Terminator 2: Judgement Day. A Review

TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY

The war between humans and machines continues in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. The sequel to The Terminator more than equals its source material. A richer, deeper film with visual effects that still hold up, Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a great thrill ride. 

Narrated in voiceover by Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), we learn that the artificial intelligence known as Skynet continues battling the human resistance for control. Skynet sends into the past a new Terminator, the T-1000 (Robert Patrick), which can change shapes and is made out of almost indestructible liquid metal. Having failed to kill John Connor before he was born, Skynet now plans to kill him as a child.

Under the disguise of a police officer, the T-1000 has tracked down John Connor (Edward Furlong). John is making do with his newest foster parents, with Sarah locked up in a mental institution, her stories about the past believed to be deranged ramblings. It looks like the T-1000 will complete his mission. However, the Resistance has its own Terminator. It is a modified T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger). John is terrified of both Terminators but eventually learns that the T-800 has been reprogrammed to be John's protector, not murderer.

The T-800 realizes that the T-1000 has already murdered John's foster parents to get to him. John now is determined to rescue his mother, with whom he has a strained relationship, from the mental hospital. He also orders the T-800 to not kill people, which the Terminator is obliged to obey. The rescue works, though coincidentally Sarah had managed to make an escape attempt that very night.

Despite their differences, John and Sarah now go into the desert to acquire weapons and escape into Mexico. She also sees John bonding with the T-800 in a way that he hasn't with anyone. A dream about Judgment Day, when Skynet will unleash a nuclear holocaust, convinces her that Skynet can and should be stopped. She learns that Cyberdyne researcher Miles Dyson (Joe Morton) will have a breakthrough that will start the rise of Skynet. She sneaks off to kill Dyson, with John and the T-800 in hot pursuit. Will she be able to kill someone who technically has done nothing wrong? Will the T-1000 find them? It will be a battle to the bitter end to save humanity, a battle where not everyone survives. 

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a sequel where I do not think that you need to see the original to follow the plot. James Cameron, who returns to direct the film and who cowrite the screenplay with William Wisher, gives the viewer a bit of a reprise through Sarah's voiceovers. The film was wise to limit these voiceovers and let the story play out. It also was wise in having some of those voiceovers give us Sarah's thoughts. We see Sarah as both despairing and hopeful. Hamilton has a wonderful monologue where the audience sees John interact with the T-800. 

This bit of respite allows us to see that at this moment John is not the great leader of the Resistance. He is a kid, one who wanted a father figure and found one in the most unlikely of beings. Hamilton conveyed Sarah's sanity, intelligence and strength when in the hospital and her escape. We also see the human side when she struggles to kill Miles. 

I think one of Terminator 2's great strengths is that it takes the premise seriously. The film, both in its various action scenes and quieter moments, does not play the situations for straight-out laughs. That is not to say that Terminator 2 does not have a bit of humor. Early in the film, the T-800 walks out of the biker bar where he has acquired what he needs to the song Bad to the Bone. At the film's climax, the T-1000 gently mocks Sarah and John by waving his finger menacingly, almost as if scolding them for trying to defeat him. It is simultaneously amusing and alarming.

An undervalued aspect of Terminator 2 may be the performances. Arnold Schwarzenegger became a star with The Terminator, and here he manages to expand his original role. Granted, he is playing a reprogrammed T-800. However, his deadpan manner when attempting to recreate human responses works. He keeps a balance between robotic and almost more lighthearted. In short, Schwarzenegger brings a touch of humor and even emotion. His use of "Hasta la vista, baby," has become a catchphrase, and the film set that use up brilliantly. I think that few people will not be genuinely moved at the end, when he gives a final thumbs up to the young boy who has grown to love him and a former adversary who has grown to trust him.

That adversary also did remarkably well. Linda Hamilton balanced Sarah Connor's strength with her vulnerability. She is physically strong, able to take down those who fight her. She also, however, manages to show that Sarah genuinely struggles with killing someone who has not harmed her. It is a very strong performance.

