Matthew S. Williams's Blog, page 227

Equilibrium

And we're back! I tell ya, I'm mentally burnt from reviewing so many classics that I actually enjoyed! But I guess that's to be expected. Somehow, its just easier to burn and mock bad movies, as opposed to dissecting and delving into movies with real themes, plots, memorable characters and complex messages. And I have covered a few movies in the last while that I had mostly good things to say about. So its about time I got back to bashing something worthy of it! Yeah, that seems about right. Here's Equilibrium!

Now I already know that I'm stepping on some toes just by implying that this movie was fluff. As it turns out, Equilibrium is a cult-classic with its own dedicated fansite. That's right, people actually came together and created a website strictly for fans of this 1984-ripoff. Go check it out, its actually pretty respectable: Equilibrium Fans

That shouldn't come as a big surprise, people love an underdog after all! And considering the bashing it took and how little money it made, its little wonder why its fans would be so dedicated…

(Background—>)

Yes, as already noted, this movie did very poorly at the box office, grossing just over five million dollars, which was roughly a quarter of the movie's budget. And it was generally panned by critics, earning only 37 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and a metascore of only 33 out of 100 on Metacritic. Little surprise. The general consensus amongst critics was that the movie was a rip-off, a "reheated mishmash of other sci-fi movies" as one review put it. Or, as the NY Times claimed, that it borrowed heavily from such classics as Fahrenheit 451, Nineteen Eighty-Four, Brave New World, and other science-fiction classics. Roger Ebert was the only one to be gentle, giving the film 3 out of 4 stars and saying that "Equilibrium would be a mindless action picture, except that it has a mind. It doesn't do a lot of deep thinking, but unlike many futuristic combos of sf and f/x, it does make a statement".

On the other hand, the movie did manage to attract a cult following that saw all this "borrowing" as signs of quality, who enjoyed the combination of action and sci-fi/satirical elements. But regardless of whether it was seen as a weakness or a sign of quality, the fact remains: Equilibrium borrowed HEAVILY from many sci-fi classics, particularly 1984, and tried to repackage them into an action movie riddled with plot holes, contrivances and topped off with a happy ending. You either loved it or hated it, and I personally thought it was pretty damn funny!

(Content—>)

So the movie opens with scenes of destruction and debacle, telling us that humanity was brought to the brink of annihilation by what was clearly WWIII. In response, a new order was formed, this one dedicated to creating a perfect society through the eradication of human emotion. Hmm, interesting spin on the 1984 concept (not to mention F451 and Brave New World!) So apparently, the civilized people live in a walled city called Libria (obvious reference to the movies title and their value system), the rest live in the "Nethers" where emotion is still practiced. The people of Libria take a drug named Prozium which "eliminates the highs and lows" of emotion (thinking they just mashed the words Prozac and Valium together) and the law is enforced by people called "Grammaton Clerics" who go out and arrest "sense offenders". Oh, and the religious/political leader of this world is known as the "Father". He's the guy who founded the Librian philosophy and leads the state through the "Tetragrammaton Council", even thought no one sees him except on big huge TV screens making his famous speeches.

Okay, first impressions… Obvious! For one, we have some clear satire on the culture of pharmaceuticals, the pills people pop when they are manic or depressed. Except here, you pop one to cure it all! Echoes of Soma, hello Brave New World! Then we have the Grammaton Clerics who go out and arrest "sense offenders"… They ARE the Thought Police, "sense offense" IS thought crime, and the way they burn the people's houses and possessions out in the Nethers is every bit what happens in F451. Oh yeah, and the Father is totally Big Brother, and its already pretty clear he doesn't even exist! And the religious angle is also very clear. The name Tetragrammaton for example, which is Greek for "a word having four letters, is clearly a reference to the Hebrew name of the God of Israel (YHWH). And the Grammaton Clerics, need I say more? Essentially, what they are trying to say is that the philosophy of unemotion has been elevated to the status of holy canon, making it unquestionable and the state's authority total.

But the action is still pretty cool. For example, in the opening sequence after the intro, we see John Preston (Christian Bale) – cleric extraordinaire – go into a Nether compound. There, he shoots up an entire room of people after jump-kicking the door down and sliding into a room full of gunmen. Seems this is an example of what's called the "Gun Kata" (or as some people called it "Gun Fu"), where clerics get into the middle of a crowd of hostiles and do a gun dance, inflicting maximum damage on the maximum amount of targets. After clearing this place out, they uncover a cache of art (sense offense materials) and burn them. We also see his partner, Errol Partridge (Sean Bean), steals a book from the scene by WB Yeats and claims he's turning it in to be destroyed. But you totally know he isn't! The man is clearly a "sense offender" (dammit, that sounds like sex offender when you say it fast!). Preston quickly realizes this and meets up with him in an abandoned church in the Nethers. There, they have a chat about why he's chosen to break the law, forsake his career, and condemn himself to death. Bean claims that the price of emotion is a "cost I would pay gladly". Not sure where that quote is from. Closest thing I could find was "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today" by Wimpy, the hamburger addict from Popeye.

Then, in a move that isn't totally contrived, Preston accidentally breaks his last vial of Prozium and the clinic is closed so he can't restock. That's right, an elite cleric lets his stock of mind-altering drugs run out and the factory just happened to be closed so… yeah, he's screwed until they open again! Then, wouldn't you know it, he begins to experience emotions and finds the awakening quite appealing (and disturbing because he now feels remorse for killing his ex-partner!) Alas, he has to hide his emotions now because he gets a new partner, some career-minded dude named Brandt who is clearly gunning for the spot of top cleric. Preston's kids, like something out of children of the corn, are also pretty suspicious (echoes of the Spies from '84), so he has to be careful at home as well. Only place that's totally private and safe is the few inches that lay inside his head ('84!)

Oh yeah, we also learn a few things in the course of this that also make little sense. One, Preston had a wife that was arrested and incinerated because SHE was a sense offender. When he meets with Dupont (Angus MacFadyen), the head of the Council under the Father, he is asked how this could have happened. How does an elite cleric, best in the business, NOT notice sense offense in his own home? He replies that he himself has never been able to figure that out. Well, that makes all of us! That and the death of his partner clearly tell us that he's going rogue real soon! Oh yeah, we also learn that there's an Underground apparently that operates within Libria. But unlike in 1984, this resistance ACTUALLY exists and literally lives underground. Its now Preston's job, with his new partner, to find this group and eliminate them.

They then do a mission together where they find a new batch of people in the Nethers, one of them the enigmatic Mary O'Brien (Emily Watson) who has a cache of classical music and antiques. After saving her life, Preston goes through her stuff and has a deep, emotional moment as he listens to some Mozart. This is right out of '84 again, where Winston found an antique shop in London and was totally enamored by everything he saw in the place. Preston than commits the same act that Partridge did in the beginning, pocketing a book and claiming he was going to get rid of it himself. He then rescues a dog because (holy evil Batman!) dogs are illegal and are have to be put down. He tries to let the dog loose at the edge of town, but that ends badly when a bunch of police show up and he's forced to kill them using some of funky, acrobatic, Gun Kata moves! Also, in the course of interrogating O'Brien, he finds himself falling in love with her. We learn in the course of things that this lovely red-headed "sense offender" knew Partridge and led him down the path of sense offense in the first place. She's slated to die now, and he's obviously not too happy about it.

Shortly thereafter, Dupont summons him again to talk to him about his suspicious behavior. Convinced that Preston is not telling him the truth, he slams his fist down on the table and yells "DON'T LIE TO ME!" Uh, hello? Isn't emotion supposed to not exist for these people? And this is just the first instance of this kind of plot oversight. Afterward, while practicing what appears to be truncheon Kata, Brandt comes in and starts fighting with Preston and he lets a lot of emotions fly. For one, he keeps smiling! Second, he taunts him by telling him that since some cops turned up dead (his work), there's going to be a big offensive in the Nethers and all sense offenders will be wiped out on site. No more arrests are processing! Last, he seems disappointed when he looses their match. And these people are suspicious of HIM? No wonder he never suspected his wife, the man's been surrounded by sense offenders all this time and he can't even tell! (Still sounds like sex offenders to me!)

So he rides along on one such assault, sees lots of people die and feels bad about it. Then he tries to rescue some hideaways, but Brandt finds him and orders him to kill them. He even hands him his gun to do it. He says "no, you do it", and hands him his gun back. As if Brandt's suspicions weren't already confirmed, he then catches him as he runs out of the "processing center" (where O'Brien has just been incinerated) where he breaks down and start to cry right there in the street. Arrested, Preston has his ass dragged before Dupont (again!) where Brandt tells on him and says that he's the one who shot those officers. Strangely, Preston doesn't seem too afraid because, you see, forensics can match bullets to a specific gun. Turns out, the gun used to kill those officers was Brandt's! We then get a quick flashback to where Preston was handing Brandt back his gun while they were together in the Nethers. Brandt is then hauled off, claiming (screaming, in fact) that he has no feelings. Okay, two things here: One, that whole gun switcheroo happened AFTER he killed those cops. How could he have shot them with Brandt's gun if he didn't even have his hands on it yet? This is a major plothole! How could it have gone unnoticed?! Second, Brandt once again is blatantly demonstrating emotion. How is no one noticing this?

Regardless, Preston now seems to have gained Dupont's trust, so he's sent on a special mission to infiltrate the Underground. Seems right up his alley, since he's already decided to become an offender himself. But before that can happen, he must rush home and get rid of the cache of Prozium that he hasn't been taking. He gets home and rips off the bathroom mirror (he's been hiding them inside the wall) and is confronted by his son who tells him he needs to do a better job of stashing his vials. His son then smiles! Turns out, his kids are sense offenders too, have been ever since their mother was incinerated! How sweet… Whoa, hang on here! You're telling me that this guy's KIDS have been offenders for years now and HE NEVER NOTICED?! What kind of cleric is this guy? First his wife, then his kids, then his partner??? Didn't he say near the beginning that the key to his success as a cleric was being able to get inside the head of sense offenders? How can he be suspected of being a sense offender when he's the only one in Libria who HASN'T been sense offending this whole time?

After this close shave, he goes to the Underground and begins plotting with them. Seems they have a plan: they will stage their surrender, Preston will get the credit for the arrest and, as a reward, a chance to meet the Father. He will assassinate him while their people attack the Prozium factory. With the shipments shut down, the people will experience emotions again and rise up against the system. Ah, but there's a snag! Turns out, as he gets there, that the Tetrarchy have other plans. They sit him down, hook him to a polygraph, and then reveal that he's been had! Brandt is alive, it seems, and it was all a set-up! And then a video of the Father, which suddenly turns into Dupont, comes on to address him lets him in on the double-cross. The Father (like we didn't already know) has been dead for years and Dupont has been the real head of state since that time. Oh, and that whole thing of sending him to find the Underground? Part of the set-up! You see, they could tell he was a potential offender, and figured they could use him to locate the resistance and get their hands on them. Letting him beat Brandt was just a ruse so he would feel comfortable and able to fulfill his purpose.

Yeah, this isn't totally contrived either! According to Dupont, they were looking for an infiltrator to get into the Underground, someone who could think and feel like they did, but who wasn't aware of it yet. Now how the hell is that supposed to work? This guy couldn't even spot his own wife and children, and he's supposed to be an elite cleric AND a latent sense offender? Second of all… what are they, psychic? If he was the perfect candidate for knowing how sense offenders worked, why screw him over? Last, but certainly not least, the only reason he started offending was an unlikely accident! Remember, he broke his last vial and the Prozium factory was closed? Or did they set that up too? Once again, we have a climax where the bad guys somehow foresaw everything, how everything proceeded based on their designs, even though there's no way they could have planned this without being psychic. Whatever, it's not supposed to make sense, it's just supposed to tie everything up into a nice little package!

In any case, Dupont tells him to surrender without incident, but Preston isn't about to! His polygraph levels go flat, he breaks out the sleeve-guns, and starts blowing everyone away! Yeah, this is another pretty cool action scene, but that doesn't prevent it from being totally stupid too! I mean, how did he get those guns past the guards? Also, he makes such short work of them that the fight isn't even suspenseful. A few bullets, a few cuts with his Katana, and everyone's dead. His ultra-fast fight with Brandt is especially bad; not once did their swords even cross! It was just, swipe, swipe, swipe, and Brandt's face falls off! No joke! He then takes down Dupont in a Gun Kata fight, but not before Dupont begs for his life, confessing that he himself is a sense offender (he "feels" he says). But Preston kills him anyway, quoting that killing him is "a cost I would gladly pay". So even Dupont is a sense offender, huh? No surprises there, he's done enough emoting to put William Shatner to shame! But I guess this was meant to be in keeping with the whole 1984 motif, where the rulers are total hypocrites who don't follow their own rules.

Anyway, the Underground then attacks the Prozium factory, killing all the guards with ridiculous ease, and then proceeds to blow the place up. The movie then ends with a closeup of Preston's eye as he sheds a single tear. And that's not the only piece of blatant symbolism before the movie ends. There's also the part where Preston wipes his bloody fingers on one of the TV's boasting the Father's image, right before he blows this and every other screen in the building away (somehow, this shuts down every screen in the city). So between that and the destruction of the Prozium factory, the system is now in ruins and the people of Libria free to feel. Yaaaay, the sense offenders won! (STILL sounds like sex offenders!)

