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‘Terminator Salvation’: The Dilution of a Franchise
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The Movie God   |  @   |  

TerminatorHere we are again. How exciting.

At first, there was the extremely unexpected, yet pleasant news that Christian Bale had been cast as John Connor had joined the upcoming fourth Terminator film, Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins; then came rumors that the project might have been canceled followed by almost immediate casting news that killed said rumors. Just today, Variety reported that that rapper Common has joined the cast.

Unfortunately, Terminator Salvation is completely dead … to me and to many others who want more of the classic franchise they’ve loved for decades, thanks to a planned PG-13 rating! I saw this coming, I said it last month right here that I was excited about the film, but that “I’m just waiting for the news that it will be rated PG-13 to ruin that all for me, of course.”

And now it’s ruined.

First, it was the Alien and Predator franchises that was made a mockery of; then it was the Die Hard franchise; and now, the Terminator franchise. Yes, ladies and gentleman, I am indeed talking about R-rated movie franchises that kiddied-up and water down an installment of their films, all in the name of making more money. Variety has reported that Halcyon Co. is planning on delivering a PG-13 film to Warner Bros. because they feel that it’s time to expand their fan base, and that they don’t think that the “gritty vision” of the films will be compromised with a PG-13 rating.

Warning … rant coming …

Are you f’n kidding me? You think because you have a terrible show on Fox that’s doing well, you can just change everything that a real Terminator movie should be?

OK, so… I’ve covered this topic before; it’s a topic that I’m very, very passionate about, and it is the worst thing about Hollywood these days. Forget all the paparazzi, all the controversy, all the celebrities doing stupid celebrity things — Hollywood has not only become completely unoriginal, they’ve also become greedy. Yes, a double-multi-gazillion dollar industry has become greedy. No longer are they just making countless sequels and remakes and re-visions of the remakes — which while I didn’t agree completely with, I was still cool with it because hey, at least I got to see some familiar characters I love, right? — but now, they’re also sacrificing the atmosphere and characters of the films all together.

When does it stop?

We learned recently that Sigourney Weaver was interested in doing more Alien films with Ridley Scott, but that was ruined by the joke-of-a-movie, AVP, which consisted of a fight here and there, a couple dead people, and a predator running off into the sunset multiple times with the leading lady. Ah, well, how good could another Weaver/Scott Alien movie possibly have been, anyways?

Whoops.

Then, everyone was so excited that finally, we were going to get John McClane back! But alas, the studios decided to “broaden their audience” so that pre-teens who didn’t even know who the shit John McClane was (Uhmm, that old guy who used to be married to Ashton Kutcher’s ex-wife??) could enjoy it! The movie made $380-something million and was downright embarrassing to watch. I’ve heard of many people who said that they pulled this one off, but any true Die Hard fan knows that THAT was not John McClane, it was a bald, parody of the character and the movie itself couldn’t have felt further from its roots. The UNRATED Special-Super-“Hey, we’ll make it up to you!”-Fantastic DVD was even WORSE; it was unbearable watching this shell of Die Hard with “fuck’s” that are dubbed in while mouths are closed and a slew of cartoon violence CG’d in. But hey, who needs to make a movie for the hordes of fans who made the franchise what it was, anyways? Much smarter to capitalize on a bunch of little kids who only saw it because “The Mac Guy” was in it.

Whoops.

And here we are. Right back in the hole again. Genius-as-ever.

As with Die Hard, I was so damn excited for this project. I grew up with these movies and there was something so hard about them, so jagged and bad-ass; it was something you would always welcome openly. Maybe it’s just because I was like, 12 when I saw these movies (never stopped us then… I’ve never even been in a fight. Interesting) and that effect was magnified back then for me? No, that’s not it at all. These movies aren’t just made by their violence and swearing, there’s an atmosphere that is created within these R-rated movies that just simply cannot be created in a PG-13 film. If I could get on my knees and beg these guys to do this the right way, I would do it.

I guess in the end, I’m a fool for not expecting this from the start. The casting of Christian Bale blinded me (and I’m sure many others) to the facts, like how the dude who directed the Charlie’s Angels movies, McG, is directing. Oh, and the title! That damn title, changes so often, what will it be from week to week? Ugh, didn’t this movie not SCREAM PG-13 right from the start? Why was I so ignorant?! I guess this was just a paycheck for Bale, who is bookmarking this flick with The Dark Knight and Public Enemies, so he can just waltz in and out of this one richer than he was before, no worries. I don’t blame him; why not?

Congratulations, Mr. Victor Kubicek and Mr. Derek Anderson (co-CEO/COO, Halcyon Co.), you are the latest to openly sell-out for the sake of profit. I wish you the best of luck with all of your potential profit and wealth, which you will surely make; it’s just too bad your movie is already destined to be awful. I’m really sure that the many fans of Terminator will forgive you for this gigantic middle finger that you offer with a smile on your faces ::: drips with sarcasm:::

The fake-titled, futuristic robot movie with Christian Bale that is questionably similar to an Edward Furlong movie (God, I know… I’m like a bitter old man. Sue me) will probably be released on May 22, 2009. Then, not too long after that, we can expect the completely unrated DVD which I’m sure will really make up for all of the theatrical short-comings … or at least it will pretend to.

Hollywood — “What fresh hell is this?”

6 Comments »

  1. “they’ve also become greedy.” – The movie business has always been greedy! I agree with the fact they they seem to have a hit with The Sarah Connor Chronicles but regardless of the rating I think anything with Christian Bale should be well done. He usually doesn’t pick crappy roles.

    Comment by Jay — May 6, 2008 @ 1:03 pm

  2. Wow. Curmudgeon much? Someone’s glass is half empty!

    Just kidding. It’s all opinion. Though I can’t disagree with you more. I’m looking forward to this film, and as far as my opinion is concerned, “the jury is out” until I see it for myself.

    Comment by Greg Davies aka cGt2099 — May 6, 2008 @ 1:10 pm

  3. Seriously, this movie is going to suck SO, SO bad.

    Comment by Alex — May 6, 2008 @ 2:48 pm

  4. Like with what Jay said, the movie business has always been greedy.
    Since the days of Adoplh Zukor. To be honest, the rating does suck, but it has Christian Bale in it and that still puts it ahead of the curve.

    Comment by Jerry — May 6, 2008 @ 7:50 pm

  5. ::standing… fucking… ovation::

    Comment by NeverWanderer — May 6, 2008 @ 9:33 pm

  6. I agree with your sentiment completely. T1 was so bad-ass, so dark and just uncompromising. We want to see the future that we got a glimpse of from Reese in the first movie. Total Genocide. If you care, join our campaign for an R-rated only T4:

    http://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/terminator-4-r-rated-only

    Comment by Andrew Hallock — July 27, 2008 @ 2:29 pm

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