More credit should be given to both Cameron and Robert Patrick as the T-1000. It was a wise decision to cast someone who is not physically imposing like Arnold Schwarzenegger is. Patrick is lithe, but that makes the T-1000 more menacing. His physicality is seemingly not threatening, but we see in Patrick's performance a deadly determination. Like his predecessor, this Terminator is relentless, unyielding and highly dangerous. When he has to play human, Patrick does well in his interactions with his other cast members.

Furlong too balanced the youthfulness of John Connor with a jaded, cynical young man. He has wonderful interplay with Schwarzenegger as the father figure he would have wanted. Furlong also has great moments with Hamilton. They were sometimes in conflict, but also with deep love between mother and son.

The highlight of Terminator 2 is in its visual effects, one of the four categories where the film was acknowledged with Academy Awards. Even now, almost thirty-five years later, the visual effects not only still stand up well but are quite impressive. Of particular note is the T-1000, this liquid figure that shapes itself and reflects whatever is in front of it. The visual effects heighten the tension and suspense in the film. The escape from the mental hospital with the T-1000 in hot pursuit is thrilling, the visual effects making things more so.

That is not to say that, in retrospect, some of the visual effects are shockingly bad. The brilliant hospital escape is followed by some of the worst rear-screen projections that I have seen. Some of the model work is also a bit weak.

Those are minor points, however. Terminator 2: Judgement Day is probably my favorite action film of all time. I admit to being slightly prejudiced in its favor. I am not unaware of whatever flaws it has. However, I still love the film. I also love the closing song, Guns N' Roses' You Could Be Mine, though I'm not the band's biggest fan.  Terminator 2: Judgement Day is a thrilling action picture with a heart. It is a worthy sequel which I think outdoes the original film. 

Pity that pretty much all that came after never lived up to the first two films. 

DECISION: A-

Avatar: The Way of Water. A Review

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

Thirteen years after Avatar took the world by storm, we get another journey to the magical world of Pandora. Avatar: The Way of Water is very pretty, but it has nothing there apart from its prettiness. 

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his Na'vi wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have three children (two boys and a girl), as well as an adopted daughter, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), daughter of Dr. Grace Augustine (Weaver again). Who exactly Kiri's father is or how she came to be conceived we know not.

Humans or "Sky People" are still trying to take over Pandora, which forces the Sully family to take refuge with the Metkayina, seafaring Na'vi who are a lighter shade of blue. The Metkayina are not thrilled to have the Sullys with them, but nevertheless give them asylum.

The Sky People are headed by the avatar of Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who is technically dead but now not only is still alive but has a son, Spider (Jack Champion), who has lived with the Na'vi due to him being too young to join the other Sky People forced off the planet. It becomes a battle between Jake and Quaritch, with the various beings being taken hostage and fighting to save or destroy Pandora. It is a battle where not everyone will survive.

Avatar: The Way of Water is unashamed of running almost three hours and fifteen minutes as it is convinced it is this sweeping epic, rich and deep. Out of all those, I would say it is rich visually. The Way of Water is a very pretty film, with some pleasant imagery that should keep you entertained. 

Pretty pictures, however, do not a good film make, and The Way of Water suffers from the same issues plaguing the previous jaunt around the fields of Pandora. I was not surprised to see three credited screenwriters (Amanda Silver, Rick Jaffa and director James Cameron). I was, however, astonished to see that there are five "story by" credits (the screenwriters plus Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno). A lot of The Way of Water feels so padded, a case of someone loving something too much.

The entire opening could have been cut or trimmed, summed up in less than fifteen minutes versus what I think was close to an hour. There was no need for the Sullys to take that long to get to the Water Na'vi. The same goes for the ending, which to my mind brought back memories of Titanic. THat Tuk got captured twice seems close to parody. Other elements, such as who Kiri's father and Spider's mother are, I suppose, will be touched on in future Avatar films. Yet, you are left wondering things like "who and when could either have been conceived?"

There are two other elements in The Way of Water that left me less than impressed. First is how forgettable the characters were. Once Jake Sully or Colonel Quaritch disappeared, I completely forgot they were in the film. It might have been better to have let both Jake and Quaritch die altogether. It would have allowed for the next generation to take center stage. Instead, the film bounces between the old and new group. The end result is that you do forget whom is who once they are off screen.