(Synopsis—>)

I think I better start with what I actually liked about this movie since that is a much shorter list. Yes, some of the action scenes were cool, but Kurt Wimmer (who wrote AND directed this movie) has a thing for action sequences where people die way too quickly. Again and again, we see people sprayed with bullets, tons of dust flying, and dozens of people dropping in the same second. The scene at the end where the Underground is storming the government buildings is the worst of the lot, entire squads of guards drop in seconds as untrained resistance fighters shoot at them. What kind of guards are these? Whoops, supposed to be covering the good stuff here… Okay, the classic sci-fi bits were also cool at times – like how people in the Nethers stockpile whatever emotional materials they can (art, literature, music), and how the clerics are required by law to confiscate and burn them. But here too, things get unbelievably hokey! At the beginning, for example, it turns out that the rogue house was keeping priceless pieces of objets d'art hidden in the floor, which included the (REAL) Mona Lisa! Are you kidding me?

Damn it, did it again! Okay, uh… the shooting locations, which included the Olympic Stadium in Berlin and the subway station under the Reichstag building. Yeah, the way they worked their sets into these locations, that was pretty cool. And the direction wasn't bad. The camera work, casting and acting weren't bad either… except for Taye Diggs, who smiles way too much (you're supposed to be emotionless, dude!) The Gun Kata was neat, and the whole "sense offender" rating system (EC-10, which has to do with the MPAA's emotional content rating system) was kind of clever as well. Last, there was the clerical/religious angle, which was kind of cool and ironic since the state is supposed to be a society of pure reason, free of emotion, and these terms can't help but make one think of faith – something inherently irrational.

But other than THAT, this movie sucked! The plot was totally contrived, it was riddled with plot holes, some of them glaring (i.e. the gun switch), and the ending was so totally over the top it was ridiculous! Sure, some of us were encouraged that the good guys won, unlike in the real 1984, but that didn't make it any more believable or respectable. In fact, it really just felt like Wimmer ripped off some respectable sci-fi classics, splashed them together with a cheesy action plot and called it a movie. I'm reminded of Demolition Man, and the less said about his other flop, Ultraviolet, the better! Uh oh, I'm sensing more bad reviews to come… Equilibrium, folks! Not bad if you're looking for a guilty pleasure, check your brain at the door!

Equilibrium:

Entertainment Value: 7/10

Plot: 3/10

Direction: 6/10

Total: 5.5/10

T2!

Normally, if I do a review, I try to re-familiarize myself with the material before writing about it. That way I'll be sure not miss anything. It's only been on occasion that I've done one strictly from memory, and that's assuming it's still fresh. That was certainly the case with Independence Day and Terminator: Salvation, the latter I had seen just a few weeks before, and the former I'd seen so many times that I really didn't need to see it again! However, this was not the case with The Terminator. Here was a movie I had not seen in years. Make that MANY years, and yet I penned my review almost entirely from what I could remember of it. Not smart! Even less smart to watch it immediately thereafter and realize all the points I missed! Luckily, I still have two more movies to do in the franchise, and most of what I noticed applies directly to the sequel!

First off, James Cameron was guilty of recycling actors even more than I thought. Michael Beihn, Bill Paxton, and Jennette Goldstein all played prominent roles in Aliens (Hicks, Hudson and Vasquez) and were around for either T1 or T2, in some cases, both. But I forgot about Lance Henrikson, the man who played Bishop in Aliens. Turns out, he played one of the LA detectives in the first movie who got his ass shot off when evil Arny came knocking! Wish I hadn't glossed over those guys in my T1 review, turns out they were actually pretty important. In any case, that makes four actors whom he used for both franchises, and I'm betting there were more in the background somewhere…

On top of that, I came to see just how many action sequences were reused in T2. I don't want to get too specific just yet, but let's say that action scenes involving motor bikes, big-rigs, car jumping and pile ups were also reused from the first movie. The only real difference was the budget, and of course Arny was now a protagonist instead of a force of pure malevolence. And there was also one all-important theme that made it into both Aliens and T2, and that was the theme of reconciliation between man and woman and humans and machines! But more on that later. Having just watched the movie and it still fresh in my mind, let's get to the specifics of T2, one of the biggest and most successful sequels of all time!

(Background—>)

T2 was generally lauded by critics, all of whom thought that Arny did a great job reprising the role that complimented his particular brand of talents (his natural grandeur and presence, for example). Cameron's gift for action direction was also seen as a big plus, and with three successful movies under his belt (T1, Aliens, and The Abyss), he now had a bigger budget and a degree of creative freedom he did not have with the before. And as I said in my first Terminator review, T2 also did better at the box office, not proportionally speaking, but certainly in terms of overall gross. And according to some, it was one of those rare movies that was believed to be better than the original. I'm not one of them, but I can certainly see why others might think so. On the whole, T2 was bigger, glitzier, and a lot more fun than the first. It's mass appeal, made possible by its awesome action sequences, intense pace, and cutting-edge special effects which involved the use of CGI (something brand-new at the time) were sure to please. It also did a good job of wrapping up the temporal paradox presented in the first movie, and offered a way out of said paradox that was both believable and consistent with it. It may not have been as gritty, realistic or smart as the original, but that was to be expected. Originals are meant to set the tone and establish the parameters, sequels to expand on them. And in that respect, T2 was a fitting follow-up to the first, superior in some respects but certainly not better.

(Content—>)

The movie opens with scenes from modern day LA, moving from traffic jams and pedestrian crossings to a playground with children at play. This is clearly a "before" scene, where the music is foreboding and things suddenly slow down, with the sound of children laughing in the background. And then, the big white out. If this isn't indication enough that something terrible has happened, we immediately cut to the "after" scene – a blackened ruin littered with skeletons and rubble. We are told that is what Los Angeles looks like in 2029, cold, dark, and dead. Linda Hamilton's voice over then reminds us of the relevant facts, how billions died on Aug. 29th 1997 ("Judgement Day"), and those who survived lived only to face a worse horror… the war against the machines. We then get a moment of pure symbolism as a machine foot crushes a human skull, followed immediately thereafter by one of pure action porn!

All over the post-apocalyptic landscape, machines are attacking, purple tracers fill the sky, and human resistance fighters mobilize to fight back. This sequence was certainly superior to the ones in the first movie. There, the post-apocalyptic battle scenes involved just a few people and models, fighting in a limited fashion that gave the impression of guerrilla-warfare rather than an epic confrontation. In T2, there were literally hundreds of people and models being used, and the pace and scale was faster and bigger. The humans aren't hiding here, they are out in full force, fighting, dying, shooting and killing. This gives the impression of a genuine war: ugly, awesome, and epic! Naturally, this was due to budgets, but that doesn't change the fact that T2′s opening action sequence was far more kick-ass! We even get a shot of John Conner, the future version. He's grizzly, determined, and surveying the field while his mother continues to let us in on things: Years back, a Terminator was sent back in time to kill her before she could give birth to this illustrious man – who is looking mighty heroic right now – and failed. Now, another one is on the way, hoping to strike at Conner himself. But the resistance has sent another warrior, and only time will tell which one reaches him first…

And, much like in the first movie, we cut back and forth between three points of view: Arny, the T1000 (played by Robert Patrick), and the main protagonists – in this case, John and Sarah. She's in an insane asylum. The character of Doctor Silberman (Earl Boen), who in the first movie pronounced Kyle Reese insane, is back and saying the same thing about her. John is in foster care, is clearly disillusioned over the fact that his mother is locked up, and chooses to take it out on his foster parents. That's an immediate selling point to this movie: the idea that anyone who knew the future would be a Cassandra, shouting to the wilderness and being totally ignored by the people (or in this case, committed). Conner's delinquency is also a realistic touch. We know he will grow up to a hero someday, but right now, he's a pissed-off adolescent who's confused and bewildered. On the one hand, he hates his mother for apparently lying to him for so many years, and on the other he obviously misses her. Remember that photo he gave Kyle Reese, the one she had taken of herself at the end of the first movie? Well, turns out he's kept it. Must be some embers still left in that hearth, huh?

Anyway, Arny has his scene where he wanders into a biker bar naked and wrecks the place up in order to get his hands on some badass looking clothes and a Harley. This is of course a retake from the first movie, but unlike the first where the evil Arny killed to get them, the good Arny in this one merely brutalizes a few people. Yep, this is the good guy… baby-steps I guess! And just like in the first movie, the bad guy has an easier time, simply killing a police officer and then commandeering his vehicle. Turns out when you've got liquid metal for skin, you don't need clothes. You just morph your surface layer and boom, you're good to go! But alas, the T1000 (as Arny explains later) cannot form complex machines, so he still needs the policeman's car and weapons.

The three finally meet and, just like in the first, we get a tense, climactic moment with slow-motion and intense music. John sees Arny as he pulls his shotgun out of a box of roses (product placement, Guns and Roses did the theme music!) and thinks he's out to kill him. But those fears are generally allayed when Arny levels the gun and yells his famous tagline, "Get down!", and shoots the T1000 behind him. A gun fight ensues, followed by a wrestling match, followed by a big-ass car chase. Again, elements of the first are at work here again. In T1, Arny was chasing Sarah and Kyle on a Harley, followed shortly thereafter by a truck. Much like in the first, it all ends with the truck crashing and exploding. This is not to say that it wasn't awesome this time around though. As usual, Cameron's flare for action-direction makes the scene tense and beautiful, and the way Arny keeps flipping that gun around to reload it? You look me in the eye and tell me you didn't think that was badass the first time you saw it! And of course, the sequence ends with the T1000 walking from the fiery wreckage unharmed, provided by some of those cutting-edge digital effects I mentioned!

John then has a chat with Arny about what's going on. Some funny lines here: "Don't take this the wrong way but… you're a Terminator, right?" Keen grasp of the obvious. "Okay… And you're not here to kill me! I figured that part out for myself!" Well he did save your as several times in just the last few minutes so… duh! What makes this funny is that while freaked out, John clearly has a framework in place for understanding what's going on. In spite of the fact that he's spent the last few years thinking his mom was crazy, he still remembers everything she taught and what he's just witnessed just confirmed it. Sure he's freaked out by all the violence and near-death, but one he's not is shocked. He doesn't even get that phased when Arny tells him that it was HIM – John Conner – who sent him; his future self, that is. Somehow, it all just makes sense given his upbringing. And of course, Arny takes the time to explain the particulars of their enemy. Let me see if I can condense it all into a few bullet points here:

> T1000, advanced prototype, liquid metal, here to kill you.

> Can't form weapons beyond knives and stabbing tools.

> Can also morph into things, but only things of equal size

> Can impersonate other people and knows where you will go

> Oh yeah, and its not known if he can be destroyed or not

Yikes! That's another thing that I enjoyed about this movie. At first, it seems like Arny can defeat the T1000 as he manages to save John Conner from his repeated murderous attempts. However, as more confrontations ensue and Arny is forced to go toe to toe with him, the T1000 begins to show his superiority. Not only does he managed to take Arny's arm off, he even manages to take Arny out. Well, temporarily deactivate, but you get the idea. In the end, Anry's only able to win by outsmarting him, and relying on the help of John and Sarah.

But getting back to the storyline, Arny soon confirms that the T1000 has already killed John's foster parents and warns him that his mother could be next. But not before John has an expository scene where he expresses all his angst over how his mother taught him everything he knew, only to be taken away from him and declared a delusional psychotic. And now, it appears she was right all along, so naturally he wants to find her. But no, Arny reminds him, the T1000 would have anticipated that, and will try to impersonate her and will kill her in the process. John freaks, a ruckus ensues, and it ends with John realizing that Arny must obey his orders. So naturally, he orders Arny to help him save his mother (Oh, and not to kill anyone, on a count of he almost killed two people during that ruckus).

They then get to the asylum where Sarah is attempting to make her escape. Seems people told her that a dead-ringer for the man that shot up a police station and killed 17 officers in 84′ was spotted at a local mall. Thus why she needs to escape tonight. If things are happening again, she needs to make sure her son is safe! She does this smashing the face of the guy who's been physically and sexually abusing her for the last few months and taking Dr. Silberman hostage. Naturally, we don't feel sorry for either of these people, since the attendee is a dick and Dr. Silberman is a cynical douche! John and Arny are simultaneously breaking in, which begins with Arny knee-capping the guard at the front (he said he wouldn't kill, wasn't nothing in there about knee-capping!) They meet up inside as Arny steps off the elevator right in front of her, and a slow-motion scene ensues where Sarah recognizes him and becomes so terrified that she runs back in the direction of the guards she eluded not a moment previous. Arny saves her and issues one the tag-lines from the first movie: "Come with me if you want to live". John is also there and lets just her know that Arny's cool, right before the T1000 shows up right behind them and tries to kill them. Dr. Silberman witnesses all this, and is no doubt going to need therapy himself!

