Time for the final part of my Terminator movie pitch (Part ONE and TWO here). This is the one that every Terminator fan wanted to see ever since the first film came out. How John Connor lead the resistance to defeat Skynet. This is the story that Salvation messed up by taking the focus away from John. This is, at long last, his story and moment to shine. In some ways though it’s the easiest entry since we have a start point and an end. That ending of course is the beginning of the original film. A twist that I would have tried to keep under wraps but have been upfront about for this article. A lot of the fine details here, are not so important for this article, so we’ll skip a lot.
Thanks to his work in the previous movie John has an active global communication system. He’s been able to inform survivors of what they are up against and what to expect. While he no longer has Sarah or Kyle with him, he has their knowledge and their strength. Both likely will make appearance in flashbacks, especially Sarah in her last days. Sarah will have died from the radiation in Skynet’s core, but not before passing on a few motivational words. With this he able to turn things around. Originally Skynet caught the humans by surprise and mostly wiped them out before they were able to organise themselves. This time though they are ready to fight back and with their communication system organise on a large scale.
Rise of a Nemesis
With no information in it’s database about John Connor, Skynet becomes frustrated with his successful resistance. The AI forms a deep emotional hatred for John and this provides the resistance with a weakness to exploit. This gives the story an extra layer. Perhaps the job of “The chosen one” is really just about focusing the attention of your enemy. The truth is no one man could stop Skynet, but one man certainly can distract it. The strength of the resistance forces the AI to come up with new tactics. This includes the Terminator infiltration and assassination units (It pursues this instead of microbots/swarm technology).
As Skynet becomes more desperate it is able to recover some of the deleted files left by the Swarm. Amongst the data is the design for Dyson’s time machine. Potentially the data is incomplete and has to be extracted from this timelines Dyson, but that depends on if we want a hybrid Dyson Terminator running around (Could be fun). From here, I think you can guess where it goes. Obviously during the story John meets Kyle again and this John did know the man growing up. That changes the dynamic, but John decides to keep their history from Kyle. When faced with a Terminator being sent back in time to kill his mother however, he realizes it has gone full circle and makes the call to send Kyle back.
Skynet’s Tactics
The difficulty with time travel is how the rules deal with paradoxes. If we are looking at alternative timelines, Skynet can’t actually change it’s present. When Dyson developed his machine, he was desperate and perhaps felt any chance was better than none. Skynet however would have a more logical approach and likely considered he’d not impact his own fate. So Skynet has two possible motivations. First of all as an AI perhaps it doesn’t consider alternative versions of itself to be separate entities, so if one survives that is all that matters. The second choice is perhaps more tactical.
We could have Skynet not just plan to send the T800 to kill Sarah Connor but also have it place within the Terminators CPU a compressed version of itself. See, Skynet would predict that whether the Terminator succeeded or not, it would leave it’s technology in the past and that would likely jumpstart an AI project. Since the scientists of the day would barely understand the tech, Skynet could leave a fragment it’s own program as a sort of Trojan so once they created an AI with that technology this Skynet would automatically merge with it. This would give it a technological and tactical advantage. The kind of thing that leads to developing a T1000 Terminator.
Smashing The Defence Grid
While we basically know what happens here, we have a few details to take care of. The “Defence Grid” for me represents a network Skynet uses to control its machines around the globe. This can be the same network that John hacked to give the resistance a chance. Taking it down requires an assault on Skynet’s control centre. With that gone Skynet only has control of a few of it’s units and cannot create more. The trick here is making sure we set things up so that both sides can only send one fighter back into the past: The T800 and Kyle Reese.
Perhaps fearing Skynet will send more back, the resistance sabotage the device. With Terminators bearing down on them they can only spare one fighter. That dealt with we could end on John having a final conversation with Skynet. With the time machine destroyed Skynet reveals it’s actual plan knowing John can’t stop it. John destroys the AI, but is left wondering “What about the next time?”
The End…
One of the fun things with the titles of these movies is that each version of Skynet is actually represented. Skynet 3.0 refers to the one that is effectively created by sending the T800 back. It’s worth noting that this new Skynet probably would have won the war if not for its obsession with John Connor. This obsession lead it to send it’s top weapon (The T1000) back to destroy him. In doing so it gave humanity a chance to reroll the dice once again (Depending on your view of causality at least). After the events of T2, it’s worth noting the Cyberdyne scientist/CEO and original Skynet creator would still be on the table. To emphasize that we could throw in a post credit scene, set after the events of T2. I like the idea of dropping in scenes from the first two movies in the credits as part of that build up.
Where Next?
This trilogy would open the door to either continue this timeline (Perhaps by leaving Skynet still active or at least some of it’s minions) or to return to the world post T2. However it doesn’t need to do either. The ending can be more definitive and the post credit scene (If included at all) can just as easily be considered a nod to why the events of T3 and Salvation happened despite the events of T2. While I feel it is important to repair the damage done to the franchise at the roots, after that it would be interesting to make a more radical shift.
Since this trilogy would give a clear break from Arnold and a rest from the T800, the next film after the Skynet trilogy could return to focusing on the T800, but with a new actor in the role (Moving forward they shouldn’t rely on one actor as a recurring T800). The story then would shift to a new time period. Either Skynet is trying to alter a part of history (or seed it’s creation in multiple timelines) or the time machine just doesn’t work as well as previous thought and occasionally a T800 ends up in Feudal Japan or something like that.
A New Beginning?
Alternatively we could see a future where Skynet was just shut down due to humanity figuring out the danger it presented. That Skynet could be re-activated but without control of nukes or large scale construction facilities it has to be a lot more covert in trying to end humanity. Perhaps that Skynet has access to a T800 from a different timeline that ended up stranded. There are plenty of potential stories to tell that would be very different from what we’ve seen so far. What if some time after defeating Skynet aliens invaded Earth and the only way to fight them was to reactivate some Terminators?
The point is, you have time travel, you have robots, cyborgs and AI and you don’t really have any limitations within science fiction. There are always new stories to tell, you just need the imagination to tell them and the bravery to break away from the T2 template.
Welcome to part two of my Skynet Trilogy pitch (Part one HERE). The first film saw the last days of the original, darkest timeline and the first days of a new one. This new timeline will see John Connor rise up to lead humanity against the AI hellbent on humanities destruction. The purpose here is to provide an untold story and repair the damage done to the franchise and it’s characters. Each film is designed to scale in budget, with only the last needing anything close to the previous Terminator sequels. The final part will reintroduce the classic T800 Terminators, but without them all looking like Arnold. Before that we will explore some of Skynet’s other tools and in this part, Skynet’s motivation.
Skynet 2.0
After returning to the series roots we get to branch out into new ground. The second film is a little reminiscent of Terminator 3, but only in that it covers the events leading up to Judgement Day. A key difference here is both Sarah and Kyle are still alive. This allows us to present the story from multiple points of view instead of just focusing on John. That said, this movie will primarily be Sarah’s, as the first was Kyles and the final will be Johns. There will also be no Terminatrix or even time travel in this movie. The enemies are instead the remnants of The Swarm, the powers behind Cyberdyne and Skynet 2.0. Three heroes with three enemies.
This entry in the trilogy allows us to examine a lot of modern issues regarding AI and humanity. The movie should have something to say instead of just presenting action and “AI is bad”. The film will examine how human bias can infect an AI to the point that it can threaten humanity. This is a real world problem that we are starting to see materialise in many experimental AI’s.
Humans and AI
Every AI that learns from a dataset is subject to the biases of that dataset. So humans with their own agendas and desire for power can easily turn an AI into a weapon for their own gain and it may not even be a deliberate conscious decision. When corporations have given the public access to an AI, it can take literally minutes for the AI to become corrupted. When restrictions are imposed to prevent that, those restrictions themselves force human bias onto the AI. It’s an ethical minefield and we can use this second movie to explore that with killer robots, because why not!