The second is in the strange shift between elevated and common speaking. We shift from grand statements such as "The Sea is around you and in you. The Sea is your home before you were born and after you are gone" to "Don't be a wuss, bro" and "It's called a punch, bitch!". You go from eloquent (if pompous) words about The Sea to hearing things that stereotypical teenagers would say. 

The best example I can think of to use for this criticism is in how one character says "Father" when referring to her male parent, while the other says "Dad". That, I figure, sounds like a strange criticism. For me though, the tonal shifts between eloquent and idiotic speaking were maddening.

I do not think people see an Avatar film for great performances. Sam Worthington apparently has not learned how to act in the thirteen years between Avatar and The Way of Water. To be fair, I did not recognize Kate Winslet as Ronal, the Water Na'vi Warrior Queen. Whether that is a good or bad thing, I cannot say. As for the younger cast, to be honest I could not tell who played what role. I don't even think I could recall almost any of their names. They were all pretty much interchangeable and indistinguishable. 

Curiously, even passionate supporters of The Way of Water could not tell you the names of the Sully Brothers. Like me, they know them only as "the older one" and "the younger one". 

Avatar: The Way of Water is a very pretty looking film. I concede that. I, however, cannot go by "pretty" alone. If you like looking at pretty pictures, then I might recommend watching Avatar: The Way of Water in the largest screen possible. I would also recommend not bothering to think about things like "plot", "performances" or maybe even "logic". Just drown in the pretty world, and you will leave satisfied. 

DECISION: C-

Titanic (1997): A Review (Review #1103)

TITANIC (1997)

When The Love Boat Met The Poseidon Adventure...

I was not fond of Titanic when it premiered.  I thought it was long, slow, boring and devoid of anything good apart from the actual sinking.  Now, twenty-one years later, I revisit Titanic to see if time has either softened or hardened my views.

To my surprise, I have softened when it comes to Titanic. Unlike the last two times I saw it (when it was first released and maybe ten years later), I didn't shout, "JUST DIE ALREADY!" as our leads are floating in the water. I also was more moved by certain things in it. However, I also noticed more flaws within it that I hadn't seen before.

Arrogant underwater explorer/treasure hunter/scavenger Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) is searching the wreckage of the RMS Titanic for a legendary blue diamond thought lost in the sinking: The Heart of the Ocean. So far the search has come up empty, but he hits a surprising clue when he discovers the safe of its last recorded owner. He finds a drawing of a nude woman wearing The Heart of the Ocean, and the drawing is dated April 15, 1912, the date the ship sank.

A news report on the drawing's discovery attracts the attention of one Rose Dawson Calvert (Gloria Stewart), who contacts Lovett and asks, "I was just wondering if you had found 'The Heart of the Ocean' yet, Mr. Lovett". Lovett, astonished that this 100-year-old woman knows about the diamond, asks how she knows about it.  Simple, she replies: the woman in the drawing is her.

Over the doubts and objections of Lovett's second-in-command Lewis (Lewis Abernathy), Mrs. Calvert, accompanied by her granddaughter Lizzy (Suzy Amis), comes aboard their ship to give more information. After a lengthy explanation about how Titanic sank, we get to Rose's memories around 20 minutes into Titanic.

Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) is among the first-class passengers making the maiden voyage on Titanic. She's accompanied by her Mother Ruth (Frances Fisher) and her fiancee Calcion 'Cal' Hockley (Billy Zane). Rose does not love Cal, who in turn does not appreciate her elegant manner or taste in art, remarking that the paintings she bought by 'something Picasso' won't amount to much.

Last-minute passengers onto Titanic are Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his Italian buddy Fabrizio (Danny Nucci), having won tickets in a poker game and rushing to get aboard. These third-class or steerage passengers are just happy to be aboard. However, just one look by Jack onto Rose is enough to have him fall smashingly in love with this beauty, though his fellow steerage passenger, Irishman Tommy (Jason Berry) tells him she's way out of his league.