Another chase scene ensues. Arny and Sarah protect John, steal a police car, and start driving backwards while shooting. The T1000, for his part, sprouts swords and crowbars from his arms and pursues them. Here too we see a scene being rehashed from the first movie, where the evil Terminator jumps on their car and starts smashing through the window, trying to get his hands on his target and almost succeeding. But in the nick of time, they manage to shake him with some keen maneuvering and shotgun blasts. This time around, its Arny who does the rescuing, blowing off one of the T1000′s limbs and sending him flying off the back end of their car. Having made it away for the second time, the three of them start make their way out of town in great haste.

While in the desert, we get some pacing scenes as Arny, Sarah Conner, and John get to talking, and in the course things, learn some things about each other. For example, Sarah wants to know how Judgement Day happened, how Skynet was created and who's responsible. Arny reveals that a man named Mr. Miles Dyson is responsible for the breakthroughs that led to Skynet's creation, and that the key developments are happening pretty much as they speak. We already know from a rather telling scene earlier that Mr. Dyson, over at Cyberdyne systems, was the recipient of the remains of the first Terminator and is working on a big AI-related breakthrough. Seems that Conner was right, that someone conspired to remove them from the factory where Sarah left them, and made sure they got into the "right" hands. Sounds… conspiratorial! In any case, it was the first Terminator's broken CPU and remaining arm, which came from the future, that ended up being the basis for Dyson's research, and hence Skynet's creation… The temporal paradox strikes again!

There are echoes of Alien and Aliens here. In those movies, the megacorp Weylan-Yutani kept screwing over its own people in order to get their hands on the alien specimen. Here, however, we are getting it more in the form of the dark future/cautionary tale, where networked, intelligent computers are responsible for nearly wiping out humanity, largely because we made the mistake of trusting our fate to them. But unlike the first movie, T2 introduces us to the human side of that equation, how it was human avarice that led to Skynet's creation, and how Skynet decided to kill humanity because they tried to pull the plug on it. Doesn't make Skynet any nicer, but it was a nice touch, as is the humanizing of the people responsible which follows later on. But at the moment, Sarah is obviously perturbed by this information, and we can tell she's going to do something about it very soon…

Also, there's a very important scene in all this that didn't make it into the original movie but came with the director's cut. This is the scene where Arny reveals that all Terminators have their CPU's set to "read-only" when they are sent out, a provision against them exercising too much independent thought. While they are held up in an abandoned garage and nursing their wounds, John proposes that they remove Arny's chip and switch this fail-safe off so he can be of more use to them. After removing it, Sarah tries to smash the chip with a hammer but John stops her. She tells him this could be their last chance to be "it", and that John doesn't understand this because he's never had to kill one of them. But John insists that they need Arny, that "it" is a "he", and that if he's to be a great leader someday, his mom ought to start taking his ideas seriously. She decides to go with him, although just barely, and lets Arny live. This scene is important because it establishes that in spite of the fact that the good Arny saved them, Sarah still doesn't trust him and is willing to kill him as soon as the opportunity arose. One would expect this considering what the first Arny bot put her through.

There's also the amusing scene where John tries to teach Arny to smile. This is just one of many where John is trying to teach him how to "be more human". Most of these are pretty cheesy, consisting of one-liners and hand gestures, but this one was actually funny and even made sense in the overall context of the movie. Later, we see Arny pulling facial expressions, and the more anal-retentive critic would surely want to point out that this is supposed to impossible. Cyborg's don't feel emotion, hence they don't smile, smirk, or shrug. The subtleties of facial expressions and how they convey emotions would surely be beyond them. But, if they knew someone was teaching them what faces to pull and when, they just might find it realistic and shut the hell up!

Anyhoo, John, Arny and Sarah show up at Enrique's hideout. This would be the former Green Beret gun-running dude John mentioned with earlier, one of several dude's she shacked up with while he was growing up. While at Enrique's hideout, they start stockpiling guns and getting some new vehicles together. Arny gives us a preview of things to come when he hoists up the mini-gun and smirks at John. "It's you, definitely," John says. And in the course of things, Sarah watches her son and the Terminator talking and carrying on and has a revelation. Turns out that of all the father figures that had come and gone, the Terminator is actually the most ideal father figure for John. He'd never neglect him, never abuse him, and would die to protect him. We see at last a reconciliation between humanity and technology with this, not unlike the one that took place in Aliens between Bishop and Ripley. Once again, James Cameron is showing his fondness for certain themes. Still, it works here. After all the paranoia and hatred Sarah has been living with over the years, she finds herself finally able to trust her enemy – a killing machine – with John's life. Irony!

But then, Sarah has another one of her apocalyptic dreams, and this one is particularly graphic! She even sees an alternate version of herself playing with a baby. This is a particularly symbolic moment, we get the impression is seeing what she'd look like if history had worked out just a little different. And like everyone in the playground, she doesn't appear to be able to hear Sarah as she screams at them to run. In any case, they are all vaporized when a nuke goes off in the distance, graphically! I tell ya, that shot scared me when I first saw it. I believe it was the first case of the effects of a nuclear blast being caught on film. Sarah then wakes up with a start and she sees the words that she herself carved in the picnic table not a moment earlier. "No Fate", which paraphrases what John told Reese to tell her: "The future is not set, there is no fate but what we make for ourselves." Ironic, given the temporal nature of the story, but it certainly convinces Sarah that its time she acts. She grabs her guns, a truck, and tells John and Arny she will meet them later. It doesn't take long for them to figure out what she's got in mind (killing Dyson) and they head off to intercept her. Arny warns John that this is bad strategy, that the T1000 could anticipate this move, and that Dyson's death might actually prevent Judgement Day. But of course, John tells him they have to. It's a human thing!

They arrive at Dyson's just in time to find that Sarah has shot up the place, put a bullet through Dyson's shoulder and just about to deliver the coup de grace. But alas, she couldn't. He's still human, and she's not a monster. So instead, they decide to fill him in on things and give him the benefit of the knowing everything his work will lead to. Arny starts by pealing the flesh off his arm and letting his robot innards tell the story. Dyson immediately recognizes the arm, since he's got an identical one at his office. We get the distinct impression that some pretty messed up possibilities are going through his mind. In any case, Arny has his full attention now and he tells him to "listen to me very carefully." Sarah's voice-over fills in the rest and says that Arny told him everything – about Skynet, Judgement Day, and the war – as we cut to what is clearly several hours later. Naturally, he's shocked and professes that he never intended for any of that to happen, but Sarah is naturally unconvinced. Seems "men like him" are the reason the hydrogen bomb exists. They think themselves creative, but only know how to create death and destruction, so fuck em, they're evil! Uh, remind me now, who shot up who's place here in a homicidal attempt? But alas, because he didn't know, and maybe to prove he's not a bad guy, he agrees to help them, which includes destroying the lab and also the remains of the first Terminator. Hello! This is the first time those remains have even been publicly acknowledged. Everyone is surprised, except Sarah who is both feels both angry and vindicated. She's known all along that there was some kind of cover-up and nobody believed her. Now, she's hearing from the horses mouth that she right. Still, right or no, she still gotta feel pissed!

What follows is another tense series of scenes as they rush to Cyberdyne, commandeer the facility, and begin laying explosives. Meanwhile, the police show up, thinking they got the man who shot up the police station back in 84′, and cordon off the building. Sarah's voiceover and a shot of them driving up a dark highway convey the significance of these scenes perfectly before they actually unfold. Essentially, after years of trying to ensure that the machine's didn't alter the future, they are now trying to do the same. Whereas they were just players before, doing what was required of them, they are now free-agents who have the power to change history. Arny has his scene with the minigun too where he levels all the cop cars out front, firing a couple thousand rounds and a handful of grenades into the police cruisers to gives Sarah, John and Dyson the time they need to finish rigging the place to blow. But, as promised, does so without hurting or killing a single person. Not bad, Arny! Way to respect human life! Of course, the police are pissed and start firing back at him, and their SWAT team goes on in with blood on their minds.

There's also what appears to be a sort of reconciliation taking place between Sarah and Dyson now, paralleling once again what Ripley experienced in Aliens. Obviously, Sarah had become embittered towards her male counterparts after years of being ignored and condemned by them. After losing Reese, she wasn't able to find a single stable father figure for John, not one who would stick around after she told him the truth at any rate. Then there were all those who condemned her and put her in an insane asylum. On top of that, there's men like Dyson who were responsible for Skynet's creation in the first place. But now, she and Dyson appear to be coming together thanks to their common cause. There's even a symbolic moment where Sarah passes him the detonator and we get a close-up of it changes hands. This reconciliation is cut short however when about a dozen SWAT team members comes breaking in and fills Dyson full of holes! But once they realize the place is totally rigged, they pull back! And the three protagonists managed to make it out right before the bomb goes off and levels Cyberdyne! But the front door is still blocked and there's no way they can make it out without some shooting. That's when Arny issues his famous tag-line from the first movie: "I'll be back"! He gets about a hundred bullets to his face before knee-capping and pelting all the SWAT team members with their own tear gas canisters. He then steals the SWAT van and drives it through the front foyer, thus ensuring their escape. Meanwhile, the T1000 has shown up and steals a helicopter, much as Arny stole that 18-wheeler in movie one, and is even sure to include the "get out!" tag-line to its driver.

Which brings us to chase number three! This time, the good guys are in a SWAT van and the bad guy in a helicopter. True to the first movie, there's a change-up when the bad guy is shmucked and has to switch vehicles. Having lost his helicopter, he commandeers (what else?) an 18-wheeler and chases them into a Foundry. Really? They have Foundries in LA? Right beside of the highway to boot? Just asking… Point is, more action porn follows: Arny delivers his "Hasta la Vista, Baby" line and shatters the T1000 with a bullet. This was after he forced him to crash his truck that was apparently carrying liquid nitrogen (…really?). The bits begin to melt because there's hot metal all around (Foundry, remember?), and the three protagonists are forced to flee again. But with nowhere to run, they have to fight it out inside the Foundry, and get pretty beat up in the process! As a climactic scene, this was quite effective, being in such a hostile environment and everyone already being wounded. You can feel the tension and danger, which is made all the more palatable since it's clear that there is no chance of escape. With Sarah already reeling from a gunshot wound in her thigh, and Arny twisted up from the crash, it really seems like they might not make it.

And yet, they do! And I don't think I'll ever forget the last scene where Linda Hamilton empties a whole shotgun into the T1000′s body, one-handed! Or how Arny shows up at the last second and pops a rocket propelled grenade into his belly that blows him in half! The T1000 then falls to his death in a bath of molten metal (how's that for irony, liquid metal man!) and things end tidily when John realizes that the metal will make a perfect disposal spot for the remains of the first Terminator. But alas, Arny realizes that he too much go into the cauldron. As long as any evidence of the future remains in the past, there will always be a chance that Skynet could still be created and Judgement Day still happen. And so the movie ends with Arny being heroically lowered into the molten metal and giving John the thumbs up before disappearing beneath the surface (John taught him how to do that, which makes it all the more sad!)

Then, there's the very last scene, which is kind of a controversial issue for me! In the original movie, it took the form of them driving along the dark highway again, a clear metaphor for the future, with Sarah giving jer final voice-over that wraps things up nicely. She says she is finally able to face the future with hope because, as she says, "If a machine – a Terminator – can learn the value of human life, maybe we can too…" Cue music and roll credits! I get tingly just thinking about it. But in the director's cut, the last scene was altogether different. Instead of the still uncertain but hopeful future, we get to see the picture of that future, and its totally disappointing! Apparently, its 2030 or so, Judgment Day came and went without incident, and Sarah is making another recording where she explains how she got drunk and celebrated the fact that it never came. Everyday thereafter was a gift (a line that would make it into T3). And now, she's sitting on a park bench and watching John play with her grand daughter in that same old playground. The background shows LA of the future, a skyline that looks like something out of a bad sci-fi movie or a rerun of Star Trek (the original version). Oh, and apparently John is not the grizzled leader here, but a Congressman who fights the good fight on the floor's of Congress.

Where do I begin? Well, for starters, this whole franchise was gritty and dark and never did more than it had to. So ending it with a scene that lays things on way too thick just seems inappropriate. There's also the fact that its totally sappy! John becomes a peacenik Senator and everybody lived happily ever after? C'mon people! This is supposed to be a movie about post-apocalyptic nightmares and murderous machines! I can understand wanting to end it on a happy note after all the darkness and extended horror shows, but this was ridiculous! But luckily, this scene never made it in to the original. Clearly, someone felt that it would be better to let the movie end on the same note it had maintained throughout. Thus, they went with the highway ending which was best: succinct, serious, symbolic, yet still hopeful. And it wrapped up everything from the first and second movie nicely, with no wasted effort or needless screen time. Last thing you want after tying up all the loose ends is to drop a fresh load of crap on the audience! It brings the whole production down!