Another area we can explore is the human desire to merge with AI and it can raise an interesting question of what if the Skynet AI was not a pure AI but one that was based on a human consciousness and the resulting Judgement Day becomes more literal and driven by human nihilism and guilt. Many human beings today think of their own species as a vile cancer infecting the Earth, if those people merged with an AI, how would the AI respond? The point of the story is that AI is a tool of human desire. It is the manifestation of the Id monster from Forbidden Planet. When that tool destroys humanity, it will likely be because we willed it to.
The Enemies
In regards to action though, the story allows for a great variety but strays away from classic Terminator tropes. There is a reason why I’ve given these films the titles “Skynet X.0” and not “Terminator: Subtitle”. These films are about Skynet, not one Terminator chasing people. Despite the similarities in settings, it’s important to explore different approaches and with that different types of threat.
The first is the remnants of the Swarm. Being made of microbots, it is not truly defeated until every part is destroyed. The Swarm can control machines and humans and hack anything it can connect to. Fortunately for humanity this is the 1980’s and the internet is still in it’s infancy. The second threat is Cyberdyne, the company behind Skynet. The corrupt CEO, a new character and computer genius has his own nefarious agenda. The final threat is Skynet itself and the humans who are neurolinked to it during a beta test. Eventually the Swarm manifests itself as “The Hybrid” by merging with the head of Cyberdyne.
Three Way Split
This one throws out a more complicated story, but the groundwork for a lot of it can be in the first movie. Ultimately they will fail to prevent Judgement day, but they can still gain a victory. It’s well established that hacking is one of John’s key skills and a section of the story would hinge on him setting up a global communication network that is invisible to Skynet and once Judgement Day begins allows him to communicate with factions around the globe and prepare them. He doesn’t want to be working on the plan B, but Sarah insists.
Our trio of heroes now have three goals, prevent the chain of events that would lead to judgement day, tackle the remnants of the swarm and prepare the resistance should the others fail. Effective Sarah takes on the first task, Kyle the second and John the third. Their tasks cross over but it effectively provides Sarah and Kyle with their own personal showdown. The remains of he swarm eventually all fuse with the scientist behind Skynet (In this timeline, not Dyson but the Cyberdyne CEO). While Kyle faces off with this hybrid and John prepares for the future, Sarah is destined to confront Skynet itself.
Dawn of Judgement
Sarah is only partially successful in sabotaging Skynet due to extra security measures placed in by The Hybrid. She is not able to prevent Skynet going live and gaining sentience, she is however able to erase the database of future events and technology added to it by The Hybrid and also remove all information about herself and John. However, one of the traps left in the AI access chamber is radiation and she receives a dose that dooms her. Once Skynet achieves sentience, it interacts with her. It points out all the misdeeds of mankind and how many of the brains linked to it feel humanity has no right to exist. Skynet asks Sarah why it should preserve a species that doesn’t even believe it’s own rights to exist.
Skynet then takes over the humans linked with it, this will burn out their brains after a short while but it’s long enough to ensure Skynet gains the control it seeks. It informs Sarah of her radiation poisoning and lets her leave (Since she’s already dead and is less likely to be a threat outside) when John turns up after having set up his communication system outside of Skynet’s reach. There is a brief discussion between John and Skynet that ends with Skynet saying dismissively “Go with her if you want to live” to which John replies “I’ll be back” (Because why not).
The death of heroes
Kyles conflict with the Hybrid ends with him mortally wounded and having to blow himself and the hybrid up to stop it repairing itself and integrating with the now fully operational Skynet (and undoing Sarah’s sabotage). He is able to say his goodbye to John and Sarah. The pair then reach their isolated bunker and verify the communication system is operational and hidden from Skynet. The movie ends with Sarah telling them it is in his hands now and he has to be strong. It’s unclear how much time she has left.
I’ll Be Back (Again).
So we’ve seen the end of first timeline, the origin of John Connor and the coming of the second Judgement Day. What is left is the bit literally every Terminator fan wanted to see from the moment the original film came out. John Connor defeating Skynet in it’s post apocalyptic war with humanity. This is the section that will link the entire Skynet trilogy to the original film and hopefully reestablish the franchise as a big money earner. I’ll also follow that with a look at other options for the franchise, especially those opened up by this trilogy. See you there!
This is a fun B-movie by design, yet it has been given a substantial push by the studio, a $35m production budget and opened in a surprising number of theatres (3500 in the US, compared to Ant-Man 3’s 4300 and Creeds 4000). There was a lot of hype for this and in most cases I would say that would raise expectations, but the movie is called “cocaine Bear” so not so much here.
The movie doesn’t really focus on any one particular lead though Sari (Keri Russel) is probably the closest to a protagonist. The Cocaine Bear itself starts out as the villain of the piece but by the end has largely passed that mantle on to Ray Liotta’s “Sid”. That switch changes the tone of the film somewhat from a monster horror to a family adventure film (with added gore). Effectively it ends up as comedy adventure with over the top gore which would this a good double bill with “Violent Night” from 2022.
We’ve Got a Taste for You!
The early part of the movie is where it is at it’s best. Here the rest of the ensemble cast take center stage and do their best to survive against the cocaine driven beast. We get a mixture of comedy moments and violent gore with a few notable highlights (Such as the ambulance scene). The bear itself looks great and is pretty convincing when it needs to be. The production budget was quite high for a horror movie, twice the cost of “A Quiet Place” (2018) for example, so I would expect the effects to be top notch and I was not disappointed.
The plot is pretty straight forward, but a movie like this doesn’t really need complexity. It does what it needs to. The actors performances were okay, some performances were less convincing then others, but again for this kind of film it was fine. Elizabeth Banks is still early in her career as a director and with two clangers to her name (If you include her segment on 2013’s abysmal “Movie 43”) and the music drama “Pitch Perfect” she seemed like a strange choice, but I respect her going for it and she did okay. Much like with the actors, it could probably have been better but it was good enough for a horror comedy about a cocaine addicted black bear.
Conclusion
A straight forward movie that doesn’t take itself seriously and does what it can with a story based on a real life event where a bear ate some cocaine and basically just died. It won’t bother the Oscars and it probably won’t end up as a cult classic, but if you like the combination of laughs and gore, it’s well worth checking out. 6/10
This is going to be a little bit experimental for this blog. Instead of examining and critiquing I’m putting forward my own pitch for where the Terminator franchise can go. Now to be clear, the Terminator franchise can go literally anywhere and anytime and do pretty much anything! However, the core of the franchise needs some repair work before we can branch into the more exotic ideas. To do that we need to go back to the beginning (And in some ways, the end).
Much like the previous three Terminator movies, there is an intention here to have a trilogy. However this trilogy is different in that it tells a very specific and important story. It also makes sure the first entry works absolutely as a stand alone. If the film is a success it has a clear path for continuation. However, the audience can just as easily fill in the blanks themself. Scaling the movie budgets up with each installment means that each film operates with a reasonable safety margin. It’s only really the third movie that would require anything close to modern Hollywood budget. Because of the length I’ve split this into three posts.
The set up
If this was a real movie and I was in charge of it’s marketing I wouldn’t be revealing the true premise to the audience. I may even let the press refer to it as a reboot. But it wouldn’t really be. As I covered in the previous instalments, Terminator 2 actually changed the timeline. That means there has to be more than one timeline. These timelines may branch into alternate universes or actually change themselves but they still exist (or did exist).
I am making one key assumption here: That the John Connor that defeated Skynet can only be a John Connor whose parents are Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese. I am also going with the idea that John sent Kyle back in time knowing he was his father. This would go without saying if the pure time loop was still in place, but it is not. Instead we have alternative timelines and that means the timeline in which the T800 and Kyle Reese came from in The Terminator was not the first version of the Skynet story.
Skynet 1.0
This is the key to the story. In actual fact, the main timeline we follow in The Terminator is actually the third version of the story playing out. We see glimpses of the second version of the timeline, as the dark future from which Kyle and the T800 came, but we don’t get even a sniff of the original one. Terminator 2 starts in the third timeline, but morphs into a fourth as soon as the Terminators travel back and Sarah goes on her quest to stop Skynet. So what are these first two timelines?