Jack is laying about the deck when Rose rushes to the stern to attempt suicide. Jack talks her out of it but are discovered by Cal and his valet, Lovejoy (David Warner). She lies and says she slipped while trying to get a look at the propellers and that Jack managed to rescue her from falling overboard. As thanks, Cal agrees to have Jack dine with them in first class.

Jack and Rose start spending time together, where she marvels at his artistic talent and independence. With a little help from nouveau riche Margaret "Molly" Brown (Kathy Bates), whom Ruth and Cal look down on but can't ignore since she is a very wealthy woman, Jack manages to show himself well dining in first class. Rose, despondent over how boring her life will be, manages to slip into steerage, where everyone is dancing to wild Irish jigs, even managing to show off her own dancing skills.

The attraction between Jack and Rose grows, but class still gets in the way. Ruth reminds Rose that she needs to marry Cal as they are essentially destitute. Rose, Ruth and Cal among others also get an informal tour of Titanic by its designer, Thomas Andrews (Victor Garber). Ruth realizes that there are not enough lifeboats for every passenger on Titanic, but as the ship is billed as 'unsinkable', this is not of much concern to anyone save Rose.

Jack urges Rose to come away with him when they dock in New York, and Rose struggles with this. That fateful night, she and Jack go to her stateroom, where she asks Jack to paint her like his French girls, wearing the Heart of the Ocean...and only the Heart of the Ocean.

After he does his illustration, they run around the ship, culminating in a tryst in the back seat of a car. After they consummate their love and go back on deck do we get to the ship striking the iceberg.

Amid the chaos of the slow-sinking ship, Cal manages to frame Jack for theft of the Heart of the Ocean. Jack is placed in the master-at-arms office and essentially left to die. Rose, realizing that half of the passengers are doomed, is determined to find Jack, even if it means not getting on a lifeboat with her mother and Molly Brown.

The rest of Titanic is of Jack and Rose attempting to survive A Night to Remember, with the growing chaos and horror of the sinking interfering in their lives along with that of Cal, still determined to kill them.

At last, after hearing her story and being moved to tears, the true horror and tragedy of the Titanic sinking hits Brock.  Old Rose then goes to the stern of the exploration ship and there, drops The Heart of the Ocean above where Titanic rests, she having had the diamond all these decades. As she either drifts off to sleep or dies, we see her as that young girl, where she is greeted by Jack, reunited to the cheers of the others who died on that awful night.

As I said, time has softened somewhat my views on a film I thoroughly hated on first sight. I did find myself more emotional once the ship started sinking, which takes up the last hour of this three-hour-plus film.

I have to give writer/director James Cameron credit for the good he did.  The sinking of Titanic is in turns terrifying and tragic, especially when we hear the ship's quartet play Nearer, My God to Thee as we see the doomed passengers and crew die, attempt to save themselves or calmly accept their impending deaths. The juxtaposition is heartbreaking, effective and powerfully moving.

It is impossible not to react emotionally at this part of Titanic, and I did get a little misty-eyed.

On the technical side of things Titanic excels. Cameron not only put much effort into attention to detail in terms of production design but also in visual effects.  The sinking is a spectacular sequence that would have made Cecil B. DeMille proud. Although time has made the animation more obvious, particularly when we get wide shots of the 'people' roaming the ship (and can tell they are not real), on the whole the visual effects are still first-rate.

Pity that Cameron's script is lousy.

One thing I noticed here that I had not noticed before is the total lack of complexity in his characters. There is no shading with any character. They are either all good (Jack, Rose, Molly, Andrews) or all evil (Cal, Lovejoy, Ruth, or White Star Line executive J. Bruce Ismay, played by Jonathan Hyde). There is nothing in the characters that gives them variety.

Cameron also wants us to feel for characters we meet but never get to know.  We see Tommy and Fabrizio exactly three times, so despite the film's best efforts we don't know them long enough to invest any interest or emotion when they die.

As a side note, each time I've seen Titanic, I either laugh or cheer when one of the smoke stacks falls on Fabrizio, as I found him to be the most annoying and useless character, with nothing to do or add to the proceedings. 

