Terminator 2: Judgment Day

It’s been ten years since Sarah Connor was first introduced to the future of her son and mankind. Sarah has been preparing her son John since his birth to be the warrior he would need to be to survive in this future and lead us to victory, however, Sarah is now separated from her son and confined to a criminal mental instution because she tried to blow up Cyberdine Systems – the company that will one day manufacture SkyNet.

Without the influence of Sarah, John has begun to doubt all of the training and warnings his mother has given him through the years and begun to believe she is just as crazy as the doctors and law enforcement believe her to be. He is set on being a rebellious teen until SkyNet changes its direction and sends back a terminator to target John instead of Sarah.

I adore Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I saw this film in the theatre when I was a kid and I still remember that experience to this day, the same way I remember Jurassic Park wowing me. Because of T2 I later discovered Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, and happily chose the red pill and went down the rabbit hole with James Cameron.

The version of T2 I have on DVD is the director’s cut and like any of his films, once you see a James Cameron director’s cut you don’t go back. I understand that Cameron makes long movies, but everything he is forced to cut out for time constraints or other reasons, seems to be just as good as the material he keeps in his theatrical releases and Terminator 2 is no exception to this rule. The most notable scenes eliminated here and re-added to the director’s cut are the dream sequence where Sarah imagines Reese visiting her and when John & Sarah repair the T-800 model. Of all the sequences cut out of the movie this is the one I would have fought to keep.

If you remember from the theatrical cut of the film as John, Sarah & the T-800 escape from the T-1000 old Arnold gets pretty banged up, and he has a conversation with John about how he can be made to learn things due to his processor. When they are alone the T-800 gets repaired by Sarah. Anyone who paid attention to the first Terminator should realize that Sarah should be the last person to trust this model of terminator, it killed Reese and came dang close to killing her; so when it powers down for repairs Sarah removes it’s processor chip and prepares to smash it – but John stops her. He convinces her to instead switch the chip to learning mode so that the T-800 can begin to adapt and be more useful. It’s John’s first real moment as a leader and he demands that Sarah respect that. It’s a great scene and the only reasons I can see for it being cut would be pacing or because the studio wanted a shorter movie. Either way I think it’s a scene that proves Cameron is superior to other “action” filmmakers as he manages to concentrate on character and story as well as the action set pieces that get audiences into chairs.

If you haven’t seen the original Terminator films I really encourage you to if you are a fan of science fiction, the franchise, or James Cameron. I greatly disliked Terminator 3: the Rise of the Machines and enjoyed Terminator Salvation, but neither of these two films holds a candle to the original two. It’s still my secret hope that when the rights to the franchise go on the auction block soon Cameron will secretly buy them up so that he can either stop the inferior sequels or oversee them so his vision can be seen on screen again.

Director: James Cameron
Writers: James Cameron & William Wisher Jr.
The Terminator: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Sarah Connor: Linda Hamilton
John Connor: Edward Furlong
T-1000: Robert Patrick
Dr. Silberman: Earl Boen
Miles Dyson: Joe Morton

Sarah Connor: 3 billion human lives ended on August 29th, 1997. The survivors of the nuclear fire called the war Judgment Day. They lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines. The computer which controlled the machines, Skynet, sent two Terminators back through time. Their mission: to destroy the leader of the human resistance, John Connor, my son. The first Terminator was programmed to strike at me in the year 1984, before John was born. It failed. The second was set to strike at John himself when he was still a child. As before, the resistance was able to send a lone warrior, a protector for John. It was just a question of which one of them would reach him first.

Avatar

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Originally uploaded by bibadindej

Avatar. I’ve officially seen it in all three formats it’s available in – Imax 3-D, digital 3-D and Standard. It’s phenomenal in all three. Hoo rah.

If you haven’t seen it yet go see it and support James Cameron making more movies.

Avatar

Like any movie that wows me in a game changing way, I had to see Avatar a second time as quickly as possible. This time I saw it in 2D, or standard format to those confused by dimensionality (lil bro, you know who you are). I was shocked by the differences in the viewing style.

I was pleased to see that Avatar works in any format. Cameron knows how to craft a story and he pulls you in. Even without 3D you are concerned about Jake, Neytiri & the Na’vi people and you desperately want to be able to step foot on Pandora with them. This is an engaging story of a love, and a world that you want to be a part of – it’s just good storytelling. What did surprise me is that each way you can view Avatar is a totally different viewing experience.

In 2D in some ways parts of the world of Avatar looked more real – the skin on the animals, the close-ups of the Na’vi faces, the grittiness of part of the world – I could see textures better and it fel like seeing the object they filmed. The 2D experience was much grittier in a good way, Cameron didn’t forget the visceral feel that is needed to the visuals among all of the animation and special effects.

