Author: Alton Williams

Terminator Salvation ****½

Back in 1984 a little known film director by the name of James Cameron directed a low budget sci-fi movie called The Terminator. While not a big box office success in its own right it kicked off one of the most successful sci-fi movie franchises of all time and turned Cameron into one of the most successful and critically acclaimed directors. In 1991 Cameron followed it up with a big budget sequel in Terminator 2: Judgement Day, a film that was, at the time, the most expensive ever made and that raised the bar for visual effects higher than ever before. 2003 saw the long awaited release of the third film in the series with Cameron-less Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, directed by Jonathan Mostow. Despite a generally positive reception by critics, however, many fans weren’t very impressed with that film, many criticising it for being too soft when compared with its predecessors and for essentially rehashing many elements of the first two movies, even though it did at least allow fans to see Judgement Day come to fruition at last, with the machines finally taking over, paving the way for the actual war between man and machine to be shown, which, after all, is what the fans really have really wanted to see all this time. And now, six years on, fans have finally gotten their wish of seeing the war that was promised since Cameron’s original movie, although, if early word of mouth is to be believed it may not be quite the wish fulfilment that fans have been hoping for all this time. Since Terminator Salvation entered development it has faced constant criticism from long time fans of the Terminator franchise with a lot of negative word of mouth spreading, particularly with regard to the choice of director – McG. Best known for his quite fun but extremely forgettable Charlie’s Angels movies, the announcement that McG would direct this fourth entry in the franchise has enraged fans who have been constantly adamant that his involvement would ruin it even after footage was released suggesting that he may not be that bad a choice after all. Aggravating fan opinion even further is the decision to make the film a US PG-13 rating (as opposed to the harder R rating awarded to the first three films) in order to maximise the potential audience, or, in other words, make more money. Poor reviews and disappointing box office numbers from across the pond appear to confirm the worst fears of the fans, although there are certain things that still suggest that this is a film with a lot going for it, particularly the announcement that Christian Bale, fresh off his success with last year’s The Dark Knight would be taking on the role of John Connor. Bale is known for choosing quality film projects and his involvement is certainly a good omen. So does this film continue his winning streak or is it his first big mistake? Read on to find out.

In 2003 death row convict Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) is executed shortly after signing away his body to Cyberdyne researcher Dr Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter) for some kind of experimentation. In 2018 the world has been decimated following the events of Judgement Day in which most of the human race was annihilated in a nuclear holocaust triggered by the artificially intelligent Skynet and now the survivors struggle to survive with their only hope coming in the form of the Resistance movement headed by General Ashdown (Michael Ironside) and General Losenko (Ivan G’Vera). A major figure within the resistance cells of California is John Connor (Christian Bale), who has been destined to lead the resistance since before he was born, and at his side is his wife Kate Connor (Bryce Dallas Howard), who keeps him going even in the face of hopelessness. John Connor thinks that he knows the future but the future he has been led to believe in by his now deceased mother is altered when Marcus Wright shows up, his last memory being of his experience on death row. Unsure of what Marcus is or whether he can be trusted, John finds that Marcus may be his only hope when he learns that Skynet has captured Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin), the man destined to travel back in time and become John’s father, and with the resistance about to carry out a massive assault against Skynet’s base of operations in San Francisco, despite the fact that countless people are being held prisoner, John, along with co-fighters Barnes (Common) and Blair Williams (Moon Bloodgood) must rescue Kyle and all the other prisoners before the future is changed forever.

Right from the outset it is clear that Terminator Salvation is a very different machine to its predecessors. Whereas all three previous Terminator movies, as well as TV series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (which exists in a parallel continuity to movies three and four), were set in the present day and revolved around terminator being sent back from the future to wipe out the resistance before the war has even begun, this film instead shows us the actual war itself. As such, it is a completely kind of film, taking the route of a war movie rather than the chase movie formula of the first three films. And right from the start Terminator Salvation is a full-on war movie. Following the opening scene involving the execution of Marcus Wright and a textual back-story (the film doesn’t get bogged down in what has come before) we are taken straight into the action with an intense battle sequence. This is where the film really succeeds – the action. Even with the lower rating awarded to this film the action is still quite brutal with the action sequences having a very gritty feel to them that really heightens the realism, giving it all the look and feel of a real war movie. Much of the effect can be attributed to the effects which are excellent in every regard. Both CGI and practical effects are used, being combined effectively to create machines and environments that look real, even down to the sounds they make. A wide variety of different machines are featured in the film, each impressively realized and each serving its own unique purpose. It is clear that a lot of thought has gone into it and, despite many so-called fans panning the film, fans should be receptive to the inclusions of models such as the T-600s referred to in the original Terminator movie as well as the origins of the T-800 (including a [sort of] cameo appearance by Arnold Schwarzenegger). There is also excellent costume and set design with the look of a post apocalyptic world being perfectly captured. The post apocalyptic landscapes of both Los Angeles and San Francisco are rendered impressively and convincingly, and if ever there were an apocalypse this is how I imagine everything would look afterwards. The raw, gritty feel is also aided by the drained palette, with everything having a grey tint to it that truly emphasises the grim, gloomy nature of the world in which the film is set. At times you might wish for a bit of humour or lightness but ultimately it would likely lessen the impact of the overall film. From a visual standpoint director McG handles the film extremely well but there are some flaws in the plot department, with certain plot elements letting the film down a bit. The narrative is somewhat lacking meaning that many sequences just feel linked together without a true purpose and the fact that we are just thrown straight into the action many years after the end of Terminator 3 means that there is a burning feeling that we have missed out on something. A lead-in from the last movie would really have made the plot flow better as it would have allowed for more developed character introductions and we could have seen the development of the resistance rather than just being thrown in at the deep end.