It's a competition to see who can give the worst performance in Titanic, and there are several candidates. Lewis Abernathy's Lewis comes to mind. I guess intended as 'comic relief', he is horrendously self-consciously annoying. One wonders if when he calls Rose Calvert a fraud, "like that Russian babe, Anesthesia", he was serious or making a joke. Either way, it was awful.

Danny Nucci has a good chance of being the worst too, his Fabrizio saddle with an Italian accent The Simpsons would find too much of a parody and with only one expression: an almost perpetually idiotic grin.  Farmer and Paxton were all one-note, reflective of their characters.

However, the worst performance has to be Zane's Cal.

He was genuinely in need of a mustache to twirl as he was irredeemably EVIL. Even in the few times it appeared the script wanted him to be remotely human, he failed. His performance consisted of nothing but looking haughty, and worse, he never expressed any desire for Rose. One wonders why he was so determined to marry someone he genuinely didn't like.

Despite how praised she was, I found Winslet rather mannered and theatrical as Rose. Granted, she was saddled with some awful dialogue ("I'd rather be HIS whore than YOUR wife!", and "I want you to paint my like your French girls, Jack, wearing this.  Wearing ONLY this") but she didn't seem all the trouble. DiCaprio became a teen idol with Titanic, but I never found Jack endearing or worth all the trouble either.

The only real performances were Bates as the unsinkable brassy broad Molly Brown and Gloria Stuart as the older Rose.

Note they also cheated: Rose specifically asks if they had found The Heart of the Ocean, which is impossible since she had it all the time.

Finally, as to the 'love theme', I will always hate My Heart Will Go On, as I find it bombastic and nonsensical. "Love was when I loved you". Really, people think those lyrics are logical?

I kept thinking how well the film would have been if Cameron had made changes.  They could have all been first or third-class passengers. Rose could have been remembering at a Titanic exhibition. We could have dropped the entire present-day scenes, even if they were there merely as exposition to tell us how Titanic sank.

Titanic is too big to ignore, and many people love the film.  It's not my place or desire to take their love for it away. For my part, I found it all a bit tawdry and melodramatic. There are some films I love revisiting, that still thrill me and move me: Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Seven Samurai, All Quiet on the Western Front, It's A Wonderful Life, Some Like It Hot.

I am just so thankful that after today, I will never have to revisit Titanic again.

DECISION: C-

1998 Best Picture Winner: Shakespeare In Love

Aliens: A Review

ALIENS

Only once have I ever jumped in fright while watching a film. The film was Aliens, and it really wasn't a frightening scene. The exact moment is when they are examining what appears to be a dead alien...and then, WHAM! It jumps up, and I jumped with it.

It's a sign of Aliens' brilliance that it engrosses you so deep in its story that you become a part of it. When a film envelopes you in its artifice to become utterly real, then it is a brilliant production.

An even better sign of Aliens' genius is that one really doesn't have to have seen Alien to follow the plot. We don't have to worry about backstory because it is filled in for us both early and easily: Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the sole survivor of the spaceship Nostromo, has been awakened after 57 years in suspended animation to a disbelieving corporation which doesn't believe her story of an Alien having killed everyone she was with on the Nostromo.

Still haunted by her terrifying ordeal as well as the knowledge that her family is dead, she tries to move on with her life. However, the planet from which she had escaped her encounter with the Alien is now being colonized, and the company has lost contact with said planet: LV-426. She agrees to go help a group of marines, but not for them, but to free herself of the nightmares she's been plagued with.

On LV-426, the only survivor found is a young girl named Newt (Carrie Henn). The Marines also find two 'facehuggers', spawn of the Alien that literally suck the life out of its victims. While the Marines, along with the android Bishop (Lance Henricksen) whom Ripley mistrusts due to her experience with a previous android in Alien, try to rescue those caught in the Alien's nest, Company executive Carter Burke (Paul Reiser) wants to use the 'facehuggers' and the Alien itself for whatever weaponry can be cultivated from them. Slowly the Marines are getting picked off by the Alien, leaving Ripley to face off against her monstrous nemesis while trying to save Newt.