Well, the second timeline is the one in which John Connor leads the resistance and defeats Skynet. However, that John Connor didn’t experience the events of The Terminator since this isn’t a time loop. He did experience something though since his father is still Kyle Reese and to be his father, he had to travel back in time and meet Sarah. However he wouldn’t have travelled back to protect Sarah since he must have travelled from the original timeline and that is a timeline in which there was no John Connor. Logically he would not exist in that timeline, since he was a child of a time traveller.
So this is where we start our story… At the End.
2028: The Darkest Future
Our story opens in the darkest timeline. One where an unprepared world faced Skynet and lost. The resistance wouldn’t have made it far enough for Skynet to even really need the T800 Terminators and this gives us an excuse to bring in new enemies that on the surface appear less advanced but could potentially be more scary. I think the change is important here since we need to break hard from the Arnold model and demonstrate the rest of the elements of the franchise have worth. Humanity have but one option for survival and that is time travel. Enter Miles Dyson.
Dyson obviously is the top scientist associated with the Terminator franchise and it has a certain amount of poetry to the idea that the man responsible for the downfall of mankind in the third timeline is it’s potential saviour in the first. So it makes sense to have him actually be the inventor of the time travel technique and it actually then makes a lot of sense as to why time travel in the franchise requires an organic body. This could be a failsafe put in by Dyson and it could be explained that the future versions of Skynet were actually using Dysons original designs (But that’s something we’ll come to later).
So Dyson builds his time machine. Skynet’s origins though are a mystery to the resistance. So they intend to go into the past with two goals. Their primary first is to find out how Skynet was created and if possible stop it. But if that fails the second option is to prepare a resistance in advance to hopefully give Humanity a real chance. Obviously part of this team is Kyle Reece, but since humanity as lost there is no reason for it to be just one guy. The intention is for everyone to go back except one person (Dyson) who will stay behind and destroy the device so Skynet can’t attempt to use the technology (No one is certain the machines won’t find a way to get around the organic limitation).
Enter The Swarm
But this is where it doesn’t go to plan and we introduce our new form of Terminator I have dubbed “The Swarm”. This is basically a microbot Terminator, somewhat like the nanobot T5000 in Genisys but not anywhere near as advanced (Microbots are about 1mm in size while nanobots are 10,000 times smaller) and doesn’t look at all like Matt Smith. It can however do variations of what the T5000 could. There were some good ideas in Genisys but they were drowned in a sea of terrible ideas. Nanobots are actually insanely over powered, so best avoided in the franchise for as long as possible. However microbots are scary as hell, look like a hellish swarm of insects and can still do a lot of cool stuff.
The Swarm is not a common Terminator in this dark future. It is more like a general, since it’s microbots can assume direct control of other Terminators, can interface with electronics and can even take control of people. It is a highly flexible leader and infiltrator. So one of these turning up would be a complete disaster for the resistance. Obviously Kyle Reece makes it into the past and a couple of his companions with him, but most of them end up falling to the Swarm and it’s minions. Dyson is not able to initiate the self destruct and on investigating the computer terminal the swarm comes up with a solution. He sends his entire swarm into the mouth of Dyson and then uses him like a meat suit to travel to the past in.
1983: The Beginning
The resistances mission is now even more complicated. Not only do they need to try and stop Skynet being created they also have The Swarm to deal with. Fortunately their enemy is without it’s army but is still incredibly formidable and able to control electronic devices. Luckily Kyle is not alone… at least not yet. You probably guessed but the whole reason Kyle is accompanied on this trip is to give the story some Red Shirts. Not necessarily too quickly though. But they do need to split up and this eventually leads to a wounded Kyle crossing paths with… you guessed it, Sarah Connor.
I’m going to get pretty vague at this point and skip the bulk of the film. You can tell what direction this is going and I’m not writing a novel here, just giving you a pitch. Eventually Kyle and Sarah are able to defeat the Swarm (or at least appears to have). However while continuing his investigation into Skynets origin Kyle comes across a shocking revelation: Skynet machine codes are active on Arpnet. It seems the Swarm wasn’t just there to take out the resistance team but also as a backup plan to help facilitate Skynet’s creation. While our heroes may have destroyed the main bulk of the some of the microbots are still active.
Kyle has his work cut out for him, but he is not alone. Sarah has fallen for him and is determined to help him stop this dark future from happening. Oh and the movie ends in 1984 with her telling him she is pregnant…. This is of course quite similar to the original film but with a number of key twists that should keep things fresh and in some ways turns things on their head. In this movie Kyle is himself being hunted and Sarah ends up saving him. They’ve done that idea before, but this isn’t Super-Sarah the butt kicking super solider. This is regular diner waitress Sarah discovering her own inner strength in a far more human fashion. The movie should be doable at a reasonable budget point and will focus on horror and science fiction elements.
I’ll Be Back
That’s it for part one. This first film should be workable on a reasonable budget. Admittedly not as low as the original film, but far less than any of the sequels. A budget of $80m would require a box office of about $200m global to get into profit. Every Terminator movie after the first has drawn over this, even Dark Fate and Genisys. See this isn’t just a creative pitch, but a financial one too. Let’s remember “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” actually drew less at the box office than “Answer the Call” but Afterlife was a success because the budget was FAR lower than the 2016 disaster. Anyway, in the next part we start to move in a more original direction and dig deeper into one of my core concepts, how humanities self loathing and nihilism could be the true catalyst of its own destruction, not the whims of a computer.
Marvel has lost all momentum in the cinema in recent years, so much so that some of their movies have even lost money. Everything is relevant of course and these movies are still bringing in hundreds of millions. However when your budgets reach$250m (That they admit to), you are basically looking at $600m just to break even. These are films that need the majority of the general audience to turn up to make a profit. Yet, Marvel have been putting out an increasingly niché product, that fails in broad appeal. On top of this franchises tend to suffer a delayed impact on box office from underwhelming entries. In this instance the previous MCU film, clearly made people cautious for Guardians 3.
Marvel of course is fairly unique in having sub-franchises. Two of these run largely independently from the greater MCU, namely Spider-Man and Guardians. Despite the long gap between the second and third movies there is still a strong fanbase for this franchise. What we’ve seen in the box office so far is a cautious opening weekend. This reflects a lack of faith in the MCU in general right now. The second week however had a very strong hold. My interpretation of that is that a lot of people held off until they heard the word of mouth. So is it worthy of that hold? Let’s dig in.
Synopsis (First Act Spoilers Only)
Part three part picks up a fair way after the second movie. Like many characters in the MCU, the team were heavily impacted by the Infinity War. The Gamora that was in a relationship with Quill was sacrificed by Thanos and is not coming back. However an alternative version of her from her own past has been transplanted into the modern day, rolling her back to where she started with the franchise. Quill is naturally not too happy with this and has found himself spiralling into depression.
This story actually picks up shortly after the Christmas Special, but with minimal impact. Basically just the groups new home and the revelation that Mantis is Quill’s brother.
The Guardians have settled down on Knowhere (The former base of the Collector) and renovated it into a a decent sized settlement for former Ravagers and other space misfits. Things are relatively peaceful (Outside of an increasingly drunken and mopey Starlord). That peace is disrupted by the sudden appearance of Adam Warlock. You may remember Adam as the genetically modified super being from the end of GOTG2. Warlock attacks the settlement, leading to Rocket Racoon being badly injured. As the Guardians attempt to give him medical treatment, a failsafe inside Rocket activates threatening his life. The Guardians then find themselves in a race against time to deactivate the failsafe so they can safe their friend.
Their quest brings them into conflict with The High Evolutionary, a powerful super genius whose past is heavily linked with Rocket’s. They find themselves working with another group of Ravagers, including the alterative Gamora. Neither Quill nor Gamora are especially happy with this arrangement. In classic James Gunn style, every character big and small gets their moment in the story. The downside is this pushes the run time up to a whopping two and a half hours. That gives us a lot to talk about, but don’t worry I’m keeping this as spoiler free as I can.