However, as amazing as the film is in 2D, 3D is a whole different ball game. The way Cameron used 3D in Avatar is completely unlike anything I’ve seen before. You literally feel like you are walking through the jungles of Pandora and that you are following Jake around. The very first time Jake opens the eyes of his Na’vi body and is blinking while he tries to focus, you almost feel as though you too are trying to focus your eyes on the surroundings. There was even a time or two that most of the audience tried to swat away bugs or ash that was on screen. This is the closest you can come to actually being on Pandora and making it real.

I can’t wait to see this film again. I desperately hope I can see it in 3D one more time and that perhaps the 3D version will be released on DVD, though I doubt it will be the same quality as the theatrical experience at all.

Jake: Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world and in here is the dream.

Avatar

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Originally uploaded by wiro204sableng

Jake Sully is a paralyzed former Marine who gets a tragic, lucky break. His Twin brother Tommy was part of the Avatar program on Pandora, he had his DNA blended with the native peoples so he can be linked into the Avatar body and interact with the natives, but Tommy was killed and now The Company is afraid of losing their investment so they ask Jake as his twin to take over Tommy’s Avatar. Jake soon is caught up between the Marine Colonel that wants to exterminate the natives to get to their natural resources and Dr. Augustine who founded the Avatar program because she believes there is a greater wealth to Pandora than their natural resources.

Jake soon meets the natives princess, Neytiri who believes their diety has given them a sign that Jake is significant to them. Jake must learn the ways of the people in 3 months and get them to leave peacefully or face destruction. What Jake never expects is that he would feel more alive in his Avatar than in his human body.

James Cameron hasn’t made a narrative film since Titanic, and I have to say that I was a naysayer when I found out one of the great delays with Avatar was the 3D process. After seeing the film I have two things to say ; firstly, that Avatar was worth the 12 year wait, and secondly, that the 3D is the most astounding use of the technology I have ever seen.

I am a 3D hater, and I don’t want to make it sound like Avatar is all about technology and not a good movie. It’s actually quite the opposite. Avatar is a great movie on its own, but the addition of the 3D element takes it to a whole other realm for the audience. Most 3D is gimmicky and doesn’t add anything to the story, which is why I dislike it; but with Avatar Cameron managed to use the medium for it’s ideal purpose – the 3D pulls you into the story and makes you feel like you are on the planet with Jake & Neytiri. You forget you are watching 3D.

Cameron typically does stories that focus on strong women, and I was a bit surprised to find out that Neytiri was not the main focus of this film – Jake was. However, Jake is a great, well rounded character with a strong arch and played very engagingly by Sam Worthington. On top of that, instead of one strong Sarah Connor figure you get 3 strong women in Avatar - Neytiri, Grace Augustine & Trudy. These women play the spectrum of strong women. Neytiri is the native princess that learns to accept Jake and protect her people, Grace is the scientist who is not afraid of the military and fights for the planet and Trudy is a fighter that learns the difference between orders and what is right.

I would love to give a play by play of this entire movie, how geeky I was about it and what I loved, but I truly think this is a movie that has to be experienced. I encourage you all to go see it and be willing to shell out the extra bucks for 3D, you will be glad you did.

Director & Writer: James Cameron
Jake Sully: Sam Worthington
Neytiri: Zoe Saldana
Dr. Augustine: Sigourney Weaver
Col. Quartich: Stephen Lang
Trudy: Michelle Rodriguez
Parker Selfridge: Giovanni Ribisi
Norm: Joel Moore

Col. Quaritch: You are not in Kansas anymore. You are on Pandora, ladies and gentleman.

The Terminator

Sarah Connor was living her life like any material girl in the 1984; she waitressed by day, laughed with her roommate Ginger and went out on dates. Then one day women named Sarah Connor began to be killed and her world was turned upside down. Out of nowhere Sarah finds out that a machine from the future, a terminator has been sent through time to kill her because she will give birth to a legendary leader named John Connor who will fight back against the machines when they cause a nuclear world and enslave the human race, and in the future he is on the verge of winning. Sarah finds out that she is the one that trains him to become this great leader, military warrior and savior of man kind. After that day Sarah Connor’s life changed forever – and so did cinema.

Sarah Connor is one of the most respected strong women of cinema; she is a legendary character and one in a long line of leading strong women led by James Cameron. What makes the character of Sarah Connor remarkable is not one thing but many, and it all starts with The Terminator. Never before had such a strong yet feminine woman been brought to the screen; Connor wasn’t strong in the say Kathryn Hepburn was strong, she was strong in a whole new way. She learned how to make plastic explosives, field dress wounds and fight for humanity.