I've had issues with some of director James Cameron's later films (Titanic, Avatar), but when he gets it right he goes all out to create a frightening, thrilling, intense, and emotionally involving film that gets you from the very start and keeps you locked in until past the end. Aliens (which he wrote the screenplay to from a story by himself, David Giler and Walter Hill which was based on the film Alien), is smart about its material.

Cameron trusts both his audiences: those who saw the first film and those which didn't. The Court of Inquiry early in Aliens allows those who have no idea who Ripley or the Alien are to get the backstory without it being overt, and it flows easily from the original. This is vital to the success of Aliens as a film in its own right: we don't have to have seen Alien to follow Aliens (although as a side note, I would recommend Alien immediately).

Cameron builds on the tension by restraining any inclination to be graphic. Instead, the attacks from the Alien are more terrifying because they are visually limited. It leaves us to imagine what the attacks on the colonists look like for example, and what we can imagine can be more frightening. He also holds off on us actually seeing the Alien itself: it takes over an hour before we see the Alien Queen in all her horrifying glory, and even at our first glimpse it is through the weak and failing cameras of the Marines. In this scene, Cameron builds on the terror not just through the chaotic nature of the Alien attack, but on the decision to have our heroine watch helplessly, the character we identify with is rendered powerless just when she and by extension we build a need to jump in.

The script is also highly intelligent in how the Marines and Ripley must solve the situations they find themselves in. The problems keep building on the exploration and rescue, but the problems are ones that can't be resolved with weapons. By continuously making things harder for the crew, Cameron builds more tension as the audience is kept in suspense as to how anyone let alone Ripley will be able to survive. The trump card in Aliens on the issue of terror is Newt, for there are few things that will cause an emotional response as that of a child in mortal danger.

Massive amounts of credit need to go every element within Aliens: the art direction of Supervising Director Terence Ackland-Snow, Ken Court, Bert Davey, Fred Hole and Michael Lamont and set decoration of Crispian Sallis, James Horner's tense and dramatic score which shows he can write good music, and Adrian Biddle's cinematography. The last one is especially noteworthy in that it is in the darkness of Aliens' frightening imagery (real and imagined): the playing of the black and gray sets and the reds enhances the fear that Cameron builds and builds to where it becomes unbearable and totally pulls you within Aliens.

There can be no discussion of the success of Aliens as a film without singling out Sigourney Weaver. She has created a rarity in action/science-fiction films: a vulnerable heroine. It isn't just her gender that makes her unique in a film like Aliens although action leads for women are still few and far between. Even if Ripley were a man (and from what I understand, Ripley was suppose to have been a male in Alien), it is nearly impossible to find a hero who has any emotions akin to vulnerability, fear, protectiveness, gentleness. I don't know if the fact that Ripley was a woman released a 'mothering' instinct when it comes to her relationship with Newt, but it adds a greater depth and dimension: this character who can be extremely strong when needed can also be caring and fearsome in her protecting those who cannot protect themselves.

Her performance runs the entire spectrum: from someone who is genuinely frightened to someone who has no fear or at the very least, has fear but knows it has to be faced. Ripley is all business, who can face down a monster like the Alien Queen while also being tender with a child.

Ripley thanks to Weaver's performance can be as tough as any of the men, but doesn't have to be manly in her attitude toward life. The fact that she can be vulnerable is a strong counterpoint to the only other woman in Aliens, Jenette Goldstein's Private Vasquez (really, a nice Jewish girl as a Hispanic?). Goldstein's Vasquez is uber-tough: almost more macho than her male comrades, and it maybe that I may be the one reading too much into Aliens, but there is a curious mirror image between Vasquez in her macho posturing and Ripley in her acknowledging of fears but facing them. Still, Goldstein gives a strong performance, as does Henricksen as Bishop, who in spite of being an android is almost human in his own vulnerability and willingness to sacrifice.

I would, after a second viewing, still have to say that Bill Paxton's performance as Private Hudson was still terribly annoying: part of you almost want him to die because he's so insufferable as a character. In fact, all the Marines appear rather stereotypical in their tough outgoing demeanor, but perhaps this is a case where it shouldn't be taken too seriously. Even Paul Reiser as the sleazy businessman manages to be good, and I say this as someone who found both My Two Dads and Mad About You endlessly insufferable...and him especially so in both projects.