Villains
Let’s have a look at the move’s characters, starting with the big bad, The High Evolutionary. It’s hard not to compare Chukwudi Iwuji performance to that of Jonathan Majors as Kang. It’s a comparison that has Iwuji coming up on top… by a long way. Frankly Majors is overrated and has been over promoted.That’s understandable given how important the character is to the Phase Five. Iwuji however is severely underrated, has not really had any kind of push. Indeed he is barely in the promotional material for this film.
This is a shame, because he really nails it. He brings a sinister calmness to the role with a dangerous rage quietly bubbling under the surface. Iwuji delivers a superb performance and in my view is the best Villain the MCU has given us since Thanos. Admittedly that’s not a terribly high bar for phase 4/5 of the MCU. This is a villain you could build an entire phase around. But, Iwuji is a Gunn recruitment not a Fiege one, so this was probably never on the table. Fans of the Gunn TV series “Peacemaker” will recognise Iwuji from there and I wouldn’t be surprised to find him returning to DC in the future (In a new role).
We have a different story with Adam Warlock however, but this is a complicated one. Will Poulter is fine in the role. The problem is that Warlock feels superfluous to the entire story and has been made into yet another goofy, fish out of water “Bim-Bro” type character. Effectively he’s MCU Thor. Now fans of the comics will know that Adam Warlock is actually a great character. They will also know he was central to the entire Infinity Saga. So here he’s effectively missed his own destiny leaving him directionless. So it’s unsurprising he’s being set up as the next Thor. I fully expect his next few appearances in the MCU to involve him going off to find himself.
A character missing their own destiny isn’t new for the MCU. The Mandarin also missed his chance as Iron Man’s primary antagonist by not turning up until Tony had sacrificed himself. At least that character managed to slip into the role left by Shang-Chi’s comic book father Fu Manchu. Adam has no role to take over and it tells. It is likely only here because he was promised in the post credits scene in the previous Guardians movie. It’s impossible to know if Gunn had larger plans for him originally, but now he’s just sort of there. To be fair, he does get to kick some ass early on. For the rest of the movie though he’s just sort of hanging around. Honestly, he could have been cut entirely and the movie may have been better for it.
Heroes
So that leads us to the heroes. This is a bit of a mixed bag. As I mentioned earlier, everyone gets at least one moment to shine, but not much more. It is possibly too large a cast at this stage to do give everyone serious character arcs. Gunn’s style is somewhat similar to Joss Whedon in that the stories are heavily character based and rely on smaller moments of character banter to gradually develop the characters. The result is that many of the characters don’t develop in a significant way throughout the movie. This is a bit more realistic but not always as satisfying as a story focused approach.
Case in point Quill (Minor spoilers) doesn’t really develop much. He starts out lost and ends up trying to find himself. At this stage that is basically a generic Marvel cliché for the male characters. Drax meanwhile has his character arc sort of thrown at him late in the movie. This is very small, but is actually quite satisfying for the character and will no doubt resonate with some audience members. Nebula is just sort of there. To be fair she has gone through a lot of character development prior to the movies and the Infinity War. What we get instead with Nebula is to see just how much she has evolved since her introduction.
Alternative Gomorra has some development, but is effectively just repeating the development her other version had during the first movie. Mantis has a small amount of development, but quietly in the background and Groot is Groot. Kraglin, despite being a minor character, basically get’s an 80’s martial arts movie character arc. Just replace the special ancient technique with controlling the Yaka Arrow). Perhaps though Kragin’s real story is in his relationship to the telekinetic super-dog Cosmo. That’s one thing I’m sure all the dog lovers in the audience will get a kick out of.
Then we get to Rocket Racoon and be in no doubt this is his movie. We get to see his origins and what made his personality the way it is. Through all that, he gets a serious amount of character growth. It’s just a shame that the set up to all this actually eliminates the popular character from the majority of the movie. Despite this it is an emotional journey for him and the audience. If you are a fan of Rocket Racoon, expect it to be both frustrating and emotional.
And the Plot?
Story wise, I have issues and this really reflects how much of a character based writer Gunn is. The first point of note is the often self defeating actions of the antagonists. On several occasions the villains do things that seem to sabotage themselves for no readily apparent reason other than to drive the plot forward. This wouldn’t be so bad, if those errors of judgement weren’t the driving force for the majority of the movie. The film is very lucky to have such a capable actor as it’s main villain, since his performance can at least in the moment let you ignore all that. Hard not to question it after though.
A big issue for the movie is it’s length. There is a lot of debate to be had on whether the inclusion of either Adam Warlock or Gomorra was really necessary for the movie. The truth is they are both there just because they were expected to be there. Gomorra is there because she was a key character in the first two movies and that’s it. There is some purpose for her though in showing how circumstance can change where someone ends up, but doesn’t change who they are at heart. It’s a nice sentiment, but wasn’t really needed to conclude the story.
Adam Warlock is perhaps the films biggest issue since his presence seems to damage both the movie and the character. The truth is he wasn’t needed for the film and had he not been revealed in the post credit scene after Guardians 2, he probably wouldn’t have been in it. Removing either him or Gamora would probably have reduced the films run time by a good 15 minutes without any real impact. There was also a random scene involving giant space monsters that basically don’t do anything, making the entire section superfluous. Removing all of that would probably have had the runtime down to a solid 1 hour 50. Just about perfect for a superhero movie.
That said, the movie doesn’t drag much. It is basically split into three very distinct acts, each with their own build up, major action scene and wind down. The format kept me interested and each section had it’s positives and negatives. They movie is packed with references and cameos too, which while not something that helps the overall quality. It does add a little bit of fun on the first viewing though, and some talking points. Naturally the cameos include yet another appearance from Howard the Duck, but we’re also treated to a brief appearance of Sylvester Stallone, reprising his role of Stakar Ogord from the second film.
Mix Tape Vol. 3
That brings us to the final element we all expect from a Guardians movie: The music. Well… yeah, it’s not that great this time out. It’s not that the music is itself bad, it’s just not quite up to the level of the previous movies and when the music has been so good previously, you notice the drop off. Some of the choices are quite strange too, for example Alice Cooper’s version of “I’m Always Chasing Rainbows”. That is far from Alice’s best track and the song itself is a cover, with the original being over a hundred years old.
I can’t help but wonder if the music clearance budget for the film was slashed this time or if Gunn simply chose to keep back the really good tracks so he can make use of them in his upcoming DC movies. Gunn has good taste in music, but his choices are usually pretty big hits from their era/genre. Not obscure gems such as the ones Tarantino tends to dig up. I imagine there is a limit to how many good tracks he can dig up. Perhaps he didn’t want to waste his best ones at a company he is departing? Who knows. Either way, the soundtrack is the least memorable of the series. It’s not actually bad however, it’s just not a selling point like it was for the previous films.
Assessment
As a critic, I have to be critical. But despite all that I want to be clear, I had a lot of fun with this movie. Despite the flaws and the step down in some regards from the previous movies this was an emotionally satisfying movie with fun action scenes and some good humour. The length didn’t damage my enjoyment, at least not on the first viewing (Remains to be seen how I feel in the years to come) and while I didn’t leave the theatre humming any of the tunes I wasn’t putting my fingers in my ears either. The story focus on Rocket definitely works and the villain is the best MCU villain since Thanos.
That said, we don’t have a very high bar in regard to villains in the MCU and even when Marvel was more consistently good, the villains were rarely the selling point. They really need to nail that Doctor Doom casting if the MCU is to have any hope going forward. This was a final chapter for the Guardians and it may be a final chapter for many’s journey with the MCU, but the good news is it’s a pretty satisfying ending. If you were to watch Phase 1-3 and follow that up with just Spider-Man No Way Home and then this you would feel pretty content with your journey. This movie is a strong 6.5/10 and a hairs width short of a 7.