(Synopsis—>)

This time around, I think I'd like to start by mentioning what was weak about the film. For starters, the themes that were present in Aliens that had a way of making it into this movie too. The theme of redemption, be it between man and woman and man and machine, was present in both. As was the theme of the evil corporation working behind the scenes so it could get its hands on something dangerous, and in so doing, condemning people to death. It was only recently that I even noticed this, and it kind of brought the movie down in my estimation. However, I am hard-pressed to argue this point too finely. These themes worked too well for them to be considered weaknesses, in my estimation. It was good and fitting to see Sarah find common ground with her fellow man after so much time of being at odds with them. It was also cool and ironic that a Terminator was capable of learning the value of human life and was ultimately the greatest protector/father figure that John Conner would ever have.

And of course the action scenes that were re-hashed from the first movie. Like I said, one could take the position that this was somehow lazy or uncreative, but I'd be hard-pressed to argue that as well. Mostly, they felt like homages, inside references to stuff the audience already saw and would instantly recognize. Those are desirable in a movie, they are like punch lines that make the audience go "Ahaaaa!" And done properly, they are also amusing and entertaining. And they certainly were in this movie. Arny's big one-liners, "Come with me if you want to live" and "I'll be back" were both deliberate references to the first movie and they worked. The way they zoomed in on Arny's face and that intense expression as he said the latter; everyone in the audience knew it was painfully significant!

As for the other weaknesses. These mainly took the form of the extended and deleted scenes. For the most part, they kinda sucked. The alternate ending, where Sarah and John are alive decades down the road and the world is peaceful. SUCKED! The scene where we see Dyson at home explaining his work to his wife, how he's creating the basis for AI… that one was a tad obvious. We already get that his work is revolutionary and will pave the way towards machines that will be able to think and become self-aware. No need to come out and say it. The ones I mentioned, where they switch Arny's CPU from read-only mode and John teaches Arny facial expressions, those were good and should have been included in my mind. There were also a few from the Foundry where we see the T1000 having some problems re-resolving after being frozen and shattered, which were also good. But of course, running-time is a factor and that's why we have director's cuts.

Last, but certainly not least, there's that one big, possible plot hole in the movie. Essentially, we are told from the get-go that the machines have once again sent back a Terminator and the resistance has once again sent back a fighter of their own. Now didn't Kyle Reese say in the first movie that they found the Terminator's time machine when they trashed Skynet's HQ and only one Terminator had gone in? Didn't he also say that he was the only other one to go through and they destroyed the machine immediately thereafter? Well sure! So theoretically, John should have been safe from then on. All of this meant that the future would unfold as promised, Judgement Day would happen, and John Conner would grow up to lead the resistance to victory over the machines. There's simply no way the machines would have known that they had failed, they don't have a crystal ball that shows them the past or how alternate time lines are unfolding. So its not like they could just say, "Woop! We missed! Send another one!" The very act of sending Arny back was a desperate act, they'd just have to expect that however things were unfolding for them in the future was the direct result.

But, this can be explained away easily enough. For example, how could Kyle know for sure that they destroyed the time machine after he left? For all he knew, they found out that the machines had actually sent two Terminators back in time, one T101 Arny bot and one T1000 advanced prototype. The first one was sent to take out the mother, the second to take out John should the first one fail. The resistance could then say "Oh crap! We need to send another fighter of our own to deal with the second one too! Any ideas?" They looked around, saw another Arny bot, figured it would have a better shot of protecting John from a T1000, decided to reprogram it, and sent it on its merry way. THEN they destroyed the machine! Okay, that works, more or less. Only problem is… you can't keep doing it! A third batch of Terminators would just make things stupid!

Okay, now the strengths! The movie's action scenes were awesome! Cameron has shown again and again that he has an eye for making destruction, shoot-em-ups and car chases beautiful! Its little wonder then why he's a renowned action director. His ideas tend to be old fashioned, but they work in the context of classic sci-fi and his directorial style brings a sense of grandeur and epicness to his work. And of course Arny, a man who embodies those traits, was well suited to what he had to offer. Not the best actor in the world, but he's nothing if not grand and epic. And this time around, he went beyond those simple attributes to bring some heart and humanity to the Terminator, which is ultimately what makes him him. He's Arny, the action hero with a heart of gold and a keen sense of humor!

T2 also had a very good plot. Aside from the one possible plot hole which I don't think anyone cares about anyway, it was virtually seamless. The future that Reese knew and told Sarah about was the direct result of everything they did together in the past. The Terminators exist because the wreckage of the first one was found, John Conner exists because Reese and Sarah had sex, and so on. Kyle Reese told Sarah in the first that he was from the future, but that it was one possible future, maybe… He didn't know. But alas, we do! It was all foretold thanks to a temporal paradox where the future influenced the past and vice versa. But this time around, they found the fulcrum of this would-be future and removed it. Anal retentive critics might say "Well, if they destroyed all of Cyberdyne's research, wouldn't that mean that Skynet would never exist?" Well, good point actually. Once Cyberdyne was destroyed, shouldn't Arny and the T1000 just have disappeared? Ah, but they had that one covered! You see, as long as the T1000 and Arny were alive and in the past, there was still the chance that Skynet would be created. Hell, for all we knew, that was HOW it got created in the first place. So technically, the future could not be altered til both the T1000 and Arny were destroyed and there was no chance whatsoever that their wreckage would fall into the wrong hands… again!

Another thing worth mentioning was that this movie was made in 1991, a full seven years after the first movie and five after Aliens. In between, he did the Abyss in 1989, but that was it, and had already begun working on Aliens back in 84 when he was shooting The Terminator. So really, he and his people had years to work out the script for T2, and it really showed. I can remember seeing it when it first came out and being blown away, in part because it had such a big feel! This was the long-anticipated sequel to the first movie and just about everyone agreed that it was fun, cool, and awesomely good. Like I said, Cameron already had a reputation for being a sci-fi director after Aliens and T2 really cemented that for him. The use of cutting-edge special effects, the big-budget action scenes, the way the plot really came together; he really topped off the Terminator franchise big time with this movie. The only downside would be if someone got the bright idea to do a third movie. Worse yet, that they'd shoot it sometime after August 29th 1997, when Judgement Day was supposed to have happened! Why, then they'd have to come up with some contrived explanation for why it didn't happen on schedule, or why the Terminators were still being sent back in time! And that would be just downright nutty…

Terminator 2:

Entertainment Value: 9/10!

Plot: 8/10

Direction: 8/10

Total: 8.5/10

Da Terminator!

Back in 1984, a budding director named James Cameron was working on two projects almost simultaneously, both of which would go on to become some of the most successful sci-fi franchises in history. These were the time-traveling cyber-thriller The Terminator and the long awaited sequel known as Aliens. And not only were they well received at the box office, both went on to become classics in their own right, earning a cult following and spawning even more sequels. Yep, the guy could write and direct back in the day, before success and fame went to his head and he got all… Titanicy! Fans of said movie might disagree, but I think it just went downhill from there! I mean, Avatar? C'mon people, that was just a rehashing of Titanic and Aliens with a whole lot of Pocahontas ripped off and plastered on.

But that's neither here nor there (I'm so gonna trash that movie later!). Right now, I wanna talk about the movie that started it for James and turned Arny from a champion body builder and B-list actor into an A-list movie star (Which reminds me, at some point I got to review Conan, his other break-out hit!) And a warning, you can't get into this movie without talking about Arny, a lot! So plenty of biopic info will be coming up throughout the course of this review, be warned! So without further ado, let's get to reviewing this baddest of bad-boys!

(Background—>)

In truth, Arny was first approached by the studio to play the role of Kyle Reese. However, after reading the script, he said he would rather play the role of the murdering cyborg. After meeting with Schwarzenegger, whom he had no intention of casting in the role, Cameron became convinced. And it worked! Anry's presence, his bad-guy face, and his imposing demeanor sold people on the Terminator. Even his accent, which was still pretty thick, seemed believable coming from a synthetic human. And while it got mixed reviews at first because of its violence, many critics saw unmistakable quality in it, hailing its tense pace, its cool action, and its storyline. In time, these positive reviews would become the general consensus, and Cameron was inspired to make the sequel. T2 did better at the box office, but compared to The Terminator's modest budget and overall gross, the original's performance was far more impressive. He would NOT be involved in the later movies, which was good for him. They did not hold a candle to his original creations!

(Content—>)

The movie opens with a brief intro showing us the post-apocalyptic world of Judgement Day, explaining that there's been a nuclear holocaust and that machines are waging a war on all those humans who still remain. Its just a taste of things to come, nothing long or drawn out. And then, we move to modern-day LA. There's a big burst of light, and Anry standing naked in the street. He has a run in with some thugs, the leader of whom is Bill Paxton (or Hudson, as he was known in Aliens), and deprives them of their clothes. He even brutally kills one of them just to make his point: don't mess with evil-Terminator Arny! Simultaneously, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn, Hicks from Aliens. Holy recycling actors Batman!) shows up and is going through the same motions. Like Arny, he is in a rush to find clothes, weapons, and the whereabouts on one Sarah Connor. Yet somehow, Reese seems to be having a harder time of it. Funny how being a cybernetic powerhouse who's not afraid to brutally kill makes life easier! In fact, after visiting a gun store and making only one gaff about plasma cannons, Arny ups his body count to two! But seriously, what was up with that line: "phased plasma cannon in the 40 watt range". Really? Wouldn't a Terminator be programmed with what weapons were available in 1984; them detailed files Arny mentioned in the second movie? Ah well, comic relief before he blew the unsuspected store owner away, I guess.

We also get to see Sarah Conner (Linda Hamilton), who for all intents and purposes seems like a regular, run of the mill lady. Naturally, we are wondering why Arny is out to kill her, and what Reese wants with her. But one thing we are sure of, Arny DEFINITELY wants to kill her. The way he is tracking down and murdering anyone named Sarah Conner in the greater LA area would seem to indicate that. As for Reese, his intentions become abundantly clear when the three of them – him, Sarah and Arny – finally come together in a barroom shootout. I can attest to the fact that this scene is one of the most tense in the entire movie. Arny comes in, Kyle shoves his way through the crowd as soon as he sees him, Arny levels his gun at Sarah's head, she is frozen with terror, and Reese brings his gun to bear. The sound is faint for much of this… but when Reese fires, the sound returns! BOOM, BOOM, BOOM… and Arny drops! Naturally, he doesn't stay down, and Reese has to unload what's left of his ammo into him before he can reveal his true purpose. He makes this abundantly clear when he bends down to grab hold of Sarah's arm and says the classic line: "Come with me if you want to live!" Naturally, she does. And in the course of fleeing from Arny, Reese fills her in on the whole situation.

In short, on Aug. 29th, 1997, a nuclear holocaust will take the lives of 3 billion people, in an event known (appropriately) as Judgement Day. The culprit is a machine known as Skynet, an AI created by humans that turned on them and spawned an entire race of machines that were designed to hunt down and destroy all human life. They are known (appropriately!) as Terminators. However, shortly before Reese traveled back in time, the Resistance, organized and mobilized by a man named John Connor, had led them to victory. After rallying the human survivors, teaching them how to fight and survive, they attacked the machine HQ and destroyed Skynet. What makes this semi-believable is the fact that at first, Sarah doesn't believe him and tries to flee. There's none of this "you saved my life and your we have obvious chemistry… so sure, I'll go with you" crap. But Reese's insistence plus the sheer unbelievability of his story manages to convince her. Cyborgs created a time machine so they could travel back in time, from the post-apocalyptic future, and kill the woman who will give birth to the boy who will lead humanity to victory over them. Hell, you can't make shit like that up! Unless you're James Cameron… The fact that he's protecting her while a homicidal Arny will stop at nothing to kill her might have been an added push.

What follows in some more tense scenes where Reese and Connor attempt to flee from the Arny bot. Both he and Reese are wounded in one exchange, forcing Arny to cut out one of his synthetic eyes and wear shades. The look was born! But then Reese and Sarah Conner are arrested, Reese is charged with kidnapping, and Sarah is told that he's a psycho, and not to listen to him! The chief also tries to allay her fears with what immediately becomes some famous last words: "There are thirty cops in this building. You're safe." Arny of course find them, enters and gives HIS famous words to the clerk who tells him visiting hours are over: "I'll be back!" And boy was he ever! After driving his car through the front doors, he whoops out the artillery and proceeds to murder seventeen officers. That's ballsy for any bad guy, lord knows the only policemen who are allowed to die in an action movie are the ones who are three days to retirement! But in the carnage, Reese manages to escape and pulls Sarah Connor out. They both then double-time it out of town.

