzbos The Art Ensemble of Chicago to the studio, it might sound like this."
So... wouldn't you throw down a few bucks to spend some time with this album?
I'll be writing an honest-to-goodness review when I get the chance.
Is U2 stealing the title of their next album from another singer?
In short, it appears so.
Bono has declared that U2's next album is called Songs of Ascent.
With that in mind, it's worth taking note of this: http://bit.ly/1735Tl
"Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief," Bono once sang. And it's true. No harm done here. U2's been paraphrasing and expanding on the Psalms their entire career. Why stop now?
Flannery O'Connor in the Criterion Collection
Here's a new essay at Criterion about their latest release: Wise Blood.
I've heard very mixed things about this film, insofar as it represents (or fails to) the story O'Connor wrote. Will you be picking up this DVD? Have you seen the film? I'd love to hear your take on it.Read more
Up, Up... and a Rave!
Hey, guess what! Looks like this new Pixar movie might be worth seeing!
Yep, the latest film from the most consistently impressive filmmaking team at work in the world today is almost here. I'm so thrilled to be reviewing movies in the age of Pixar. What a joy to get to see their films with audiences while the paint is still fresh on the canvas.
I said it last year, and I'll say it again: If this thing is worthy of a Best Picture nomination, let's start making noise about it. Last year was another embarrassment to the Academy, in my opinion, as they passed over WALL-E for The Reader and... well, in my opinion... four other films that didn't affect or inspire me half as much as Pixar's movie. Most feature films have so many visual effects added to them, I don't see why animation should be boxed into its own category. (The Return of the King was half-animated, wasn't it? So was Benjamin Button. They weren't boxed into their own category. They racked up so many nominations it wasn't even funny, and Return of the King won Best Picture.) If Pixar deserves it, and I suspect that they will... then this should be the year that the pathetic excuses are brushed aside and the studio is given the accolades they've earned.
Here come the raves: Todd McCarthy and Roger Ebert.
And tomorrow, I anticipate a tidal wave of reviews as the film opens the Cannes festival.
I am so pleased for Pete Docter and the Pixar team, buttons might just start popping off my shirt.
Browser: ArtsandFaith.com, Pixar Wine, Nick Cave's Gladiator 2, St. Vincent... and Love.
I'm sorry that things have been slow on the blog lately. I've just wrapped up an essay for an upcoming issue of Image, and I'm burning the midnight oil as I revise Raven's Ladder for an early 2010 publication.
But I've collected a few links I thought you might enjoy:
1.
Speaking of Image...
ArtsandFaith.com is, to my knowledge, the busiest, best, and longest-running online community for people interested in movies, music, visual arts, literature, politics, and faith. I was there for its first manifestation as a discussion board on a film critic's site.
Then the community moved, and it became the property of Promontory Artists Association, the non-profit arts organization I co-founded.
When other endeavors demanded more of my time, it became clear that the connection with Promontory had run its course. Alan Thomas took the wheel and steered it skillfully for several years. For his hard work and participation there, I'm grateful.
This week, the board moved on again. This time, it has become the property of Image journal. And still, the board remains a thriving, unpredictable, exciting community with many of the same remarkable participants who were there at the beginning.
Check us out at artsandfaith.com, but note that the board is in a transitional period right now, and is likely to look rather different within a few weeks.
2.
John Lasseter doesn't just make Pixar movies for us to enjoy. He makes wine too. I love this guy.
3.
Nick Cave thought up a sequel for Gladiator?
4.
New, from St. Vincent! It's called "Actor Out of Work"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZW9NYX6JZA
5.
It's May, the sun is shining, and love is in the air.
So let's all tune in to some wise words from Brian "Dr. Love" Volck.