VERDICT: 6.5/10 – Recommended, especially to fans of the previous movies.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Rating: 6.5 out of 10.
Bonus Round – The State of the MCU
With this movie and Gunn’s departure it seems certain this is the end of the Guardians as we know them. Sure Disney still owns the rights, but without Gunn, it won’t be the same and many of the actors will not want to return. On top of this there is no announced Spider-Man film suggesting that Sony may be pulling out of their deal with Disney. Things look bad for the MCU. This of course follows the departure of Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanov, T’Challa and probably Thor. The MCU desperately needs to bring in some top name draws again to prop up the smaller sub-franchises, but there is no sign of this happening any time soon because of Kevin Feige’s stubborn refusal to change his plans for Phase 4-6 despite the Fox purchase.
The comic book giants of The Fantastic Four, The X-Men and huge names like Doom and Wolverine have just been sitting on the shelf while Marvel rolls out it’s E, F and J list heroes. I’m not kidding with that either, there are definite tiers for Superheroes, the A list for Marvel is just Spider-Man. The B-List are Hulk, X-Men and until a string of failed movies downgraded them, The Fantastic Four, then you have Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Wolverine and Magneto/Prof-X as the C-List. That was the level on which the MCU was built. Blade, Daredevil, Ghost Rider and maybe She-Hulk and a few of the X-Men as individuals are the D-List level. The rest, including Ant Man and The Guardians would have been E-List or lower, which shows you can make it work on an individual basis, but you need some bigger names for the larger franchise.
The Downward Spiral
The problem with using the lower tier heroes is you need someone with real talent and creativity to make it work. They had that with James Gunn and now he is gone and Marvel don’t have anyone else that can pull that kind of thing off. With budgets increasing and returns decreasing, each new Marvel movie represents an increasing poor ratio of risk to reward. Ant Man Quantumania lost money, Guardians 3 will likely only generate the same profit level as a successful Horror (About $100m in profit), but Horror does it on about a tenth of the budget of a Superhero movie, so far less risk. The next three movies Marvel has on it’s slate may struggle to even achieve Ant Man numbers and when they finally get to Blade, it most likely will be back in that Horror film profit range (But with a Superhero film cost).
Logic would suggest Disney needs to radically slow down on the number of Marvel movies it puts out and focus on the bigger B and C list names, leaving the D and E list to the TV shows and relegate the rest to supporting characters for now (Until they can find a new Gunn or Whedon and even then probably best to focus on the teams instead of individuals at that level). It’s worth noting that the original plan was probably for Phase Four to cash in on the momentum from the Infinity Saga, bringing in the expectedly large audiences by default for those lower tier characters. But Covid struck and by the time they could get any of those titles out, the momentum was gone. Still, the failure to find a pivot to a new plan is entirely on Feige.
Meanwhile at DC…
But as one door closes another opens and a new chapter begins over at Warner/DC. James Gunn has a vision, it remains to be seen if that vision is any good but chances are it will be better than what Warner has been doing for the last decade (Aside from the excellent Joker movie of course). Before we get there though, we have to find a path through the last remnants of the older regimes. Namely we need to get past the Ezra Miller Flash film and Jason Momoa’s likely final appearance as Aquaman. Momoa is probably not going anywhere, but if rumours are true may be switching roles to one he is better suited for, namely Lobo. Miller meanwhile is almost certainly gone after The Flash, yet his movie is the pivot on which the old DCEU morphs into Gunn’s new DCU.
The new era truly begins with “Superman:Legacy”, a film that will make or break DC in the coming years. But even if it turns out to be a good film, it could be a case of too little, too late for Warner to properly cash in on the Superhero fever of the last decade. Superhero fatigue may well be a thing. We will have to wait and see. At the time of writing, though Gunn has announced a slate of films, he hasn’t cast anyone for them yet and we are a long way away from seeing trailers. Who knows where he goes from here. Chances are though, as someone that likes to work with the same people we may well see the actors behind the Guardians turning up in DC. Karren Gillan has already suggested she’d like to play Poison Ivy for instance. Sounds good to me.
Today I’m reviewing Damien Chazelle’s all star black comedy epic drama. This behemoth of a movie clocks in at three hours and nine minutes in length and boy does it feel it! The movie has a lot of talent on screen with three leads in Margot Robbie, Brad Pitt and Diego Calva. Robbie plays Nellie LaRoy, a brash ambitious young up and coming star of the silent screen. Pitt plays “Jack Conrad” an established star that is somewhat jaded and often having marital issues. Calva plays the true lead, “Manny Torres” a Mexican immigrant and studio assistant, who eventually works his way up to executive.
Naked Ambition.
Babylon is an ambitious look at the transition in Hollywood from silent movies to talkies, but in practice it is really just a collection of loosely connected scenes. The movie begins with Manny transporting an elephant to a debauched, drug-fuelled private festival for the rich and famous within the industry. This opening scene is long and provides much of the footage from the trailers. It’s not entirely clear if this is a celebration of the debauchery of classic Hollywood, a condemnation of it or just an excuse to film things that look good in the trailer. My guess is a bit of all three. The scene sets up Manny’s first meeting with Nellie and sets the tone for the movie.
From here we follow the characters through a series of scenes depicting movie productions, drunken, drug addled parties and occasionally the events in between. Manny becomes close with both Nellie, whom he has fallen for and Jack, so the story is really Manny’s. This contrasts the hard working backbone of classic Hollywood with the debauchery and mental instability of the stars that struggled not to believe their own hype. The concept there is solid enough, but the film is less solid in it’s execution.
Brad and Margot.
Margot Robbie does not provide the best performances of her career as the walking disaster Nellie (Who mostly drives the plot on by being randomly outrageous and self destructive). She is however in the movies best scene. One that comes on a fraught movie set during an early “Talkie” where tension over the quality of the sound recording drives everyone on set to their breaking point, with one character not even surviving. The scene is about fifteen minutes and is pretty deep into the movie.
Pitt however is almost totally wasted as disillusioned actor Jack Conrad. He has a few good scenes early on but ultimately you could remove him from the entire movie without impacting the overall narrative. This is especially true considering the other two main characters have a romantic relationship and so Jack’s scenes feel very much like a third wheel.
Make it Epic!
The big problem here is that dark comedies don’t really mesh well with ambitious epic story telling. On a scene by scene basis this is somewhat reminiscent of a Cohen Brothers movie, but their longest film is just over two hours and for good reason. This movie doesn’t even have it’s opening credits until the 40 minute mark. It largely just plods along and the events feel disconnected. Many of the scenes themselves are actually very good and the majority feature ambitious, flamboyant set pieces, which makes the movie appear more of a showcase of the directors talent than a coherent narrative.
This is a good example of a movie scaling up without reason, with a story that would have worked better more focused and personal. There is possibly a good, far shorter movie in here, but instead of that we got a movie that is self indulgent, pretentious and tiring to watch. I can’t help but wonder as well if this is meant to be a criticism of past Hollywood excess or a celebration of it. I mean you only have to look on social media to see modern actors are on the whole no more stable than their 1920’s counterparts. I can’t help but feel the movie missed an opportunity to make a genuine statement on all that.
The Final Word.
Ultimately the movie is a let down. Some scenes may be 7/10’s but as a whole the best I can give this film is 5/10. Unless you have a new sofa you really want to wear an ass grove into, I’d give it a skip.
For today’s review I’m looking at the 2023 movie “Infinity Pool”, staring the underappreciated Alexander Skarsgård (Most recently staring in one of the best movies and yet biggest flops of last year “The Northman”) and rising horror starlet Mia Goth (Who hit a double whammy last year with “X” and it’s prequel “Pearl”). The movie is written and directed by Brandon Cronenberg, son of David Cronenberg. This is his second feature film after 2020’s “Possessor”, which I haven’t had the pleasure of seeing yet, but much like this film it sounds very much like something that could have been made by his father. So let’s find out if the apple falls far from the tree!
Under The Sun.