Then, with a little privacy and some trust established, we get to see the relationship that's taking root between Reese and Connor. Cameron also takes this opportunity to give us additional glimpses of the future. Up until this point, this was done through Reese having flashbacks and nightmares. At this point, it takes the form of Reese conveying everything John Connor told him to share with her, which includes anecdotes about the war. This is important since she will give birth to the future commander of the resistance and he needs to be prepped! Some cool temporal paradox stuff happening here. But wait, it get's better! Eventually, Reese confesses that he always loved Sarah – well, not so much her, but the idea of her. Her picture is something he's kept, its a little worse for wear, but still manages to capture her determination and beauty (keep this in mind, it comes up later!). Then, they have sex, and Sarah gets pregnant with – drumroll! – the future John Connor! Yes, as it turns out, Reese is Connor's father due to this same temporal paradox, whom he will meet and become the protege of in the future. So in addition to this being a post-apocalyptic, time-travelling sci-fi thriller, it comes complete with a big twist! And not just one…

Back to Arny, who must get creative in order to find Connor again. This he does by finding, and killing, her friend and the woman's boyfriend, which puts him at her place in time to hear a phone call from her. He then tracks down her mother and takes her call when she does the obligatory good daughter thing and calls just to let her know she's all right. He then gets the address of the hotel where they're staying. Luckily, Connor and Reese are on top of things. Like good soldiers, they were ready to mobilize, even did some shopping so they could build some homemade plastic explosives. Another car chase ensues, Reese gets severely wounded this time, and Arny gets unseated from his motor bike, hit by an 18-wheeler, and has more of his face ripped off. The look evolves! We also get famous one-liner number two when Arny commandeers the 18-wheeler. After tossing the driver, he turns to the passenger with a half-revealed cyborg face and says… "Get out!" Of course, the guy does! When a killer cyborg steps into your vehicle with half his face missing and tells you to move it, you don't say no! Shortly thereafter, the 18-wheeler crashes and they think Arny is dead. But no! The fully revealed Terminator crawls from the flames (symbolism moment here, harking back to the intro!) and advances on them.

And of course, Reese sacrifices himself to blow the thing in two, but Sarah is forced to deliver the finishing blow by crushing it in an hydraulic press! But before she does, she gives her own big one-liner: "YOU'RE TERMINATED, MOTHERFUCKER!" Hey, Arny can't get em all! The movie then cuts to several months later, with Sarah, now pregnant, driving through Mexico. She's making a recording for her John, and a small boy comes and snaps her picture. Remember that photo Reese had of her, the one that made her fall in love with him? Yep, this is it! And as we will learn in the movie that's to come, the remains of the Arny bot were recovered… the seeds of Skynet's creation have been sowed. The paradox is complete! And Sarah drives off into a coming storm, which is both literal and metaphorical. Yep, good line to end it on. "There's a storms coming," says the Mexican man. "I know," says Connor. Cue apocalyptic music and roll credits!

(Synopsis—>)

All throughout this movie, there is a tension that in undeniable. Whether its Reese's painful flashbacks, the Terminators constant pursuit, or the fact that the police are pursuing them as well, there's a pace and a tempo that never lets up. It's downright uncomfortable, the feeling of danger and impending death always there. Though the sequel was arguably more fun and a lot more impressive in terms of effects, the original was a lot grittier and emotionally honest. In a way, it kinds of like Alien and its sequel, the former being packed full of terror and claustrophobia, the latter being a big-ass thriller that relied more on action. Unfortunate that Cameron was only involved in the creation of the latter, otherwise you could say there was a clear pattern. The original sets up the plot and has a deliberately harsh tone, the latter finishes it off and is entertaining in the process. And while the latter might have overshadowed the former in terms of box office gross and overall impact, the former remains the more critically acclaimed cult-hit because its arguably smarter, if less flashy.

In any case, it made for a good movie. But the real points came in the form of the plot, which was a compelling story about fate and free-will. The future is happening because of what happens in the past. They are trying to prevent the machines from altering the future, but in the process, they end up creating it. Cool, and virtually seamless. Because, as I'm sure I said in my Terminator: Salvation review, the good guys not only ensured the birth of John Connor (and hence their eventual victory over the machines), they also ensured the existence of the machines in the first place. Funny how that works, temporal tampering has the power to give and the power to take away. The real genius of it, and the thing that always bakes my noodle, is the notion that the future we know is the result of all our actions. That might seem like fatalism, but its actually far more complex. Fate implies that the future is set, when in fact, things don't happen in spite of what you do, but because of it. Oy, I just went cross-eyed! These plot twists also set up the plot for a sequel very nicely. Now that John Connor's existence is assured, he must prepared for the future. At the same time, he and Sarah must see what they can do to prevent it. And of course, with the war still on the horizon and the rise of the machines still to come, we can bet our bottom dollar that they will make another attempt to kill Connor before they lose the war.

And like I said, this movie set Arny and Cameron up FOR LIFE. Cameron would go on to make Aliens before directing his big-budget action-packed sequel, and Arny would land role after role in the big action line-up of the 1980′s. Funny too how that worked out. Arny had all kinds of difficulty getting work at first because of his accent and, amazingly, his name! Director's initially thought it was too long and hard to pronounce, and that his speech would always be a stumbling block. But thanks to The Terminator, Arny went on to be famous and all those agents and producers who doubted him were left eating crow! And of course, when it came time to make the sequel, Cameron would bring Arny back and give him a chance to reprise his role, this time as the good guy, which was in keeping with Arny's true character. Linda Hamilton would be back too, reprising her role as Sarah Conner and raising the stakes by becoming the ultimate female bad-ass!

More on that in my review, T2! Like Arny, I too will be back! (Sorry, I had to!)

The Terminator:

Entertainment Value: 8/10

Plot: 9/10

Direction: 9/10

Total: 8.5/10

Dune Miniseries (best lines, revisited)

Yesterday, more lines were coming to me as I busted my butt to get through Taekwon-Do class. I don't know, it seems plyometric exercises are all the rage these days. Did I mention I hate them? I hate em, I HATE EM! But my aching shins and stiff muscles aside, it was good in that it shook some things loose from my mind. Basically, I realized that there were several more lines I didn't post, and with something like Dune, you got to give it its due. That kind of sounded like a play on words, doesn't it? Dune, due, no? Whatever, just read the damn list!

So, here are some of the ones I forgot the first time around…



Paul: What did you do to me?

Jessica: I gave birth to you!

Paul: A freak!

Jessica: No!

Paul: Then what?

(Of course, she has no answer for that one!)

Paul: Submit Captain! (Using the Voice) Submit Captain…

Guild Agent: We have surrendered without resistance, we have put ourselves at your mercy.

Paul: Mercy is a word I no longer understand.

-extended scene in which Paul and the Fremen take a Harkonnen stronghold and capture a Guild agent

Paul: Othyem, get Stilgar. Tell him to summon a Maker.

Chani: You know what this will mean. Between you and Stil… the man who wants you to call him out.

Paul: Only if I survive the Maker.

Fenrig: Her majesty has a perceptive mind.

Irulan: Should I take that as compliment or a threat, Fenrig?

Fenrig: I meant it only as a sign of my respect. I share your fear of the Baron's schemes.

Irulan: My father can handle the Baron, Fenrig. It is this Muad'Dib that I'm curious about.

Baron: Your majesty, these people are mad! The women hurl their babies at us. They hurl themselves onto our weapons to open a wedge for their men to attack. I could wipe the planet clean of the entire race, your majesty, but then who would mine the spice? It's a terrible dilemma.

Emperor: Do you have any idea where this Muad'Dib character came from? What he wants? What his price is?

Baron: He's a Fremen fanatic, a religious adventurer. They crop up regularly from the fringes of civilization. You're majesty knows this. Most seem to be simply bent on suicide.

Emperor: Have you ever stared into the eyes of a religious fanatic, Baron? Suicide and martyrdom are often the same thing.

Chani: This can't go on. You are asking too much of yourself!

Paul: I want you to take Leto and return to the southern sietch. I want you safe.

Chani: I'm safest when we are together!

Paul: But I'm not.

Baron: You're good material, Feyd, and I hate to waste good material (Slaps him). Now give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right here.

Feyd: My brother…

Baron: Yes! That's right, you're dim brother. If I kill you, then he would be my only heir, and he can't even put down a dirty mob of religious lunatics. Yes, you're clever Feyd… but not that clever.

Irulan: History will say that the Fremen were about to find their Messiah, that Paul Atreides would find his revenge, and the world we knew it would change… forever.

Chani: Your visions frighten me, Muad'Dib

Paul: There are things still hidden from me. Places I can't go, things I can't see.

Chani: Do you ever worry that just trying to see the future changes it?

Paul: We're speeding towards the abyss, Chani. I have to see a way around it.

Chani: Will we ever have peace Muad'Dib?

Paul: We'll have victory…

Jessica: We thought you were dead…

Paul: You have no idea! (Takes her hands, shows her his vision) I've seen things for which there are not words to describe.

Jessica: You've seen the future?

Paul: The NOW mother! The future and the past! All at once, all the same… I am the whirlwind!

Jessica: You Are the Kwisatz Hadderach!

Paul: No, mother! I am something more… I'm something unexpected. I am the fulcrum, the giver and the taker. I am the one who can be many places at once. I am the master of FATE! I am the tool of that fate…

Paul: A terrible purpose awaits us mother. This vast organism we call humanity is about to reinvent itself from the ashes of its own complacency. The Sleeper has awakened… anything that tries to stop it will be crushed.

Jessica: Even the innocent?

Paul: There aren't any innocents anymore!

Paul: Take a good look at me, mother. See something I learned after I took the Water of Life. Look into my eyes. Look back through them into my blood… Harkonnen blood, flowing in mine. It flows from you…

Jessica: (scoffs) No… I won't believe it.

Paul: Who was your father?

Jessica: You know I can't answer that.

Paul: Who?

Jessica: I don't know. I don't know, I've never known!

Paul: Because they hid it from you!

Jessica: Because they took me when I was an infant, and raised me in the Bene Gesserit ways. Like all the others before and since. None know their mothers… or their fathers.

Paul: THE BARON HARKONNEN MOTHER, YOU'RE HIS DAUGHTER! … The product of a clever seduction. The handiwork of your precious Bene Gesserit breeding programmers. I'm his grandson… They wanted to control things, but they couldn't control you. You changed everything. You had a son, and now I'm here… the one they were seeking. But I've arrived before my time. And they're just beginning to realize it.



Yep, amazing how many lines I forgot. I'll admit, some of them are a little B-list, but they're still gold in my opinion. Amazing, most of them I made a point of mentioning in the course of my review, not just because they were significant but because they were damn good bits of dialogue! And yet, somehow I forgot about them when it came time to list the most memorable lines… But I can see why, list one was dominated by the Baron's gems, whereas this particular one seems to be all about Paul and the women in his life. I guess that's to be expected, main characters do tend to be show-stealers!

Of Anime

It's funny, just yesterday I was putting the finishing touches on my review of Akira when I realized something. When addressing the topic of Anime, I could only come up with three titles that I'd ever seen: Akira (naturally!), Ninja Scroll, and Vampire Hunter D. I therefore concluded that I was a bad geek for it. However, in going through a list of the top animated movies of all time, I found myself remembering title after title that were in that list. First there was Princess Mononoke, then Perfect Blue, and more recently, Ghost in the Shell and Metropolis. And while they didn't make any Top Animated Movie lists, there's also Fist of the North Star (bleck!) and Legend of the Overfiend (I didn't know it was a violence-porn movie going in, I swear!) These are certainly prime examples of Anime, though not all are decent movies (especially Overfiend!). And with only one exception they all fall under into the category of sci-fi/fantasy. And I've seen em, which, if I'm not mistaken, negates what I said earlier…

Yes, as it turns out, I'm a geek, and a big one at that! I mean, how many people can honestly say they're not geeks when they've sat through this many Animes? It helps if you have geek friends who are also film buffs, the latter being the only other demographic that I could think of that'd spend this much of their spare time watching animated films (or waste, depending on your point of view).

With this in mind, I want to revise my most recent review list to make room for some of these titles. With the possible exception of Perfect Blue (since it was a film adaptation of a novel about celebrity and stardom, good one too!) I will be adding all of these titles to the list. Perhaps I will make it a special segment, sci-fi/fantasy Anime, beginning with:

1. Akira (reviewed on Aug.2nd, and followed by:

2. Ghost in the Shell

3. Ninja Scroll

4. Metropolis

5. Princess Mononoke, finishing up with:

6. Vampire Hunter D.

And… God forgive me, I think I'll even dedicate a review or two to the cheesy Fist of the North Star and the insanely gratuitous Legend of the Overfiend, if only to warn aspiring geeks and existing ones who haven't seen them yet what to avoid. Trust me, you're missing nothing by skipping these!

In the meantime, geeks of the world unite! Anime! Nerdasm! Birkenstocks! (Not particularly geeky, they just make a fine product!)

"Fear is the Mind-Killer…"

Recently, when looking back at the best Dune lines from the miniseries, I forgot all about one, very important one. How could I? It's only one of the most important lines in the Dune series, one that gets repeated in just about every book. And that line is… The Litany Against Fear! For those who don't know, this is the invocation the Bene Gesserit's and the Atreides make in order to ward off fear. And as I'm sure many Dune fans have done (at least I hope so!), I've even tried saying it once or twice. Doesn't really work for me, but then again, it was a long shot at best.

Clearly, the idea behind the Litany is an acknowledgment that fear is dangerous, but also that the only way to overcome it is to embrace it. By allowing it to pass through you, yourself remaining but the fear gone, is to survive. To give in to it is to invite obliteration. Anyhow, the quoted version of this prayer was modified by from its original text by John Harrison for the purposes of adaptation. Here is how it appeared in the miniseries:

"I must not fear. Fear is the mindkiller. I will face my fear. I will let it pass through me. When it is gone, there will be nothing, only I will remain."