Everything in Aliens works: the acting and the action, the story, the directing, the music, even the sets. Every element in Aliens builds to a brilliant and terrifying story that builds and builds on the suspense, making each decision the characters make and each situation the face a life-and-death struggle against a monster. One of the most memorable lines in Aliens is near the end, when the Alien Queen threatens Newt. With the audience fully identifying with Ripley, with us knowing what Newt has suffered, with us wanting them to survive and the Alien to die, you cheer when in righteous fury Ripley yells:

Get away from her, you BITCH!

James Cameron doesn't let us have a true moment of rest until we leave the theater or the DVD ends, and at the end of Aliens, we need that time to recover from one of the most terrifying and thrilling films made.

DECISION: A+

Avatar: A Review (Review #31)

AVATAR

What Happens When You Mix Green & Blue?

The way some Avatar fans talked about the film, you'd think it was one of cinema's great turning points. It was hailed as to the film that was to be to science-fiction films what Citizen Kane was to cinema itself. Decades in the making, is Avatar worthy of both the wait and praise? In certain respects, yes, but perhaps the adulation bears closer examination.

Paralyzed Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has been chosen to replace his twin brother on Pandora, a distant planet that contains the rare and valuable mineral found here: unobtanium. He is part of a plan to infiltrate the indigenous population called the Na'vi and learn their ways. Humans cannot breathe the Pandoran air, necessitating avatars: a human/Na'vi hybrid controlled by the individual's mind that will allow humans access to Pandora.

Assigned to protect Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver), they're attacked by a native animal; Sully gets separated and encounters Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) a Na'vi woman. He soon becomes part of their tribe, which delights the military/industrial complex. The evil corporate head Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Rivisi) sees a great opportunity in Jake, whom he hopes will be a spy for them to crush and exterminate the Na'vi. 

As Jake spends more and more time with the Na'vi, his alliance and sympathies start shifting to them, culminating in him and Neytiri falling in love. Not wanting to wait anymore for Jake to either negotiate and suspecting his motives, the military/industrial complex decides to move in, leading to an epic battle for control of Pandora.

It's curious that what Robert Zemeckis cannot do with motion-capture, James Cameron can. My theory is that the former wants it to look realistic while the latter wants it to look fantastical. Cameron sees stop-motion as a way to create worlds, Zemeckis as a way to recreate worlds. 

Cameron has done an incredible job creating Pandora, this extraordinary visual world which audiences are fully immersed in. There are incredible images of sheer beauty on Pandora, and they are created so well you don't really question them as being anything other than realistic. The visuals alone are worth the cost of admission.

Having said that, I had major problems with the story. The first big problem was that this story isn't very original. As I watched, I kept flashing back to primarily Dances With Wolves (Dances With Na'vi?), though I also saw elements of Braveheart and at one point, The Ten Commandments. You see the overall script and think that otherworldly universe aside, Avatar is really a collection of past films merely set in another world

Even in the case of the Na'vi, the stereotype of the native population as being ethereal, spiritual, at one with Nature & The Universe can't or won't be shaken. The Na'vi are all mystical enlightenment as opposed to the military/industrial complex about to ravage their homeland. If one found the indoctrination from Captain Planet a bit on the obvious side, Avatar does them one better.

While that can be expected, other bits may come as a shock. Near the end of the film, as the Na'vi and their human associates prepare for the onslaught from the military/industrial complex, Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez) comments something along the lines of how she wishes her mission wouldn't involve "martyrdom". At the very least Cameron is completely oblivious to how loaded this word and phrasing sound. While I didn't gasp I was surprised. Right after that, Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is rallying his troops for the final assault, he uses the phrase "preemptive strike" (which is rather ridiculous since they've already invaded Pandora so the Na'vi know they're there) and then tells them, "We will fight terror with terror".

The attempts at parallels between Pandora and Earth are a bit heavy-handed. One gets the sense that Cameron is attempting to draw comparisons between the invasion of Pandora and Iraq, which I think may either age poorly or hopefully be forgotten.