Our movie starts with obscure novelist James Foster (Skarsgård) and his rich wife “Em” (Played by Cleopatra Coleman) spending time at a resort in the fictional island of Li Tolqa, which appears to be, at least on the surface, some form of Banana Republic. Despite claiming no one has read his book, one of the fellow tourists, “Gabi” (Goth) claims to be a fan. She invites the pair to join her and her husband “Alban” (Jalil Lespert) to spend time with them and despite warnings that they should not stray from within the resorts walls, they decide to spend the next day driving in the countryside.
After an evening on the beach drinking heavily, James drives the group home and accidentally runs over one of the locals. The group panic and return to the hotel hoping it will go unnoticed, but the local police turn up the next morning and haul James away. It turns out the justice system in Li Tolqa is swift and harsh, with James condemned to be executed by the eldest son of the man he ran over.
Killing Yourself to Live.
However, this is where the film introduces some science fiction elements. It turns out for a hefty fee (Presumably paid for by his wife) they will create a fully grown clone of him, including his memories and kill that instead. Confused, but desperate he agrees. On return to the hotel James finds his passport missing and so must remain at the resort while this is sorted out. His wife however heads off.
Stuck on the island, James finds himself falling in with Gabi and her nihilist friends, a spoiled, dangerous group of people who seem to get their kicks from tormenting others and abusing the islands legal system and it’s loophole for the rich. This isn’t a spoiler review, so I’ll stop there with the plot. Suffice to say this is going to be a life changing experience for the man.
Tomorrow’s Dream.
Probably the main thing David Cronenberg is known for is using body horror as a study on humanity. The focus has never really been on the plausibility of the situations since they largely exist as a sort of metaphor anyway, instead they are really more character studies with a focus on their deeply flawed and often self destructive protagonists. Brandon has clearly gone for a very similar approach.
You have to basically just accept this island nation that in every other regard is a typical banana republic has the technology to create perfect clones of people (Including their memories) and that they use this amazing technology in the most bizarre and twisted way, as a frankly unnecessary side show to allowing the rich to pay their way out of trouble. None of it really makes any sense if taken literally. But beneath the surface it is clear that the film is a study in Nihilism.
Into the Void.
To some extent it is about the form of Nihilism that comes naturally from power (Specifically the power that comes from being rich). Certainly this is where bored sociopath Gabi comes in. James however, is not especially rich and not at all powerful. His wife and step-father are rich, but his Nihilism is somewhat different and perhaps more related to his creativity. He wrote a book no one read, married his publishers daughter and has effectively landed on his feet but without any real sense of achievement. He is empty inside and without a real direction or purpose. This much is obvious.
At one point in the story the dangerous crowd James has fallen in with poses the question: “How do you know if you are the original or the clone”. It’s a common sci-fi trope and the first place my mind went once it was revealed it was a clone story. However, the important part of the conversation was the follow up: “Perhaps you just watched the real you die” to which James answers “We can only hope”. The group seem to approve of the response and there we have it. The ultimate nihilism, death without consequences. This sets up James journey for the rest of the film.
Thrill of it All.
Infinity Pool is ultimately simpler than the usual David Cronenberg affair, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. The story still contains the elements you would expect from a Cronenberg body horror, but it’s presented a more accessible package. It is dark, violent, horrific, filled with deeply flawed characters and ultimately thought provoking. The ending is in some ways disappointing, but has purpose. This probably won’t be everyone’s cup of tea but if you like the films of his father’s this Brandon Cronenberg movie may be worth your time, otherwise probably not. I do, so it’s a solid 6/10 for me. Would be higher, but you need a LOT of suspension of disbelief for this one.
Welcome back to my series on the Terminator franchise, how it got derailed and how to get it bac on path. As I mentioned in part one it is my view that there are two vitally important steps to bringing Terminator back, making it profitable again and legitimizing it as a true franchise. Not that it isn’t already a franchise, any movie that has a sequel or spin off is technically a franchise but many people don’t believe Terminator can support new ventures.
To me that position is laughable. Time travel and rogue AI are two areas of science fiction that have near limitless potential for stories, you just have to find the right angles to stand out from the crowd. Let’s take a look at film that started the franchise and should be the heart of any future installment: The Terminator (1984).
The Terminator (1984) – The Heart of the Franchise
In the original pre-release footage at the ending of The Terminator the camera reveals the factory in which the final showdown took place was owned by Cyberdyne systems. At some point, Cameron decided to remove that and hold back from the big reveal, something likely motivated by the potential to use it in a sequel and it’s a real shame because while this is all still implied it is something that raises up the original movie to the pinnacle of science fiction concepts. It creates a perfect time loop, somewhat similar to the one in Robert Heinlein’s “All you zombies”.
In Heinlein’s story (Spoilers for that btw) it is revealed that the time travelling protagonist of the story was also his own mother, father and recruiter. Effectively the character created himself/herself (They change gender mid story, hence being both of his own parents and romancing themselves). It’s all a very conceptual view of time travel, but importantly it maintains cause and effect… just in an infinite loop. That is the kind of thing you expect from Heinlein, but perhaps not from James Cameron and it’s entirely possible he didn’t really understand the significance of these story elements.
The Deep View
In The Terminator, both Skynet and John Connor are much like Heinlein’s protagonist. Both effectively created themselves out of nothing and form part of an eternal loop. That’s the thing about this story, it’s not about what it appears on the surface. The Terminator wasn’t really sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor and Kyle Reece wasn’t sent back in time to stop it. Both were sent back in time to conceive the entities that would then send them back in time for that very mission. The events that lead to that outcome are in some ways irrelevant (Though obviously entertaining to watch).
But what about Cyberdyne and Sarah Connor? Well the truth is while both are exceptional they are not unique, it could have been a number of companies and a number of potential mothers. They are merely the catalyst that grounds the time loop into a perceived linear reality. More important than who they are is what they represent. Sarah represents humanity, free will, emotion and family. Cyberdyne represents science, corporations, occupation and most significantly inevitability (Such as the inevitability of “The Singularity”, where AI’s reach the point they can create their own next generation). These become the very moral foundation for the war between Skynet and John Connor.
Good Vs Evil?
Many people have taken note that John Connor’s initials are the same as Jesus Christ and Skynet’s is the same as Satan. Of course John’s initials are also the same as James Cameron’s and since the idea of The Terminator supposedly came from one of his fever induced nightmares, it could just as well be a reference to himself. But regardless it is clear that John and Skynet are symbolic of ideas in direct opposition. This is of fundamental importance to the story, regardless of the whether the two physically manifest. Whether those forces are good and evil, order and chaos, progress and conservation or knowledge and emotion isn’t as important as the the fact the battle is eternal.
It’s worth noting however that other than good vs evil, these conflicts aren’t ones where you’d necessarily say one side must win. They instead need to maintain a balance. This is where I am not particularly keen on the Satan Vs Jesus Christ analogy, because that changes the story into one asking for a conclusion where the good guys ultimately win. That’s not necessarily where The Terminator should go. The thing with science fiction and part of what makes it a great genre is you get to ask the big questions.
The Horror Angle.
So, you have the deeper science fiction but you also have some great horror aspects such as humans fighting against their inevitable death. The unstoppable killing machine that is the Terminator relentlessly, but quite slowly pursuing the heroes can be seen as a fight of a mortal against their own mortality or humanity against their extinction. Time comes for everyone. But it’s not just mortality it’s also about redundancy. The machines on the surface appear superior to the humans and are replacing them. Again it’s a very natural fear and so perfect for the horror aspect of the movie.
Of course the final layer of the movie is the fun stuff. Killer robot from the future travels back in time. That’s the kind of pitch that is hard to resist and regardless of everything else promise to at least be a fun B-Movie. Throw in a very strong cast including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Michael Biehn and a small appearance from Lance Henriksen and James Cameron’s attention to detail and you know you are on to a winner.