As far as the characters are concerned we know enough about the primary protagonists to care (at least if you have seen the other films) but some of the secondary ones aren’t nearly developed enough. This doesn’t reflect on the quality of the performances, however. Christian Bale easily makes the lead role his own taking the reins from Nick Stahl, who played John Connor in the previous film. Connor’s gritty, gravely portrayal is perfectly fitting for a character whose situation is as desperate as the one he plays here. Despite the strengths of Bale’s performance, however, he once again gets out-acted by one of his co-stars (after Heath Ledger’s scene-stealing turn in The Dark Knight) with Sam Worthington being the real stand-out of the film. Worthington has been touted as the next big thing for some time now and it is easy to see why. He shows himself to be a very capable actor, perfectly capturing the inner conflict of his character when he learns what he really is. He is certainly a star to look out for in the future. Another star of the moment Anton Yelchin (who also appeared as Chekov in Star Trek) also delivers a great performance, in the role of Kyle Reese. Bryce Dallas Howard takes over from Claire Danes (from Terminator 3) in the role of Kate Connor, delivering a performance that captures both of the sensitivity and toughness of her character, although it is a shame that there isn’t more time spent on exploring the relationship between Kate and John. Helena Bonham Carter is also excellent in her all too brief role, about which I won’t give away here. The remainder of the cast get little chance to really impress with Moon Bloodgood, Common and the always excellent Michael Ironside only being given very small roles to play. Overall, Terminator Salvation is a film that really cannot be compared to its predecessors. However, on its own terms it stands a terrific action movie that is bolstered by some strong performances even if it is lacking a bit in the plot department. It may not completely satisfy some of the Terminator purists but most fans should find it an enjoyable viewing experience that is definitely worth watching even if it doesn’t quite live up to the extremely high expectations many have had for it.

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Review by Robert Mann BA (Hons)

I fondly remember sitting in my kitchen and watching Evil Dead 2: Dead By Dawn on the fuzzy little 14 inch TV when it screened late at night on Channel 4 when I was a young lad. It was exactly the kind of film I had always wanted to see, a natural extension into extremer territories from an earlier defining film; Beetlejuice. Whilst Tim Burton’s comic-horror masterpiece had a narrative to tell and characters to derive laughter and feelings from, Sam Raimi’s comic-horror masterpiece was a piece of Looney Tunes writ-large. Bruce Campbell was a Wile Coyote, a Daffy Duck, ripe for extreme violence and the willing butt of all jokes. The whole glorious mess was coupled with buckets of blood, gore and mayhem, stop-motion creatures and a great finale that paved the way for the even more cartoony (and often unfairly maligned) Army Of Darkness.

Army Of Darkness represented Raimi’s last foray into comic-horror, since then he’s forged a rather successful career from applying his wild and scrappy style to the Western (The Quick and the Dead), baseball (For The Love of the Game) and superheroes (Spiderman), not to mention abandoning his style to make the under-rated gem A Simple Plan. But now he returns to the manic tics that made his name with the basic, schlocky jumps of Drag Me To Hell.

From the off you are plunged back into the good ol’ world of Sam Raimi horror director thanks to a brief prologue that will remind you just how loud a sound mix on a film can go, and from the flat, ludicrous dialogue down to the brilliant snap-to-title edit, you know that Raimi is turning up the dial marked ‘mad’ and ‘fun’.

Taking on the Bruce Campbell role of ‘human punchbag’ is Alison Lohman, she plays a loan officer with a good heart, a nice boyfriend (Justin Long) and a shot at an assistant manager position; she just has to make more ‘tough decisions’. Naturally her next customer is a delightfully decrepit gypsy woman called Mrs. Ganush, played so beautifully by Lorna Raver. Raimi revels in making Ganush as sickly as possible, she’s coughing and spluttering, bile-like ooze dribbling from her lips, yellow false teeth removed whenever possible, and a distinct resemblance to those good ol’ ‘Hell Hags’ from the Evil Dead movies.

When Lohman’s Christine denies Ganush a loan, the gypsy drops to her knees and begs only to be removed by security guards. However Ganush does not stop there, with a car park tussle that plays with the shock-tactics of horror and the bonkers inventiveness of Tex Avery, Raimi seems to be operating from excised ideas from Ash’s duel with Evil Ash. For Evil Dead fans this is very familiar ground, for newcomers expecting the usual flacid horror moves of the cookie-cutter fare such as The Uninvited, Mirrors or unlimited Asian-cinema remakes this is a plunge into a whole ‘new’ world. Raimi is clearly having a ball and he has two incredibly game cast members to pit against one another, the scene switching expertly from jumps to yucks to laughs.

Once Christine is cursed Raimi’s pace is quite relentless with the evil spirit hounding Christine turning up to fling her around like a rag doll or vomit maggots into her face. Raimi throws in some new fancy tricks whilst recycling plenty of old ones and for the first half of the film it’s an absolutely delightful fun fair spook house experience. Unfortunately things get a bit slack after a seance scene, which borrows so much from Evil Dead 2 it almost seems like a mini-remake. Further elaboration of the film’s plot would be a bit of a spoiler, but the final act is pretty soggy in comparison to some of the more inspired set-pieces of earlier and the plot takes some extremely predictable and poorly executed turns.

However, what Drag Me To Hell has that barely any films have had coming out of the Hollywood system of late – especially horror films – is a sense of fun, pure silly, roller-coaster fun. Raimi can, better than any other director, work an audience like a maestro and here he is showing that he’s still got what it takes to make an audience leap from their seat, almost throw up in disgust and then find themselves laughing. Drag Me To Hell is no masterpiece, but it’s a damn good ride.