Not bad, but here is how it appeared in full, in the original text of Dune:

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

Yep, its about twice as long. And when you're acting, long speeches tend to make the audience lose interest. Curiously enough, David Lynch used the full text version when making the movie version of Dune. One would think that his time constraints would have made brevity all the more desirable. But then again, he relied on internal monologues to make this speech, as with most other things in his movie. Since the actors didn't have to stand and deliver, just pull a face and let the voice over do its thing, they could kind of get away with it. And if the audience got bored… well, chances are they were bored to begin with! Or lost, his movie was good like that !

AKIRA!

I'll admit it, I don't watch a lot of Anime. I know, that probably makes me a bad geek. But what can I say? You gotta be into that kind of thing and apparently, I'm not. But over the years, I've managed to find a few titles that I did like. Ninja Scroll, Vampire Hunter D, and – best of all – Akira! Yes, not only was this the best piece of Anime I've ever seen, it managed to tell a story that still intrigues me years later. Not long ago, I watched it for what felt like the umpteenth time and found that it I still get wrapped up by its stunning visual effects, existential ideas, and its post-apocalyptic, cyberpunk theme. I tell ya, the animators spared no expense when it came to visuals, and the story-writing and direction was reminiscent of Kubrick in a lot of ways. Much of what is happening is shown, not told, and those watching it might therefore feel the need to see it more than once. But enough gushing, time to get to the review!

(Background—>):

The movie Akira was actually based on the Manga series of the same name by Katsuhiro Otomo, who was also brought in to direct the movie. The movie condensed the storyline of the six original Manga novels, but kept all of the major themes and plot elements. Much like the comic, the movie is set in Neo-Tokyo, a post-apocalyptic, dystopian future city where biker gangs rule the streets and an authoritarian government is hiding secrets about human experiments. It was well received by critics when it was first released in 1988 and has gone to become one of the top-rated animated movies of all time, and of course it attracted a cult following in the process. However, there were also some critics who panned it, claiming that it did a poor job of condensing six volumes of Manga into one two hour movie and cut corners in the process (fans of the Dune series can no doubt relate!) These critics tended to be in the minority though, with fans and critics alike hailing the end product for its visual style, its imaginings of a dark future, and its attention to detail. I, if it hasn't been made clear already, am one of them!

(Content—>):

The movie opens on a silent, birds-eye view of Tokyo in 1988, right before it is vaporized by what looks like a nuclear attack. The entire city is engulfed in light, no sound but what appears to be a strong wind. The scene then changes to what appears to be a satellite photo from orbit, where thermal images cools and the familiar shape of Tokyo harbor appears. The caption tells us this is Neo-Tokyo, 31 years after WWIII. Cue sound, a loud, panging noise that chills you to your bones! An effective opening, conveying a sense of apocalypticism and dread, making the audience at once aware that something terrible happened, and more is on the way! We then move to the streets of Neo-Tokyo where we meet the main characters of Shotoro Kaneda, the leader of a Bosozoku biker gang. They're up to their usual thing, battling the Clowns, a rival gang, and making a big mess in the streets in the process. Meanwhile, student and civilian protests are taking place and the riot police are out in full force trying to contain them, shooting them with tear gas canisters and beating them down. In between all this, a member of some underground resistance and a small child, his skin so pale its blue, are running through the streets and trying to stay ahead of the police. The three events clash as the riot cops shoot the man, the boy runs away, and one of Kaneda's gang, Tetsuo Shima – the obvious runt of the group – runs into him. Things get weird when Tetsuo's bike explodes a mere second before impact, and military choppers and shadowy figures come to retrieve the boy – some big mustached Colonel and an older, blue-skinned person leading them. Kaneda and his friends show up just in time to see Tetsuo taken away too.

This sets off the three intertwining plot elements that make up the movie. One the one hand, we have Kaneda and his friends trying to find their friend, all the while trying to survive in the hostile environment that is Neo-Tokyo. We have the resistance looking to get back into some government facility so they can free these blue-skinned kids (known as the Espers) who are clearly the subject of experiments and covert activities. And we have the Colonel, who's clearly running said facility, overseeing the experiments on these individuals, and trying to figure out what to do with Tetsuo. It becomes clear after just a few scenes that his exposure to this small child is changing him, in the psionic sense, and now they must figure out what to do about it. While it presents an interesting phenomena, there are hints that this chance encounter could bring disaster. In between all this, we get numerous snapshots of what life is like in this post-apocalyptic city, and all of it is both cool and interesting. The police are overworked trying to control a population that is beginning to become unruly after the shock and horror of nuclear holocaust and the push to rebuild. The public school system is clogged with orphans who's parents died in the war and who turn to biker gangs and deviant behavior to express themselves. And behind it all, there is the shadowy government project being run by the Colonel, who is haunted by the visions of the blue kids and a name which might be a person, a phenomena, or both… Akira. At one point, in a scene that is one part exposition, two parts foreshadowing, we are shown an underground facility where a massive cryogenic unit sits and waits. On it, in big red letters, is the name… AKIRA! Whoever or whatever that is, its clear that the blue kids have something to do it, and that the war itself was somehow related.

Shortly thereafter, Tetsuo manages to escape from the facility that was holding him. He finds his girlfriend, steals Kaneda's bike, and they try to B-line it out of the city. Unfortunately, some Clowns find them and begin beating the crap out of them. Luckily, Kaneda and his buds are able to intervene to save them, but clearly something's wrong. In the course of beating the crap out of one of the Clowns, Tetsuo begins having some kind of breakdown. He's obviously pissed, shouts that someday he'll show everyone who's ever treated him badly (case of foreshadowing here), and begins experiencing intense apocalyptic visions. He sees the city crumbling, his body falling apart, and hears the name Akira ringing like a shrill bell in his mind. And, wouldn't you know it, the military shows up again and hauls him away. It seems that whatever is happening to Tetsuo is beyond his control, and naturally, his friends are even more determined now to find him and figure out what's going on. Paralleling this, we get an expository scene where one of the government bureaucrats is meeting with the leader of the resistance. The two watch a public protest where a religious cult begins burning TV's and other "decadent" possessions, calling forth the name of Akira as some sort of messianic prophet. The bureaucrat gives us a rundown of how the city is beginning to rot like "an overripe fruit", and Akira is the seed that will soon fall and grow into a new order (this fruit metaphor is beginning to get a little thin!). We are still not sure who or what Akira is at this point, but its becoming quite suspenseful. The fact that the name has even trickled down to the street where restless, hopeful people have turned it into a cult of deliverance, is also a very cool idea. We see from this that at all levels of society, the name Akira is secretive and powerful, even conspiratorial.

Along the way, Kaneda finds out about the resistance and begins making common cause with them. This begins when he notices that a particular young woman that he is infatuated with has a way of showing up repeatedly wherever shit is going down. At first, he was just trying to nail her; but in time, he comes to realize that she is part of an underground cell that is looking to expose a government secret, the same one that Tetsuo is now part of. They agree that they can help each other, mainly because she and her friends can get inside the facility and they are sympathetic with Kaneda's desire to save his friend. Eventually, they succeed, but their attempt at rescue coincides with another, scarier development. Seems Tetsuo is still changing, and the process is getting beyond all control. His psionic abilities are reaching dangerous proportions, and he wants answers! He has come to see that there are others like him (the blue kids), and after a nightmarish episode where they try to subdue him, he begins stalking them back to their nursery. In the process, a number of attendees and guards try to stop him, but he makes short work of them all. Yes, Tetsuo has begun killing those who get in his way, a clear indication that he has slid into madness! Anyway, once he reaches the blue kids' nursery, they begin fighting it out with their crazy mind powers. And I don't mind saying, the effects here are not just cool, they are crazy! One really gets the sense of the psychic and psychotic, music, effect and dialogue all coming together to make the point! In the course of all this, he gleams a name from their minds. Akira! Tetsuo and Kaneda have a brief rendezvous, but Kaneda's attempts to rescue him fail. Seems Tetsuo thinks he's beyond Kaneda's help anymore, and that he's in charge and ready to show him, as promised earlier.

The Colonel and more men attempt to stall Tetsuo, but he kills even more people, destroys the nursery, and flies from the facility (much to his own surprise). Kaneda and Kei are taken prisoner and stuck in a cell, where Kei begins to explain to Kaneda exactly what they think Akira represents: Evolution. Essentially, the power that drives single cell organisms and reptiles to evolve into spaceship-making, atom-splitting humans is still at work. Harnessed in the human genome is a ton of energy that is just waiting to manifest itself in freaky powers, the kind that Tetsuo and the Espers demonstrate. Kei begins to become distant as it is made clear that one of the Espers, the young girl, is speaking through her. She explains that in the past, this process went horribly wrong, but someday soon, it would become a reality and their kind would exist freely. Kaneda is totally lost, but Kei wakes from her dream-like state to reveal the door is now open. Seems the Espers are pulling strings to make sure the two of them get out. With the help of voiceover, they even say that they plan on using the girl to stop Testuo. Kaneda is made aware of this when he hears the Espers voices calling to Kei, who begins walking away (on water, no less), leaving him behind and angry as hell. Caught between a friend who's gone rogue and has even murdered members of their old gang, and the Espers who are using his would-be girlfriend, he decides to set out on his own to find Tetsuo and end him!

Back to Tetsuo, who's been stalking the streets and killing at will as he makes his way to another secret facility where, as we know from earlier, Akira is housed. This is without a doubt one of the best parts of the movie, as the street people, many of whom are part of the cult that worships Akira, have become convinced that Tetsuo IS Akira and begin to follow him like a messiah. They all die, naturally, as Tetsuo's is forced to fight his way through soldiers and his powers cause untold amounts of collateral damage. When he finally reaches the facility, just outside the uncompleted Olympic Stadium (bit of a side story to that one), he runs into Kei again and they fight. Not so much "they", more like the Espers fight Tetsuo through them. But he beats them/her, breaks into the facility, and realizes the truth. As soon as he cracks open the cryogenic seals that hold Akira, the Colonel shows up and begins to explain via a megaphone: the facility was holding the remains of a boy, a boy named Akira. He is what caused Tokyo's annihilation in 1988, as he was an evolutionary curiosity that evolved beyond anyone's control. After the explosion which stated WWIII (since everyone thought Tokyo was under nuclear attack), his remains were sealed away for future study. That's all! No secret conspiracy, no all-encompassing answers to his questions, just a bunch of test tubes and with tissue samples in formaldehyde. Naturally, the government has been trying to prevent the same thing from happening again, hence why they hold the blue kids in a sealed location and why they've been holding him too. Tetsuo is phased, but Kaneda shows up again and the two get into another confrontation. A fight ensues where Kaneda employs a laser and Tetsuo uses his freaky powers. The government jumps in with their orbital laser satellite that manages to critically injure Tetsuo by blowing off his arm. However, the kid proves beyond their control again, and flies into orbit where he takes over the satellite and then crashes it.

A lull follows as the Colonel and his forces lick their wounds, Tetsuo fashions a new arm out of random machine parts, and Kaneda, Kei, and the last remaining member of his biker gang keep each other company. Some time later, they all meet up inside the stadium. The Colonel urges Tetsuo to come home, but he refuses. He is once again losing control and its beginning to show in his body, which is sprouting amorphous blobs for appendages. The Espers show up and begin praying to the remains of Akira, hoping to get some kind of instruction of what to do about Tetsuo, or some deliverance. Tetsuo's girlfriend is also drawn to the stadium, but she soon dies as Tetsuo's body consumes her and begins to become a total, massive amorphous blob. Kaneda shows too, shooting his laser and trying to bring Tetsuo down, but the attempts appear in vain. Even Tetsuo is being killed by his own abilities now. And the scientists watching it all are stunned when the queer instruments they have to measure psionic abilities go off the charts and begin to show the Akira readings. And then, in a blinding burst of revelation (destructive, apocalyptic, revelation!) Akira appears to the Espers and begins to consume the city again. Kaneda risks his own life to save Tetsuo, but the Espers decide they will save him by sacrificing themselves. A mind-blowing scene follows as Kaneda is consumed by light, sees all kinds of destruction and hears the Espers voices, and sees moments in Tetsuo's and the Espers lives. He also gets a chance to say good-bye to his friend, who appears to have become a disembodied ball of light. Might sound cheesy, but trust me, its awesome to behold. All the more so because you're not being told what's happening, you gotta figure it out on your own.

Kaneda then reappears outside the ruins of the city next to Kei. The Colonel has also survived, having found shelter in a nearby tunnel when the apocalyptic light show began. Clearly, they are the survivors of this apocalypse, and it is to them that the responsibility to rebuild once more falls. The Espers end things by reiterating their final message, how things are changing, and though the world may not be ready, someday it will become a reality. "It has already begun…" By it, of course, they mean the next leap in human evolution, where we will evolve beyond flesh and blood bodies and become unrestrained forces of pure consciousness, with all kinds of freaky psionic abilities!