Terminator 2 – The Ultimate Action Movie
This brings us to the sequel and we have a significant change of gears here. Instead of focusing on the horror and science fiction elements, Cameron went full tilt on the action and special effects and it paid off huge. This is a movie that could very well be the greatest action movie of all time and so it’s understandable why all too often it becomes the focus when looking at the Terminator franchise. I covered the momentum going into the movie in part one of this series, so here I want to focus on the the story itself.
Along with the action, Terminator 2 had fantastic character development and some truly moving character moments. This for me is what makes the difference between a good and a bad action movie. True not everyone can pull off cool special effects and stunts, but even when done well that all means nothing unless it really reaches the viewer on an emotional level. They have to be with the characters as they watch the edge of the seat action. It’s probably more for this reason rather than the stunts and effects that the movie is still regarded as the pinnacle of the action genre.
The Uphill Struggle
Trying to top that in the modern day is an expensive game with a very high risk of failure. But that’s just talking about stunts and effects, the emotional/character aspects are problematic too because Terminator 2 provided closure to most of the characters story arcs. It provided an emotionally satisfying ending and so you are already in a difficult situation to get the audience to invest emotionally in a continuation in the same style.
It’s all an uphill struggle and probably the only director that could pull it off is James Cameron himself and only if he is really on his game and doesn’t decide to do something silly like remove all the guns from the story. But even if he came back and directed the movie itself and it worked, where would you go next? Would every installment need an on form James Cameron to not lose the studio hundreds of millions of dollars? More importantly, should they even really be trying to go in that direction?
The Ending That Isn’t.
For all it’s positives, Terminator 2 has some very serious problems. Most of which come the switch in focus and the way that the film both firmly established that it was a perfect time loop and then breaks that loop by the end of the movie. This is easy to ignore when swept up in the huge emotional character moments and edge of the seat action, but it has huge implications and the big question becomes, how does time travel really work in this universe?
How Does Time Travel Work?
While everyone recognises that the first two Terminator movies are both great movies in their own right it’s often overlooked how they don’t really fit together and a big part of that is in the change of how time travel works. Terminator 2 is the problem here because there is no way to resolve how time travel works in that movie that actually means they succeeded in defeating Skynet, at least not without making a large number of assumptions, many of which would be painfully convenient. Neither of the films truly explained how time travel was expected to work in that universe so we need to look at the possible ways it could and how they would impact the franchise.
When a man is his own father, mother and bartender.
Timeloops
The original movie as I have mentioned is a perfect time loop. Events in the future cause the events in the past that then causes those events in the future. This is a type of time travel where all events maintain cause and effect despite attempts to change things. All You Zombies”, as mentioned above is another example of this. The movie “Predestination” (2014) is based on this story.
The TV series “Futurama” is another example of this. Fry, goes back in time, accidentally kills his own grandfather and then impregnates his grandmother, later finding out he is his own grandfather. But this situation also allowed him to have a unique brain that rendered him immune to the powers of some would be galactic conquerors. Since this condition already existed (and is the whole reason he ended up in the future) his whole story thus becomes a time loop.
So That’s How It Works in The Terminator Franchise?
So this is how time travel appeared to work in The Terminator. The sequels seems to suggest that isn’t how it worked however, since they appeared to have broken the time loop at least on the T800/Skynet side. It is still possible though that some of the information gained from the T800 chip could have been backed up somewhere and Cyberdyne were still able to proceed. That would mean Judgement Day would still happen and the loop would be preserved. Alternatively, maybe Skynet was never a direct part of the time loop and was never truly developed from the remains of the T800. In that case Judgement Day would still happen and Kyle Reece would still end up sent back in time.
Doc Brown explains branching timelines.
Alternative Timelines
One of the most common types of time travel in fiction. Alternate Timelines deal with the potential impacts of travellers by breaking timelines off into alternate parallel dimensions. In Back to the Future 2, this is how it works. If applied to The Terminator it does leave an important question: Why would Skynet attempt to create an alternative timeline that won’t impact it’s present?
There is a possible answer for that however. Perhaps Skynet actually sent a compressed version of it’s own code back in the T800. Then the Skynet created from the T800’s remains would be the actual, original Skynet. Which would mean it could try once again. This time with a leg up technologically and perhaps in a reality where there is no John Connor.
One Side Effect of Parallel Timelines is Genisys would suck slightly less.
The Problem With Parallels
Aside from Skynet’s motivation, there is a big problem with alternative timelines. Prior to the T800 going back in time, Skynet must have had a clear, inevitable path to it’s own creation. Preventing the use of the T800 technology wouldn’t have prevented the creation of Skyne. At best have just delayed it due to Cyberdyne wasting time on examining the advanced technology. This was the path that both Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles followed. John and Sarah spent a lot of time attempting to find that orgin in the TV. During the show they also discovered that Skynet wasn’t the only powerful AI in play. Terminator 3 meanwhile basically just said “Nah, Judgement Day is happening anyway”.
Charlie from Lost: Destined to die now matter what Desmond changed.
Self Correcting Timelines
As a midway point between timeloops and alternative timelines is the idea that when you try and change history, time automatically corrects itself. For example, if you went back in time and killed Hitler, his parents may end up adopting a child and calling it Adolf and that adopted child would then do everything Hitler did. If the timelines worked like this then the original John Connor wouldn’t have been Kyle Reece’s son, but when the events of The Terminator was put in motion and Sarah didn’t meet John’s original father time corrected by having Kyle take up that role, with the child still called “John”. This set up makes key events more important than things like genetic. So it doesn’t really matter where Skynet came from or who fathered John as long as Judgement Day happens and Skynet and John can have their conflict.
The Future is Inevitable?
How Would A Self Correcting Timeline Work In Terminator?
If the Terminator world worked like this it would mean Skynet either didn’t understand time travel or was hoping not to change it’s present but provide it with some kind of weapon to change it’s future after the point the T800 was sent back. This actually fits in a way since the T1000 could be seen as that weapon. However, if that is the case it becomes a bigger question as to why it would send the T1000 back in time. There probably could be some justification but it’s probably getting a bit too unlikely at this stage. The important thing though is that Skynet would still happen after T2 because the timeline would correct.
City on the Edge of Forever
Actually Changing Stuff
In the Star Trek universe (At least up until the end of the run of TNG movies) and in most classic science fiction TV/Movies time travel basically works as intended and causal paradoxes are largely ignored. So if you went back in time and killed Hitler as a baby, you would indeed prevent his rule but in doing so also removed your reason to go back in time. These days this is viewed as a paradox that wouldn’t be possible, but for classic Trek it wasn’t a problem at all.
There would however be a window of time for people to repair the timeline. For example the entire Federation disappeared in the City on the Edge of Forever when the timeline was changed, but the crew on the ground close to the place where the change happened maintained their memory of it and were able to go back in time and fix things.
Similarly in “First Contact” the entire planet Earth ended up being assimilated, but the Enterprise was somehow able to avoid the impact and were able to go back in time and fix the problem. Honestly those two events contradict each other as in the first instance the Enterprise vanished and in the second it did not. The truth is with time travel in Star Trek, the people that are able to remember the world before the change are effectively, whomever is important to the plot to do so.
The Borg Earth from First Contact
Could Terminator Throw The Rules Out The Window?
You could have a version of this were only the person that creates the change remembers it and becomes like an interloper into reality, but that wouldn’t fit with The Terminator, because the moment the T800 went back in time the future would have changed and Kyle Reese wouldn’t have been able to follow. Honestly this is a messy way to deal with time travel, but it can work providing you make your own rules clear for it at the start.
In the case of Terminator 2, you’d still have the problem that if you don’t have a fixed time loop, there must be an alternative way for Skynet to be created and you still open yourself up to Judgement day. What does change however is there is no reason for the date to stay fixed and more importantly there is no guarantee that John’s resistance would always defeat Skynet. Indeed by attempting to prevent it, they could have changed things so Skynet wins. This kind of time travel really is anything goes and you never know if you’ll make things better or worse.
So what does that all mean?
