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Terminator 4 (Spoilers)

SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
So I saw it. The movie was fairly entertaining, if a bit hard to swallow at times. Effects were shiny.

Things I liked:
The square-wave sound effects for the Terminators. It just felt really appropriate and awesomely alien to have the Terminators given such an inorganic sound. Easily my favorite sound effect in the movie. Points off for making every bit of exposed flesh in marcus' body radiate this sound at stupidly loud volumes, though. Seems to reduce his value as an infiltrator.
Old-school Ahnold. The entire fight sequence was seriously entertaining and never really felt forced. The fact that the Terminators were so hard to kill played out well here.
Terminator models fit together like clockwork. The transport housed two Hunter-Killers and at least one Harvester, which itself housed two Mototerminators, which no doubt could launch Gydrobots, who could probably release passive-aggressive greeting cards at the insurgency.
Michael Ironside.

Things I didn't like:
The ending was stupid. I would have much preferred the original concept, where John Connor dies, with his consciousness and flesh being installed on the experimental chassis housing Wright. Makes a lot more sense to me than battlefield open heart surgery and a sudden feel-good recovery. The film was reduced to a generic blow 'em up summer action fest with effectively [B]one[/B] significant thing achieved since the start of the film (Find Kyle Reese).
The extremely [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyetic"]Toyetic[/URL] handling of every Terminator. People would scream out the names of various models for no apparent reason other than to be obvious and namedrop. Some seemed to be just plain silly.
The music sucked.
Michael Ironside was killed off.

Observations:
Skynet is Mordor! Same exact visual style, same exact concept. One could easily have swapped with the other. Skynet even had the crazy person-in-command with its freaky top-floor observation post.
Terminators are apparently impossible to kill with anything but John Connor's bitchin' robot-smashing rifle. Throw them off a cliff, leap from a moving aircraft, direct high-explosive round to the chest, molten metal...nothing seemed to even slow them down.
Michael Ironside should be discovered to have been a secret new Terminator model in the next film.
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Comments

  • JohnnyOnTheSpotJohnnyOnTheSpot Banned by request
    No Spoilers! Damn it I should read these things before I look...
  • Saw it last night, twas good.

    The cameo was the best part, but my friend spoiled it for me :(
  • CurZCurZ Resident Hippy
    I liked it.

    And +1 regarding the sounds of the terminators. I'm ridiculously sensitive emotionally to sound, so that just took the whole movie from good to awesome for me.
  • Random ChaosRandom Chaos Actually Carefully-selected Order in disguise
    Saw it. Was fun. Not what I would call a superior movie, but then you don't expect plot from a terminator movie :)
  • WORFWORF The Burninator
    I don't know, Terminator 2 has a fairly decent plot.

    It was a fun movie but it doesn't beat the first two. I think I prefer it to the third though.

    The cameo was great, they obviously put a lot of effort into getting it to look right since it was so much better than the [SP]young Professor X[/SP] cameo in Wolverine. It was also good to see they made the T-800 scary again, they kind of lose something against the T-1000 and the silly T-X.

    I was glad to see the Terminator theme and some familar queues used in the movie.

    Worf
  • Well the reason why the T-800 weren't portrayed as scary against the T-1000 and the T-X is because Arnie was a GOOD GUY!
  • WORFWORF The Burninator
    Yes and in T2 you know he was still very dangerous and just about unstopable.

    In 3 he didn't seem so tough.

    Worf
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    That's probably because 3 is a steaming pile of crap.
  • MessiahMessiah Failed Experiment
    Saw it today, and what can I tell you? It rocked.

    Loved robots since I was 6 or 7 (and got my first Transformers album), and have had T2 as a favourite film since it came out, and this was nearly as good.

    Am I the only one who doesnt like Michael Ironside?

    99% good: Mototerminators rocked. Marcus rocked. Awesomely hot american-indian chick (who looks like my first gf) rocked (mostly because she was hot). Sound effects rocked (mustve been something wrong at your showing Sanfam, cause it wasnt bad at all when Marcus moved at our cinema).

    1% bad: ("His heart cant take it.." + "He has a strong heart" hint.. hint..)

    I love being able to read films though, and this handled it perfectly otherwise, like Marcus being half robot, figured that out from a couple of early scenes, nicely done.
  • StingrayStingray Elite Ranger
    [QUOTE=Messiah;182890]Am I the only one who doesnt like Michael Ironside?[/QUOTE]

    Maybe because he usually plays a tough SOB? I like him. He's a bit like James Woods in any action flick, he's part of the furniture. :D

    [QUOTE]1% bad: ("His heart cant take it.." + "He has a strong heart" hint.. hint..)[/QUOTE]

    I didn't like the ending either, in Terminator movies someone's cool always has to die. Killing off characters sucks. I didn't care for it in BSG, I don't care for it in general. There should be a law against that.
  • CurZCurZ Resident Hippy
    [QUOTE=Messiah;182890]Am I the only one who doesnt like Michael Ironside?[/QUOTE]

    Yes.
  • MessiahMessiah Failed Experiment
    [QUOTE=Stingray;182891]Maybe because he usually plays a tough SOB?[/QUOTE]

    Not because he always plays a tough SOB, but because his acting is 2-dimensional. His always playing the same kind of characters do weigh in though.
  • SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
    That's exactly the reason we lvoe him so much!