(Synopsis—>):

Okay, I'm feeling mind-blown just recounting all this. Like I said before, this movie did things right, relying on a show-don't-tell philosophy, stunning visual effects that demonstrate the psychedelic and existential themes very well, an attention to detail that was unsurpassed, and a great combination of music, sound, visuals and dialogue to top it all off. That being said, the movie can also be a bit daunting at times, as the action sequences and dialogue can get a little drawn out. But for the most part, this is effective in that it conveying the right feel and attitude. After all, death, destruction and confusion are not neat and tidy, they are painful and demoralizing! One would expect scenes or urban destruction and civil strife to cause all kinds of negative feelings, so I can only say that Katsohiro's direction was realistic in that respect. Speaking of realism, the movie showed some very obvious insight that can only come from a culture that has experienced the scourge of nuclear holocaust directly. All throughout the movie, there is a sense of destruction and horror that was always laid on but never gratuitous, in my opinion. Unlike your average disaster movie, the destruction in Akira wasn't some cheap attempt at action-porn, it was downright realistic! One would expect that those who experience earthquakes on a regular basis and were the only people to ever experience a nuclear attack on their own soil would know these things!

Also, the religious themes – the coming of the messiah and the End of Days. This too was done in a way that was colorful, intriguing, and even comical at times. The way the people of Neo-Tokyo turned the name of Akira into a cult of apocalypticism, complete with ascetics, street revelers, and funky gurus was nothing short of bang on in my opinion. And the scene where Tetsuo manages to kill a whole bunch of his followers demonstrated the absurdity and irrationality of this form of death-worship very well. At one point, an odd-looking guru, complete with a pompadour haircut, John Lennon sunglasses and prayer beads is being carried by a procession behind their would-be messiah, declaring how he will "cleanse the filth from their souls". Next, they come to road-block on a bridge where soldiers start shooting at them. Tetsuo then destroys the bridge, sending the guru and everyone else plummeting to their deaths, flailing and screaming. In addition, Tetsuo's rise from the runt of the litter to a psionic, psychotic powerhouse is also poignant, calling to mind concepts like Nietzsche "Will to Power". The themes of youth culture, cyberpunk, and social deviance were clear througout, worked into just about every scene with a thorough touch. And of course the the explorations of existence and psychology that came with all evolutionary stuff. Like with most things in this movie, these point are conveyed through images and dialogue, not said outright.

One big weakness I will mention though: I've since seen two versions of the movie, the original VHS release that was available back in the 90′s, and a more recent version which was clearly dubbed in Japan. The Japanese dubbed one is actually more faithful to the original dialogue, but my advice would be to get the version that was dubbed by Hollywood studios. The translation was better, and the dialogue and voices more effective and less cheesy. Don't know what it is about Japanese voice actors, but the men sound too gruff and the ladies too high-pitched! Also, in what I am assuming was the original Japanese script, the dialogue was also remarkably less subtle. If you can see both versions and compare for yourselves, you'll see what I mean.

But other than that, this movie is an enduring classic for me. Its appeal is cultish, its style awesome, and its effects stunning even though they are over twenty years out of date.

AKIRA

Entertainment Value: 8/10

Plot: 9/10

Direction: 10/10 (Yo!)

Total: 9/10

More Reviews!

Hello all! Turns out, I came up with some additional titles to review sooner than I would have thought. Since I started doing them, friends have made recommendations which I felt I had to acknowledge. In addition, more crappy and awesome titles came to mind. And last, but certainly not least, I've been made aware of more classics that I didn't even realized qualified. And then there was the Matrix trilogy. A no-brainer, given its impact and influence, but which somehow still managed to slip under my radar! So, here's the list of my next fifteen reviews! Again, this list is not written in stone, the order may change and additional titles will make it in based on friend's recommendations or the slightest whim! Enjoy!

1. I, Robot

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

3. 28 Days Later

4. Equilibrium

5. Sunshine

6. Children of Men

7. Watchmen

8. Tron: Legacy

9. The Matrix

10. Matrix Sequels

11. Wall-E

12. Twelve Monkeys

13. Iron Man

14. Universal Soldier

15. The Road Warrior

Starship Troopers

Here we have yet another example of a sci-fi book adapted to film, with significant changes being made! And, much like with Blade Runner and 2001: Space Odyssey, this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. Whereas the novel was an in-depth look at the timeless nature of military service with some rather interesting social commentary thrown in, the movie was all about a war with a hostile alien species. In the book, there really wasn't much about the Bugs or humanity's fight with them by comparison. Rather than being the focal point of the story, it operated as a sort of background to the main premise, which was the armed forces and their role in society. So its not surprising that in adapting the book to the big screen, they chose to focus on the war stuff and gloss over the rest. While this allowed for a more entertaining movie, it didn't come without its share of consequences.

(Background—>)

Interestingly, and perhaps ironically, the movie was to have a polarizing effect on audiences and critics, much like the original novel. Though Heinlein was a gifted author and one of the "Big Three" of science fiction (along with Asimov and Clarke) I can honestly say that Starship Troopers was not his best work. But it was the themes and the central message of the book that seemed to divide the critical and the general reception it got. Was he advocating violence without a second thought and a quasi-fascist social code, or simply depicting a future society in which these things came to be? Was he serious when he said that how violence had solved more problems in history than any other means? Or was he being cynical or facetious? Who knows? In fact, Heinlein wrote Starship Troopers largely to explain and defend his feelings about the military and nuclear policy. Much like his feelings, the book was nuanced, and was therefore likely to elicit mixed reactions.

In any case, the movie had the same effect on audiences. Some were mad that it wasn't faithful to the original novel – no doubt because of all the pretty actors and actresses and all that love triangle crap – while others were happy for the changes, hailing it for its action, costumes, settings and the way it expanded on the Bug War. Me? I kind of fall in the middle camp. While I appreciate the acting and the fact that we actually got to see much of what was explained being acted out, I didn't much care for the cast or the teenage-type drama. I felt that it was a good effort, and a fitting addition to Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi lineup (director of such movies as Robocop and Total Recall). Still, it would have benefited from a different cast and some script changes, though it would have definitely done less well as the box office as a result. In the end, its best when filed under guilty pleasures; kind of like Independence Day, but with way less cheese!

Oh, and for the record, I will NOT be getting into this movie's sequels! Far as I'm concerned, the less said about them the better! I've caught snippets and what I saw was so demoralizing, I knew I couldn't sit through the whole thing. I can't even begin to wonder what the hell the producers were thinking there! So… avoiding those, let's get into the first and, as far as I'm concerned, only Starship Troopers movie worth mentioning!

(Content—>)

So this bad boy opens with a scene from Klendathu, the battle scene on the Bug homeworld that's pretty important later on in the movie. This set up does much to establish tension and give us a preview of the movie's later carnage. Then, cut to the comparatively domestic scene of Johnny Rico (played by Casper Van Dien) in his high school History and Moral Philosophy class. Here, we get a watered down version of what Heinlein said in the original book, emphasizing the quasi-fascist morality of voting and violence, and sans the moral responsibility stuff. But what are you gonna do? This movie is an action film, talking about the legitimacy of violence can only be seen as a set-up for how they plan to deal with a hostile alien species, one that does not understand mercy, coexistence or peace. And of course, that annoying triangle I mentioned is clear even at this point. Johnny loves Carmen (Denise Richards), Dizzy Flores (Dina Meyer) loves Johnny, and Carmen… she wants to be a pilot. We get an earful on the Federation and how service entitles one to basic rights – like voting – something civilians don't enjoy, and in the course of a futuristic football scene, we see Carmen get all gaga for some dude who is a naval pilot.

In the ensuring scenes, during graduation and a whole lot of expository talk about life decisions, it becomes painfully obvious what's going to happen. Carmen is going to join the Federation, Johnny is going to join to follow her, Dizzy is going to join to follow him. We also meet Carl Jenkins (Neil Patrick Harris), who is a latent psychic and is joining and getting bumped to the top because of his abilities. It's also obvious that he's going to develop the ability to psychically communicate with people. Why? Because he said he couldn't… yet! And of course, Johnny and Carmen are annoying as hell. That might be prejudice on my part, but I have a hard time taking anything Denise Richards does seriously. Casper Van Diem? Can't get past that cleft chin! And frankly, he looks the part of the clean-cut American teenager too well! And with a name like Johnny Rico, someone who's actually Latino would have seemed like a better bet. Having these pretty cardboard cut-outs as stand-ins might have been effective as an ironic statement, pitting beauty against the ugliness of war. But that's just not what I got from this. Seems the beauty was meant to be a box-office draw, the violence strictly for entertainment purposes. Didn't really get the sense that there was any real meaning or depth at work there.

Quick sidenote: NONE of this happened in the novel! For starters, Johnny did have feelings for a girl named Carmen, but she was NOT his girlfriend nor even a central character, nor did she figure that prominently in his decision to join the Federation. In addition, Dizzy Flores was a MAN! Yes, in the novel this woman who was in fact a fellow grunt in the Mobile Infantry, not some love-sick girl who followed Johnny into the service (and incidentally, to her death). Oh, and the man who was Johnny's moral philosophy teacher, Jean Rasczak (Michael Ironside) was not the same man who led the Roughnecks! In the novel, it was a man named DuBois (a stand-in for Heinlein himself) who was the teacher. Rasczak was a commander he would later meet, and who would promptly die off during the Klendathu battle. This last aspect I can understand. Having his teacher return later in the book as his CO makes sense, since the teacher was a citizen in both the book and movie. And killing him off promptly wouldn't make much sense, not if you plan on expanding on the action. But the rest… yeah, box-office draw!

Oh, and I should also mention that whereas the novel was nuanced in its approach, the movie was not. Clearly, Verhoeven chose to go with the quasi-fascist school of thought on this one. Regardless of what he thought about Heinlein message, he clearly thought the movie would be more effective if the whole issue of service and citizenship were presented in very rigid terms. Civilians have few rights, society is informed by propaganda reels instead of independent news sources, and those who serve are "meat for the grinder" (an actual line from the recruiting sergeant!). While this proved interesting at times, it was not in keeping with the message of the book. In some cases, these elements were wholesale inventions of the writers and not mere exaggerations on what was in the novel. Still, they did at times feel like a fitting commentary on the nature of war and social issues, which WAS in keeping with the spirit of the novel (if not the actual content).

Anyway, we soon get to the myriad of scenes where Rico is receiving his training at the hands Sgt. Zim (masterfully protrayed by Clancy Brown). He and his buds, are run through a training regimen that is far more brutal than anything in the novel (constant cries of medic demonstrate this point) but the point here is clearly to draw parallels with the kinds of brutal discipline which the Marines and elite units are notorious for. We also get scenes of Carmen's comparatively cushy experiences, and in the course of video correspondence, she of course sends him a Dear John, putting Rico into a crisis of faith. That, coupled with a terrible accident in which a grunt dies, leads him to resign. He, however, changes his mind when a sudden and unprovoked attack (echoes of Pearl Harbor) destroys his home of Beunos Aires and kills his folks. Again, not in the book people! While Rico's training was explored at length in the novel, there was none of this high-drama stuff where he got dumped, felt responsible for getting someone killed, and took a whole bunch of whippings, and had his decision to quit interrupted by a "now we are at war!" moment. In addition, his folks did not die in the attack. In fact, he went on to meet his father later in the novel when he himself enlisted so he could do his part for the war. This served as a resolution between Rico and his father after the latter disowned him for joining the military against his wishes. But, like I said, high-drama. It was effective, of course; each and every one of us was probably thinking, "okay, pay back time!" And the news reel that followed in the wake of the attack was very effective at parodying war propaganda films, something they did often in the film version. Like many elements, it gives us a sense of the timelessness of war, while at the same time highlighting the quasi-fascist nature of the Federation.

Oh, and did I mention that somewhere in between all that we got the infamous coed shower scene? Now why was it that this scene was so totally overhyped! Are audiences really this smut-obsessed/puritanical? I mean really people, we saw a few breasts and Van Dien's ass! What's all the hubbub about? Word is that Verhoeven even got undressed while shooting just to show the actors that it wasn't that big a deal. And considering what he got Sharon Stone and Elizabeth Berkley to do in Basic Instinct and Showgirls, this was NOTHING! Ironic then that it should have been such a focal point when it came to the movie's reception!

Moving on, after a few minor scenes of a reunion between Rico and Carmen, Rico brawling with her new pilot boyfriend (which was meant to highlight the conflict between the services) and the grunts getting tatoos that say "Death From Above" (a common war slogan that elicits more thought on the timelessness of war), we cut to the battle scene at Klendathu. And as I said earlier, this first action scene was a big improvement on the book. For one, we actually get to see the fighting! Second, the Bugs are presented as a hostile swarm of instinct-driving beasts, not a semi-intelligent species with actual lasers (as was suggested in the book). I have to say I approve of this take on things, either the Bugs are an individually sentient species or a hive mind with brain bugs at the top, dumb drones at the bottom. Can't have it both ways! Second, the scene is a faithful recreation of an invasion, reminiscent of D-Day and any other beach landing. It's full of tension, the usual last-minute reassurances ("remember your training and you will make it back alive"), the lull as the troops hit the ground and wait for the shooting. And then, the shooting! Oh, the shooting! Yes, for the next few minutes, carnage ensues as the Bugs counter-attack, the MI fight for their lives, and they are forced to beat a hasty retreat. And, fulfilling the preview from the beginning, Rico gets mortally wounded, on camera no less! In orbit, the fleet does little better, getting shmucked by plasma streams that remind one of AAA and Flack, and they are also forced to withdraw. Cue the hospital scene immediately afterwards, with all kinds of gore and a massive list full of MIA and KIA scrolling on a huge screen, just to drive the point home. "The Bugs don't take prisoners," says Mr. Navy pilot man.

