200 OK

So we went to see the new Terminator film with Christian Bale as John Connor on it’s opening night last night. Now we all know Christian Bale is an alcoholic mental swine listen to this when he was filming said film if you don’t believe me, seemingly he was ‘in character’ but we all know hes mad. Anyhoo enough of all that, as long as he blows shit up and stuff who cares right?

I wont go into the plot of the film too much as I have (like many people) a knack of throwing out spoilers, normally unintentionally but sometimes not, usually depending on if i like you or if i’v had much to drink; or a combination of the two. The basic premise is that it is a follow on from the last installment of the franchise set in about 2018  where the now older John Conner is involved in a war against Skynet and all those nasty looking terminator dudes.

The first thing that struck me about this film was the attention to detail and all round awesome way they managed to depict a post apocalyptic future. Imagine the mad max films but more down to earth with a huge budget and you’ll be getting just how good the setting is. There is this constant grey like tint in all the outside scenes which adds to the atmosphere no end without making it too dark. I imagine this might be some kind of digital filter post production but it really sets the scene. Added to the fantastic props and urban somewhat punky like costumes (done well not cheesey) this really is one of the best post apocalyptic settings I have seen done. To those who have played and marvelled at the computer game Fallout 3, just imagine that but in real life. So good was the setting that you kinda get lost in it and don’t notice some of the cheesy dialogue and one liners that is the staple part of any action film for the first hour or so.

I say the first hour or so because trust me on this, the last half of the film does indeed chuck large lumps of cheddar at you from afar in relation to references to the previous installments, some chronic cgi moments and an all round vomit inducing (from all the cheese) ending which tries to pull at your heart strings ( ) but fails, to be honest I laughed and cringed at the same time.

The problem stems like it does in a lot of sequels as far down the line as this is that they start off slow and set the scene, in fact for the first hour you could of never watched any of the previous films and could just get lost in the atmosphere and the action. However they then need to slot their selves into the previous story lines from the previous films before the time is up and to satisfy that need to fit into a chain of events. There is this one part towards the end and you’ll know exactly the bit i’m talking about when you go see it that could of just been left out to save on cheese as whatever ‘expectation’ there was to do it for fans, it just came across as silly. That is not to say the plot does not flow, all parts tie in and you are not left with the ‘wtf’ factor at the end plus they have left the story open for further installments (no surprise there). Half of me thinks they could of taken the back story of the character Sam Worthington plays and done something alot more with it and made the film about that instead of jamming the plot into a box to fit the back story of all the other films. 

It is well worth a watch and is eye candy personified, at its core its a war film and with the settling manages this well. Does it live up to terminator 2? no fucking way I doubt you could, there just isn’t the same heart to it as that film however much money they’v obviously chucked into it.

Mr Bale gets out done and out acted to buggery by Sam Worthington in much the same way Heath Ledger did in the Dark Knight. Its a 12A so don’t expect much in the way of tits, swearing and all out gore, this like many 12A’s means extra explosions, gun fire and dodgy hand to hand combat to offset this (i guess these things don’t warp kids mind’s as much as a nice pair of boobies, go figure).

7/10