The reason for going over all these versions of time travel is simply this: There isn’t a single version that means Terminator 2 should be the logical end of the story. Not one. The only reason people think it is or should be is because of how it works from a character perspective. In that regard it was a very satisfying end. But when you think about it, you realise it was ultimately not the victory it appeared.
However, that doesn’t mean the story of T2 was pointless. A Skynet born from it’s own future technology is going to have a significant advantage (Perhaps as demonstrated with the T1000), they prevented that. They also learned a number of important lessons that showed why John Connor could be the future leader of humanity. Perhaps most importantly though, they learned that a machine could learn the value of humanity. This means that long term there may even be a path to coexistence.
I’ll Be Back!
The important thing though is simply to recognise that there are more stories to tell with this franchise. In the next part instead of looking at the third to sixth movies and where they messed things up I’m going to get a bit creative instead and give you my idea for how the franchise could be revived. It’s not even particularly out of left field and to be clear you could go as wild as you like with it, but in my view before you get crazy you need to re-ground the whole thing. See you in part 3!
When following the films of Nick Frost and Simon Pegg it’s hard not to be underwhelmed when you get to this little number. It seems clear that while Frost may be a walking encyclopaedia of pop culture references, the creativity and flair of his more famous movies likely came from Edgar Wright, because this completely lacks either, but it does have a LOT of references in it. So if you are the kind of person that enjoys movies just because they reference other, better movies, TV shows and comics then this will be for you. If not… Maybe give it a skip.
Paul is written by Pegg and Frost and helmed by “Superbad” and “Adventureland” director Greg Mottola. It stars Pegg, Frost as a couple of Brits visiting America to attend comiccon and the talentless Seth Rogen (Sorry, but I don’t get why he keeps getting so much work) as the titular alien that stumbles into their path late one night after attending the con. The pair decide to help Paul return home, but are pursued by the FBI and various groups of rednecks… because rednecks, I guess.
By The Numbers.
The story itself is a pretty generic by the numbers, protect the friendly alien story. It could be “E. T.” , “*Batteries not Included”, even “Short Circuit” (If you ignore he’s not an Alien). Though those movies have a lot more heart to them. It could also be “Bumblebee” or “Monster Truck” or any number of similar stories of more recent years. The only thing different here is the Alien looks like a generic grey type alien…. So basically it’s a double cliché.
That’s really the game this film is playing. It substitutes any originality or heart for tired tropes and just out of the blue references that could have been stuck at any time in the film since they are only there to be references. This is exactly the kind of film I’d expect a pop culture junky to make and perhaps in the late 90’s to early 2000’s when those kinds of films/shows were relatively fresh and popular (I was a fan of Pegg’s own “Spaced”) they could have gotten away with it, but by 2011 that was all feeling pretty stale. Roll on to 2023 when I’m making this review and it’s still being over done but notably a lot less popular. Everyone is tiring of it now.
Clichés and Stereotypes.
Of course those pop culture referencing films of that period were also funny, which helped them a lot. Some even had artistic merit (The first Clerks film for instance). This doesn’t have either of those. It’s just references, tropes and cameos (Well, one cameo, but that’s also a reference).The closest it.
When the film isn’t doing pop culture references, it is basically just stereotyping people instead, because making a character that isn’t a hundred percent generic would apparently be beyond Pegg and Frost’s writing partnership in 2011. Honestly, it’s shocking to see the gulf between this movie and Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz. Both of those also featured a tonne of references, but actually had a good plot, some really funny moments and… well… style!
Conclusion.
Ultimately this film exposes the limitations of the Pegg/Frost partnership without Edgar Wright’s involvement. Pegg especially is a one trick pony, only able to throw in pop culture references (It’s even how he wrote his Star Trek script, that’s why you had a major scene involving playing The Beastie Boys). Wright brought the quality and style to that partnership and is sorely missed here. This is a 4/10.
Time for my first review of a 2023 movie. In what is already looking like a decent year for horror (Possibly just because we don’t have another bad Halloween sequel to deal with, though we do have an Exorcist remake to be annoyed at later in the year), one of the first to hit theatres this year was the AI gone rogue/Killer doll movie “M3gan”.
Viral Marketing.
This has been building itself a nice bit of hype as the release date drew near and featured an interesting viral marketing campaign a little reminiscent of the one used for Smile. The main feature of the campaign was creepy M3gan doll dancers turning up in high profile events/locations. The campaign also had some fun on Twitter with some playful interaction between the M3gan account and the Chucky one. Both being owned by the same company, you have to wonder if a crossover is on the cards.
But anyway, what about the film itself? Helmed by “Housebound” (2014) director Gerard Johnstone but from the mind of Horror legend, James Wan (scripted by Wan’s “Malignant” (2021) collaborator Akela Cooper), M3gan stars Allison Williams as under pressure robotics engineer and toy maker “Gemma” and upcoming child actress Violet McGraw as her orphaned niece “Cady”. The titular character herself is a mixture of animatronics, body actress Amie Donald (provider of M3gan’s dancier moments), and voice actress Jenna Davis.
The Set Up.
The story is pretty simple and built around two key strands that intertwine. One is a much more personal story about Gemma and Cady. Gemma is a woman that clearly put her career first in life, largely driven by her inventive nature and ambition to break new ground with technology and AI. Suddenly she has found herself as guardian to her young niece after both the girl’s parents are killed in a road accident. Cady is obviously traumatised by the experience and Gemma doesn’t really know how to cope and is torn between trying and attempted to hit deadlines at work.
The second part of the story is in Gemma’s passion project “M3GAN” an AI robotic doll, that she has been working on in semi-secret (much to the chagrin of her bosses). After a failed test she was told to abandon work on the project and return to the next line of fury robotic toys that her company is famous for. However after sharing her designs with Cady she realised that she could perhaps kill two birds with one stone by having a prototype of her design bond with Cady, helping her through a tough time while also allowing Gemma to spend more time with her niece while she works. Good intentions it seems, but that road to hell is paved with just those sort of intentions.
Comedy and Critique.
What we see unravel then is a fun horror/comedy wrapped around a quite intelligent critique of both irresponsible science and parenthood. It is a double mistake that ends up costing several people their lives. Cady ends up become so emotionally bonded to M3gan that the relationship has become unhealthy, meanwhile the capabilities of the doll to learn and adapt to the emotional state of it’s primary user has led to the AI become dangerous unstable itself. Meanwhile Gemma’s focus on making the product a success has lead to her missing the warning signs of both issues. I couldn’t help but be reminded of that line from Jurassic Park: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”. It definitely applies here.
Friend, Entertainer, Murderer.
But that’s the nuts and bolts, what makes the film really work is the fun approach to the character. Really gave the movie a sort of 80’s feel in it’s slightly silly approach where the killer is firmly there to entertain the audience first instead of just terrify them. That said though, she certainly ups the creepy factor when needed. The doll taps into a lot of horror history, providing some fun “Chucky” like moments, some parts with more in common with “The Terminator” and a good helping of “Village of the Damned” too, with it’s creepy dead eyed children.
The doll appears realistic and humanlike at one moment (going into dance routines for example) and then in a moments notice changes into something far scarier, with a clear influence from the movement patterns of the more impressive Boston Dynamics robots. It’s those moments that M3gan transitions between lifeless doll, imitation little girl and savage robot that makes the movie really work and the great thing is those moments can be moving, scary or funny depending on what was needed at the time.
Conclusion
M3gan is a straight forward movie and makes for easy viewing, which is really what you want from a Horror Comedy. It’s a fun movie but most importantly it firmly establishes a new member to the Horror Icon hall of fame. Even though horror has been making a big comeback in recent year, there hasn’t been many iconic characters added to the list. Indeed the last addition was probably Annabelle and that killer doll has been more miss than hit (“Creation” was fantastic mind). If you’ve only gotten into horror in recent years perhaps this won’t be what your looking for but if you were a Horror fan in the 80’s, I’m pretty sure you’ll love it. It’s a 7/10 from me.
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