Every time I watch The Terminator I am amazed at how natural Cameron and Linda Hamilton make Sarah Connor’s transformation from simple citizen to guerilla warrior. One would think that to make that dramatic a change it would be clunky and sudden, but it is not. Even before she knew the definition of an H.K. and T-101 Sarah could defend herself, think on her feet, and by the end of the film she is motivating the soldier sent back to protect her, and fighting against the machines herself.

In The Terminator Cameron creates not just Sarah Connor, but an entire world with a future so bleak that an entire new avenue was opened in science fiction. Time travel tales had been told before, but never in such a way as he told them. The Terminator sets up an entire world that we cannot see, a heroine that grows to greatness before us and the possibility of a leader even greater than this heroine. Cameron creates a way for the future to crash into the present with the idea that they are so linked together that neither the viewer or the characters can truly know if anything they do will actually change the future or if their actions are creating the future they dread. It was unique when the franchise began and remains fresh and vibrant to this day.

While The Terminator is arguably a franchise fueled by testosterone one must never forget that like just a John Connor was trained by his mother, Terminator was built by Sarah Connor.

Director: James Cameron
Writers: James Cameron & Gale Anne Hurd
The Terminator: Arnold Schwarzenegger
Kyle Reese: Michael Biehn
Sarah Connor: Linda Hamilton
Detective Vukovich: Lance Henrickson
Dr. Silberman: Earl Boen
Punk Leader: Bill Paxton

Kyle Reese: Some of us were kept alive... to work... loading bodies into dumpsters and incinerators. The disposal units ran night and day. We were that close to going out forever. But there was one man who taught us to fight, to storm the wire of the camps, to smash those metal motherfuckers into junk. He turned it around. He brought us back from the brink. His name is Connor. John Connor. Your son, Sarah, your unborn son.

JAWS

Play Mountain
Originally uploaded by Kiel Bryant

I have an irrational fear of large bodies of water & sharks; for this reason (among others) Jaws terrified me as a child. In fact I’ve completely blocked the first time I saw the film out of my memory. The second time I watched the film I was a teen and my brothers sat on either side of me, holding me down so I had to watch. Even then, I disliked the film because it scared me. I don’t remember quite when it happened, but somewhere between that viewing and film school I grew to appreciate Jaws as a well made movie, this led to me being able to view the film more and eventually buy it on DVD.

Now I genuinely think that Jaws is a filmmaking masterpiece; a film that shows what a genius like Spielberg can do, and how to make a truly terrifying picture. The film still works on my irrational fears, but I know that this is not why the film scares me, it scares me because it is masterfully crafted and executed.

The story of Jaws is simple. Chief Brody has just moved with his family to small Amity Island in search of a more peaceful existence than New York where he felt that he could never make a difference as part of the police force; Amity is a small town that relies on its summer tourist season, and the majority of the residents need profitable summers to exist the rest of the year. All is good on the island until right before the peak of the summer season a girl is killed in a shark attack, and rather than admit that the people of the island are in danger the town mayor refuses to let Brody close the beaches and hunt the shark which of course leads to more deaths before the town goes insane with greed trying to hunt the shark for money and finally Brody is allowed to do what he was attempting all along and hunt the shark without interference.

When Jaws was released in 1975 critic Roger Ebert wrote that Jaws is “a sensationally effective action picture, a scary thriller that works all the better because it’s populated with characters that have been developed into human beings”; this is probably the best description of why Jaws works that I have ever read, and it truly gets to the core of the remarkable talent of the filmmaker behind the movie.

No one can deny that the actors are amazing; there is no bad performance in the film no matter how large or how small. An entire essay could be written on the scene in the belly of the Orca where Hooper, Quint & Brody discuss their scars. However, I will save that topic for another viewing and instead move on to what no one expected from Jaws - Steven Spielberg.

Until Jaws Spielberg was only known for directing tv episodes, Duel, and Sugarland Express. People in the industry thought he was competent, but no one saw him as a directing force to be reckoned with. Spielberg did what so many filmmakers would not have the patience for; he made a film on the water, not in a tank like Cameron did with Titanic, but in the water at Martha’s Vineyard. The entire cast and crew were on separate boats for a majority of the film trying to tame mother nature, a mechanical shark and lighting conditions to get a good shot. Then the opening sequence of Jaws came on screen and by the end of the film people knew the name of Steven Spielberg.

Jaws is a classic. It’s over 30 years old now and I would not replace the rubberized mechanical shark with CGI any day.

Director: Steven Spielberg
Writers: Peter Benchley & Carl Gottlieb
Chief Bordy: Roy Scheider
Matt Hooper: Richard Dreyfuss
Quint: Robert Shaw

Brody: I'm tellin' ya, the crime rate in New York'll kill you. There's so many problems, you never feel like you're accomplishing anything. Violence, rip-offs, muggings... kids can't leave the house - you gotta walk them to school. But in Amity one man can make a difference. In twenty-five years, there's never been a shooting or a murder in this town.