    [QUOTE=Messiah;182890]Sound effects rocked (mustve been something wrong at your showing Sanfam, cause it wasnt bad at all when Marcus moved at our cinema).[/QUOTE]

    I don't remember anything less than complete praise from my post regarding sound effects! It's still one of best executed portions of the movie.
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    [QUOTE=Messiah;182890]Am I the only one who doesnt like Michael Ironside?[/QUOTE]

    Yes.
  • StingrayStingray Elite Ranger
    [QUOTE=Messiah;182894]Not because he always plays a tough SOB, but because his acting is 2-dimensional. His always playing the same kind of characters do weigh in though.[/QUOTE]

    3-dimensionality is overrated. Many cult movies contain 2-dimensional characters. Darth Vader isn't particularly subtle. Khan didn't come over as particularly sophisticated. Angel Eyes was just mean and greedy. And yet they were great.

    You can't blame Michael Ironside for doing what he does best. We've seen what happens when actors try something they aren't good at. :D
  • MessiahMessiah Failed Experiment
    [QUOTE=Stingray;182899]You can't blame Michael Ironside for doing what he does best. We've seen what happens when actors try something they aren't good at. :D[/QUOTE]

    Youre right Stingray, though I find that he is more like an actor playing a badass rather than an actual badass on screen.

    This is what I was referencing to Sanfam:

    [QUOTE=Sanfam;181932]Points off for making every bit of exposed flesh in marcus' body radiate this sound at stupidly loud volumes, though. Seems to reduce his value as an infiltrator.[/QUOTE]

    Though youre right about another thing, an audience can make or break a film. First time I saw Starship Troopers, the audience were hooting whenever something they thought was cool happened, like when the generals head was cut off. tsk tsk. Really hated that movie, ended up rooting for the aliens.
    Then, when I finally saw it on dvd, it was a lot better.
  • FreejackFreejack Jake the Not-so-Wise
    The audience can also make a mediocure movie a lot of fun. Years ago I saw the inaccurately named Three Musketeers (inaccurate becuase there were very few muskets and four individuals) in a sold out theater. Why the Three Musketeers was sold out, I have no idea...

    Anyway, the full house just had fun with the movie, including mouthing and singing along with the introductory vignettes , once of which was a 'no talking' short that included a hot blonde and tongue play with a coke cup...

    Jake
  • SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
    The audience is key to the mood of a film. That's part of why I love premier showing so much: The audience is so much more enthusiastic about the film than the usual group of viewers. Hot Fuzz and Star Trek are a perfect case of this. With Star Trek, the audience was extremely into everything said and done, but wasn't too strong to laugh at some of the lensflares and get interactive with one another when the projector broke during the previews. Hot Fuzz should just be just plain obvious.
  • CurZCurZ Resident Hippy
    I hate seeing movies in cinemas because of the audience. When I watch a movie, I want complete silence and no distractions.
  • WORFWORF The Burninator
    If people talk or are obnoxious during a movie, then that's annoying (I had a bunch of kids kicked out of The Bourne Ultimatum for causing trouble).

    But if it's laughing or reacting to moments in the movie, that's fine because most likely I'm laughing too.

    Worf
  • DarthCaligulaDarthCaligula Elite Ranger
    I think I agree with Worf. I don't mind the everyone else laughing at certain parts or things like that, but I hate it when people talk a lot during a movie. I really liked it when I went to see Kill Bill, and I was the only one in the theater (it had been showing already by then, and was actually near the end of it's cycle through theaters). When I saw Kill Bill 2, there were two or three other people in there though!
  • SpiritOneSpiritOne Magneto ABQ NM
    Funny you mention Starship Troopers Messiah, I watched it tonight. Sometimes I love to take a cheesy scifi movie, and perform my own MST3K with it. And man, is that a great movie to do it to.

    I even had my wife rolling at one point. Its the scene where Rico, Dizy and Gary Busey's kid are joining the roughnecks and they ask about the Lt (played by Michael Ironsides incidentally) and the token black guy in the audience pops around the corner to talk about he saved his life. He just happens to be wearing this goofy looking (i dont know maybe) shark tooth necklace thats like 8" long. So I add libed "and bought me this bitchin necklace"

    I suppose you have to see the scene in context, but gosh I had fun tonight.
  • StingrayStingray Elite Ranger
    SST is a cult movie. It doesn't take itself too seriously and makes for a fun evening. Next time you'll have king crab legs for lunch or dinner you'll think, damn those bugs taste great. :D

    I hardly go to the movies these days, I prefer the private DVD session much more. I can't stand the stale smell of popcorn and/or nicotine. I don't need an audience, while I'm watching the movie. You can stop the movie whenever you like. Screen size has no bearing whatsoever of whether I'm going to enjoy a movie or not. If the movie is really bad, people will start laughing at the wrong places.

    But maybe that's just me.
  • CurZCurZ Resident Hippy
    In your home you can also control the lighting, and probably won't have a big, bright, green emergency exit sign right next to the screen :indymad:
  • SanfamSanfam I like clocks.
    Starship Troopers has some of the best fascist propaganda since World War II. I love it just for that, so anything else is a bonus.
  • CurZCurZ Resident Hippy
    I *heart* Paul Verhoeven for what he did with Robocop and Starship Troopers.
  • BigglesBiggles <font color=#AAFFAA>The Man Without a Face</font>
    [url]http://www.hlj.com/product/YMT34755[/url]
  • StingrayStingray Elite Ranger
    [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5U8DA79_28c"]"Are you doing your part?"[/URL]

    Seriously, what's not to like? Look at them babes. :D I got this flick on special edition DVD. I guess I'm a fan of the original.

    Not so sure about the direct-to-video sequels... but then it's hard to top the first one.
  • I never was a great fan of Starship Troopers the movie....sure, I guess its great, but compared to the book, its micemeat.

    Also considering the fact that they renamed the film to Starship Troopers when they realized the plot of their movie resembled the book. They just changed the character names and setting.
  • Starship Troopers 3 was hilarious! It was campy to the MAX!

    And take [I]that[/I] religion!
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