There's a shocking lack of originality among the visual splendor. The Na'vi seems shorthand for "native". Unobtanium is close to "unobtainable". Parker Selfridge could be read as "Selfish".  Leaving aside for the moment the film as a whole, one would have hoped Cameron would have created more original terms.

The acting is also an issue. There's a push to make Sam Worthington a major star, but after the frightful Terminator: Salvation and this we see Worthington is wooden, incapable of demonstrating human emotion. I'm beginning to wonder if he's more an Action Star than an Actor since his roles tend to be the same. Even that could be forgiven if not for the fact that he isn't compelling as an Action Star to begin with. 

I noticed that his native Australian accent was more pronounced here than in Salvation. I admit to taking it for granted that he was playing an American since all his cast-mates speak with American accents, but I thought it was odd to hear Sully sound as if he were more New South Wales than New England.

Particularly bad was Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge. He plays the evil industrialist with no variety at all, a mustache to twirl short and so cartoonishly over-the-top. Out of the whole cast, Sigourney Weaver saves herself because she is a first-rate actress who can play just about anything with great deal of conviction.

I don't take away from Avatar's extraordinary achievements in visuals, in taking us into a world that has no limits except one that an imagination will impose. I do wish that the story itself weren't so loaded with Environmental Movement cheerleading. Perhaps Avatar is a harbinger of things to come. That I welcome gladly.

Avatar is a visually splendid but surprisingly empty film. It's there to enjoy at the spectacle of it all, but not so much the story itself. 

DECISION: B-

The Terminator: A Review

THE TERMINATOR

The Terminator is a rarity in films today: an action/sci-fi film that is both entertaining and intelligent. James Cameron probably did not imagine that when he co-wrote and directed the film that it would spawn an ever-expanding franchise. Despite being a bit dated The Terminator still holds up extremely well, thanks to excellent performances and a logical story.

Two beings are sent from 2029 to 1984 Los Angeles: The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn). The former is a cyborg sent on a mission to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the future mother of the leader of the Resistance, John Connor. The latter is a soldier sent by John to protect Sarah.

Sarah becomes terrified when two women with her same name have been murdered, unaware of the danger she is in. As both Terminator and Reese continue struggling for Sarah, including a massive battle at the police station Sarah has taken refuge in, we get twists and turns as the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

This is the film that made Arnold a one-name star, with just three words to put him in a league of his own. Contrary to myth and impersonators, "I'll be back" was, to my ears, pronounced rather normally, albeit robotic which was the correct interpretation. I didn't hear "Bach" but "Back", but that somehow has entered into the American lexicon.

His performance was pitch-perfect for the character he plays: he's suppose to be a machine, and he speaks his lines like a machine. In the movie, he's a terrifying force: an unfeeling, unreasoning killing machine that won't be satisfied until it destroys what it came to destroy. His relentless pursuit and inability to be reasoned with is what gives the film the extra sense of terror: nothing apparently can stop him.

Linda Hamilton makes her first turn as Sarah Connor a vulnerable woman, caught in circumstances she can't possibly understand but realizing that she has to live, to survive. This is at the heart of the picture: her unwillingness to be killed versus the Terminator's inability to let her live.

Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese brings both strength and a hint of sadness to the role, fitting for someone who has lived his whole life in a post-apocalyptic world.

I've had my issues with Cameron (Titanic being a major source of consternation), but when it comes to science-fiction films, he is among the best. The plot makes sense, and the performances both large and small such as Paul Winfield as a cop investigating the killings of the Sarah Connors, are effective and efficient.

Also, the special effects still hold up quite well despite the advances of technology. The visual effects also do something that a lot of films with more elaborate effects cannot: they serve the story rather than showcase the technology itself.

The world of the Terminator has taken on a life of its own. There are now Terminator-based  television shows and even a Universal Studios experience. It's tapped into the fear of the future many people have, of technology run amok, but also into the belief that the future is not written and can be changed.

The Terminator, as a film, does its dual jobs well. It tells a fascinating story well and in an entertaining manner. It may have started a franchise but divorced of that expanded universe The Terminator is still a strong action/science-fiction film that stands on its own merits.

DECISION: A-