But of course, Rico is alive. Turns out his listing as KIA was a clerical error or something (another familiar theme from war movies!). A reunion follows as they get reassigned to the Rough Necks and find that their former teacher, Rasczak, is the CO. Yep, they are now part of Rasczak's Roughnecks! WHOO! And true to form, Michael Ironside is missing a limb. That guy always seems to be losing limbs in Verhoeven's movies! They take part in a new mission designed to gather intel, Rico and Flores have their hot sex scene, and then we cut to a pitch battle where they are forced to defend a fort while waiting for emergency evac. As plot contrivances would have it, their rescue just happens to be Carmen and her pilot beau! Another reunion! And of course, Ironside loses MORE limbs and then dies, Dizzy is killed, and Rico is left crestfallen but hardened. Seems he's finally learned what it means to be a citizen! Good for him! Too bad Dizzy had to die in order to get into Rico's pants though. But according to her final words, it was worth it. And I thought guys were willing to die to get laid!

After her funeral we get another (wait for it!) REUNION, as NPH walks in wearing what is clearly an SS officer's uniform. More quasi-fascist symbolism! And just to make it clear that he's become an unfeeling quasi-fascist dick, his eyes are sunken in and he talks like a real hard-ass now. "Oh, I'm sorry, you don't approve (of my methods). Well that's too bad! We're in this for the species, boys and girls! It all comes down to numbers, they have more!" And of course, he lets them in on their plan. Seems they believe there is a sort of "brain bug" on the planet below, that each colony of drones has one that runs it like a hive mind. Which means they got another mission to fly: attack, and capture the brain! Rico, having come up through the ranks, is now CO of the Roughnecks – Rico's Roughneck! Convenient that his name starts with an R, keeping the tradition of alliteration alive! Naturally, events conspire to place Carmen in harms way. Her ship is destroyed by that same plasma-AAA, a little reminder that the Fleet has it tough too! And her beau and her crash land on the planet and are taken prisoner by the brain. It sucks out her beau's brains (ick!) and is about to do her in too. But luckily, Rico and his squad come to her rescue, guided by NPH's ability to telepathically communicate with humans now (told you he'd figure it out!). And they have one final (do I even need to say it?) reunion on the field of battle. And they even bring back Sgt. Zim, seems he's busted himself to private so he could enlist in combat and captured the brain bug himself! This is keeping with the book, as it must be since its feels pretty out of place at this point. So, they're reunion complete, the movie ends with a propaganda reel telling the people of Earth to enlist because they need more bodies! Rico, Carmen and NPH all get some screen time as examples of to live up to, cue the war music and roll credits!

(Synopsis—>)

Okay, so the things I liked about this film. Yes, the propaganda reels and the familiar war themes were pretty effective. Rather than being a cheap way to elicit emotions (the way Emmerich did with landmarks), it felt like there was some genuine attempts to get into the collective unconscious and call up the memory of wars past. Ultimately, it felt like the goal here was to keep with the spirit of Heinlein's novel and show how conflict is timeless, our experiences of it mirroring those of people in the past. Things like unprovoked attacks, military disasters, recruiting drives, propaganda and inspirational pieces… all of these are common to our experience and got a pretty good treatment by Verhoeven. While Verhoeven's interpretation of the Federation as a militarized and obviously right-wing state was also debatable, he did do a good job demonstrating just how this would look and feel to those living in it. It was done subtly, much like he had done with Robocop, the viewer is not told these things as much as shown them, giving them the freedom to figure them out on their own. And the action scenes were also pretty damn good! Especially the attack on Klendathu, that one really set a good tone. You could got the rah rah tempo as the MI hit the ground and ran into fight, and you felt pretty let down in the aftermath when the news reels said "100,000 dead in the first hour". Damn, just like Dieppe, Omaha Beach, and Iwo Jima, only not real! Also, the one-liners that were ripped from history. Like "Death from Above", a slogan that was coined by the 505th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne in World War II, and popularized by the film Apocalypse Now. Or "C'mon you apes, you wanna live forever?", a paraphrasing of Sgt Dan Daley seminal words: "C'mon you sons-of-bitches, do you want to live forever!" at the Battle of Belleau Wood in WWI.

Also, with regards to another major difference between the novel and the movie: fans of the former would not have failed to notice that the MI were fighting in body armor and firing rifles and bazookas, whereas in the novel they were in powered armor and used all kinds of weapons. Slug throwers, flame throwers, lasers, tactical nukes. This change probably offended some, but I have to imagine the studios felt that this kind of thing wasn't too practical. For one, its hard to create the sense of a grand battle, the kind that reminds one of D-Day, Iwo Jima and Hamburger Hill, if you've got small groups of soldiers in powered armor jetpacking around. That kind of technology naturally calls for smaller attack squads, not a massive hoard of grunts throwing themselves into a wholesale slaughter. Second, from a strictly technical standpoint, having powered armor units would have meant either expensive props or just a whole bunch of CGI. The Bugs were already being digitally added, so if they were faithful to the book, chances are they'd have to do the entire action sequences on computer. That would kind of be a rip for the actors and would have made the battles look a lot less realistic. And speaking of CGI, this was yet another thing that the movie did right. I have no idea which company provided the digital effects, but they were good! Even now, the effects still stand up and look impressive. At no point do you really feel like, "holy crap, that looked totally fake!" And I've thought as much of some of the Star Wars prequels!

Okay, now for the bad… First up, the cast! Casper Van Dien did a reasonably good job of acting, but as I've said, he simultaneously doesn't look the part and looks it too much. He's too clean-cut, ripped, and that cleft chin of his is TOTALLY DISTRACTING! At the same time, there's no way in hell this guy's a Johnny Rico. Rico is a Latino name, the boy's from Buenos Aires! Much the same is true of Denise "Who did I have to screw to become a star" Richards and Dina Meyer. Whereas Meyer is a good actress and veteran of sci-fi, Richards is a one-trick pony who does nothing but smile or look wooden! More to the point, neither of them look Argentinian, and with names like Ibanez and Flores, you kind of get the impression that they should! Might seem like a minor point, but I truly felt that this clean-cut white cast was a whitewash! Did the studios think they wouldn't be able to sell as many tickets if they used people other than some poster children for the Third Reich? As I said at the beginning, this might have been a neat point if the idea was to contrast such homey looking people with the realities of war and a militarized state. It might have even been cool as a subtle parallel between the Federation and the Aryanism of the Nazis. But I mean… c'mon! I think we can all agree that Verhoeven and the producers were just hedging their bets. Some shiny, pretty faces and partial nudity to bring in the teens, some deeper themes to pacify the critics and Heinlein fans. But ultimately, the movie erred on the side of pandering and angered critics and Heinlein fans for the most part. That's what you get when you hedge your bets. So don't hedge em, people, place em! Even if the end products sucks, you'll know it sucked honestly.

Also, there's the matter of the plot being full of reunions and convenient plot twists that are simply annoying! In an entire universe full of soldiers, pilots and service people, how is it that these four friends from Buenos Aires keep meeting up? And the final scene where Rico, Carmen and Carl are all together and its like "and we knew we'd be best friends forever" is just plain dumb! For one, one of the four is dead! To boot, she's dead because she loved Rico and followed him into the service and the war. In short, your unrequited love is kinda responsible for her death, and she died saying it was worth it because she finally got to have you? Are you seriously telling me he would have absolutely no feelings on that point? And of course there's the whole love triangle thing, which in the first place is annoying and childish! I get that some drama was needed in the course of the adaptation (the novel was kinda dry!), but this was not the way to go about it. Something a little less teeny-bopper next time, Mr. Verhoeven, if you please! Aside from that, the plot is relatively solid, moving between segments that tell us about the war, the Bugs, and the Federation without getting bogged down in the myriad descriptions that Heinlein's book focused on. This much I liked because it focused on what, for me, seemed that the book itself was supposed to be about. Aka. the Bug War, and not a detailed description of the armed services in the future. I have since learned that Heinlein had a purpose in writing this book other than just creating a fantastical story about aliens and ships, but anyone adapting this movie to film would likely be inclined to follow the same course Verhoeven did.

But in the end, Verhoeven and his movie managed to succeed, even though he pissed off a lot of critics and Heinlein fans. The movie was a big box office draw, it remains a sort of cult hit for some, and for people like me (and I do believe I am in the majority here) it's an enduring guilty pleasure. Even though it was followed by some horrible, horrible sequels (Crap, I wasn't supposed to talk about those!) and was the beginning of Denise Richard's appalling career, the movie was still fun, enjoyable, and had just enough going on to seem passably respectable from an intellectual standpoint. Hell, in talking about it, I kind of want to watch it again. Maybe I shall, maybe I shall…

Starship Troopers:

Entertainment Value: 8/10

Plot: 6/10

Direction: 8/10

Total: 7/10

Blade Runner… best lines!

Hello and welcome to another installment of best movie lines, part of my ongoing bit on movie reviews. Yes, there's no shortage of great movie lines out there. And after going over the best ones from the Dune miniseries, I came to realize just how many other bits of classic movie dialogue there are that deserve recognition. I wasn't sure where to begin, so I thought I'd backtrack a bit. First up, Blade Runner, since its smart, tight dialogue will probably yield the most nuggets. Here are the top ones I could remember, in rough, descending order:

Leon: I've never seen a turtle… But I understand what you mean.

Holden: You reach down and you flip the tortoise over on its back, Leon.

Leon: Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden? Or do they write 'em down for you?

Holden: The tortoise lays on its back, its belly baking in the hot sun, beating its legs trying to turn itself over, but it can't. Not without your help. But you're not helping.

Leon: What do you mean, I'm not helping?

Holden: I mean: you're not helping! Why is that, Leon?

Holden: Describe in single words only the good things that come into your mind about… your mother.

Leon: My mother?

Holden: Yeah.

Leon: Let me tell you about my mother. (Shoots Holden)

Deckard: I was quit when I come in here, Bryant, I'm twice as quit now.

Bryant: Stop right where you are! You know the score, pal. You're not cop, you're little people!

Deckard: No choice, huh?

Bryant: No choice, pal

Rachael: May I ask you a personal question?

Deckard: Sure.

Rachael: Have you ever retired a human by mistake?

Deckard: No.

Rachael: But in your position, that is a risk.

Tyrell: Is this to be an empathy test? Capillary dilation of the so-called 'blush response', fluctuation of the pupil, involuntary dilation of the iris.

Deckard: We call it Voight-Kampff for short.

Tyrell: Demonstrate it. I want to see it work.

Deckard: Where's the subject?

Tyrell: I want to see it work on a person. I want to see it work on a negative before I provide you with the positive.

Deckard: You're reading a magazine. You come across a full-page nude photo of a girl.

Rachael: Is this testing whether I'm a replicant or a lesbian, Mr. Deckard?

Deckard: Suspect? How can it not know what it is?

Tyrell: Commerce is our goal here at Tyrell. More human than human is our motto. Rachael is an experiment, nothing more. We began to recognise in them a strange obsession. After all they are emotionally inexperienced, with only a few years in which to store up the experiences which you and I take for granted. If we gived them a past, we'd create a cushion, a pillow for their emotions and consequently we can control them better.

Deckard: Memories. You're talking about memories.

Roy: Time… enough.

Batty: Did you get your precious photos?

Leon: … Someone was there.

Batty: Men?

Batty: POLICE men?

Leon: How old am I?

Deckard: I don't know!

Leon: My birthday is April 10th, 2017. How long do I live?

Deckard: Four years.

Leon: More than you! Painful to live in fear, isn't it? Wake up, time to die!

Tyrell: I'm surprised you didn't come here sooner.

Batty: It's not an easy thing to meet your maker.

Tyrell: What could he do for you?

Batty: Can the maker repair what he makes?

Tyrell: What, what seems to be the problem?

Roy: Death.

Tyrell: Death? Well, I'm afraid that's a little out of my jurisdiction.

Roy: I want more life, Father!

Tyrell: The facts of life. To make an alteration in the evolvement of an organic life system is fatal. A coding sequence cannot be revised once it's been established.

Tyrell: You were made as well as we could make you.

Roy: But not to last.

Tyrell: The life that burns twice as bright burns half as long. And you have burnt so very very brightly, Roy. Look at you! You're the prodigal son. You're quite a prize.

Roy: I've done questionable things.

Tyrell: And also extraordinary things. Revel in your time!

Roy: Nothing the God of biomechanics wouldn't let you in heaven for.

Batty: Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.

Batty: I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in the rain. Time to die…

Gaff: It's too bad she won't live! But then again, who does?

The list has to end with Batty's death speech and Gaff's final words, regardless of their order. Those lines were just too strong not to end this list on them!