I will give major credit to filmmaker McG here. When it was first announced that he was going to direct a series of new Terminator films that would most likely be rated PG-13, I cried . . . a lot.
However, almost every single bit of footage I've seen from Terminator: Salvation has blown me away with it's amazing awesomeness. The post apocalyptic washed out look of the film, the proto-terminators, Christian Bale as John Connor . . . it's all looked phenomenal. He's won me over, and now I am eagerly anticipating the new Terminator film more than I would have ever thought possible. I've even been excited at the idea that there will be more McG directed Terminator films.
That is, until I read this little statement from McG that he made during an interview with Film Journal International. In the interview, he discusses his view of the next Terminator film and where it would go . . . and believe me, it's not what you'd expect.
"I strongly suspect the next movie is going to take place in a [pre-Judgment Day] 2011," McG said. "John Connor is going to travel back in time, and he's going to have to galvanize the militaries of the world for an impending Skynet invasion. They've figured out time travel to the degree where they can send more than one naked entity.
"So you're going to have hunter-killers and transports and harvesters and everything arriving in our time and Connor fighting back with conventional military warfare, which I think is going to be f--king awesome. I also think he's going to meet a scientist that's going to look a lot like present-day Robert Patrick [who played the T-1000 in Terminator 2], talking about stem-cell research and how we can all live as idealized, younger versions of ourselves."
John Connor goes back in time? And when he gets back there he fights Terminators with conventional weapons? Really? Stem Cells? Robert Patrick as a scientist? What the hell?
Ok, I'm sorry McG . . . . you've completely lost me here. Why in the world would you follow up an awesome looking post apocalyptic film with a film where the main character goes back in time to the modern day? That's quite possibly the stupidest thing I've ever heard. On top of making no logical sense, just how the hell are you going to explain something as large as a Harvester robot going through a time machine when it has already been clearly stated in the Terminator universe that no technology can go through time. Only living tissue.
The only reason you can send Terminators back is because they're covered in living tissue. So are you telling me that these new 100 foot tall robots are going to be covered in living tissue too, or are you just going to do away with one of the most basic rules of the Terminator universe just so you can do a retarded time travel storyline when everyone and their mother knows that what you should be doing is just planning another cool Terminator film set in the future where everything is all burned out and Mad Max looking?
I'm suddenly once again very worried about the future of the Terminator film franchise. Please McG, please don't make me lose all of the trust in you that you have won from me these last few months. Once lost, it will be almost impossible to get back.
Right now, I'm just really hoping that he's joking and is totally messing with us.
I haven't seen Terminator 4 yet, so I can't speak from a "I've seen it and it's awesome" standpoint, but McG sounded pretty awesome at that Terminator panel at Wonder Con. It really sounded like he was fighting the studio to keep it rated R. He really seemed like he genuinely cared about the Terminator films. Of course it could still turn out to be a stinker. Now as far as this fifth film plot sounds, to me it sounds like it could be awesome. Although, I do agree that as a follow up to a post-apocalyptic Terminator it sounds lame. Why go backward? You have past the point of no return. This film still takes place a good ten years before the humans were driven underground. I want to see it progress to that point. As far as the time travel of machines is concerned, that shit has always confused me. In the original Terminator it stated that Machines can't go back unless they are surrounded by living flesh. However in the very next film we have the T-1000 traveling back through time. Is he living flesh? I though he was strictly liquid metal that mimicked living flesh. That shouldn't count. That always bothered me. It is a question that has eternally plagued me. Also, Kyle Reese says that the machines defense grid was smashed. That the humans had "already won". Then he went on to say that the machines we able to send one robot back in a last ditch effort and the humans one protector. But in T2 there is more time travel and T3 yet even more. Honestly this can be interpreted as the ever evolving time line. Judgment Day was supposed to be August 27, 1997 that got changed to 2011. Miles Dyson was supposed to create terminators, someone else did it instead. Alternate futures. This is the only way any sequel to the original Terminator has ever made sense to me. It is for this reason I can accept machines coming back in time. Maybe Kyle came from an alternate future where time machines could not do that. Maybe that was a later advancement. Maybe it was a development from an alternate future. The events of Sarah Connor Chronicles have already made Terminator 3 an alternate reality. Who knows? I'm still trying to figure out the sending your father back in time so he can create you thing. Jeeze.
ReplyDeleteHahahaha. I share your sentiments. You make a number of excellent points though. The T-1000 thing has always bugged me too. It never seemed right that a machine made of liquid metal could travel back in time. But I guess when it comes to stories about time travel, all bets are off because you can explain pretty much everything away as a result of an altered future or something like that.
ReplyDeleteI'll try not to think about what I've just read here when I'm (hopefully) enjoying the new terminator film on my birthday.
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