Tag: Anton Yelchin

Review: ‘Terminator Salvation’

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The fourth film in the ‘Terminator’ franchise, it’s savior it is not. Directed by the yet to prove himself McG (Charlie’s Angels 1 & 2) with a budget that would make any relatively green filmmaker swoon at the opportunity, has managed to make a technically high-end piece of action with a particularly low-end story. ‘Terminator Salvation’ makes an effort to bring all the pieces of the time-bending story together and tie up loose ends but fails.

As the title suggests, the character of John Connor (Christian Bale) is seen by most humans as the prophecised “savior” of mankind. Connor, in this chapter, is attempting to locate and rescue his father Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin) in order to preserve his own fate and that of human-kind. If his father dies, who is currently a teenager, then the first ‘Terminator’ movie would never happen and John Connor would have never been born.

Sam Worthington (Rogue) plays Marcus Wright, a man about to be executed on Death Row for crimes he fully admits to and demands punishment for. Wright is a man with a conscience about the wrongs he has committed and sees no redemption for himself. As the poisons of lethal injection stream into his body and his life slips away from him, we are thrown into the future year 2018 amidst the chaotic and horrifying aftermath of a human apocalypse brought on by machines.

Marcus Wright ends up being the focal point of this story. After a mission led by Connor goes terribly bad, leaving only Connor alive, Wright emerges from the smoldering wreckage unharmed and completely confused about where he is and what has happened. I’ll refrain from directly giving away any spoilers, but to be honest… even if you haven’t already figured out the truth about Marcus Wright going into the movie you’ll have it 95% figured out within the first quarter of the film. McG’s attempt to maintain the mystery of Wright’s existence and importance to the story is ruined early on and the remaining 5% is highly predictable.

‘Terminator Salvation’ gets itself a bit confused as Wright could easily be mistaken for the “savior” figure in this story over John Connor, if not for the already establishedback-story from the trilogy. Much of the plot elements in this movie are sort of casually borrowed from previous films and the final battle scene feels similar in some ways to that of ‘Terminator 2’. If not for the action in this movie, I fear I may have found myself bored due to a relative lack of originality.

With the failures aside, the one thing that ‘Terminator Salvation’ does have going for it are the special effects. Marcus Wright… (fine, technically this is a mini-spoiler) …is handled with a certain minimally intrusive but highly effective approach that works well. We get to see a handful of different terminator models pop up throughout the movie, but the best parts are the extensive Hunter/Killer Terminator scenes and the Terminator-Motorcycles, which are featured in one heck of an awesome chase scene. Personally, I found the Hydrobots to be part cheesy and part Matrix-esque, but I suppose they do fit the bill as used in the story.

As for the acting, everyone did a decent job, but no one really stood out, including Christian Bale. I can’t help but wonder how the actor/director relationship between Bale and McG went… we know how the actor/DP (director of photography) relationship went, don’t we? Helena Bonham Carter’s rather short role in the movie felt somewhat out of place simply by the fact that Carter stood out as an actress from the rest of the cast. The Tim Burton regular seemed to stick out like a sore thumb. Yelchin was surprisingly convincing as the young Kyle Reese and Sam Worthington performed on a level equal to Bale’s.

In the end, the story isn’t over. What? I’m not giving anything away! As much as this franchise jumps around in time and changes itself up with each movie, who the Hell knows where the story is supposed to actually end? Did you really think they would apply an ending making it impossible to continue the franchise? Not only is this another way in which the film fails to tie up loose ends, but it ventures to give birth to the question of when is enough… enough? Ultimately, what I took away was that the franchise is dead and needs to end and ‘Terminator Salvation’ was questionably even necessary. In my mind, the franchise is as stands…

#1 ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’
#2 ‘The Terminator’
#3 ‘Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines’
and, bringing up the rear… #4 ‘Terminator Salvation’

[Overall: 3 stars out of 5]

Review: ‘Star Trek’

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The Summer movie season is poised for launch, and JJ Abrams and crew are about to light the fuse.   ‘Star Trek’ is the perfect movie for this time of year, an epic, sci-fi escapade that brings all sorts of escapist fun into theaters.   It’s got action.   It’s got laughs.   It’s got romance.   Well, a little romance, and not from where you might expect.   But, what’s most important, it’s got brains.

Now, before you think you’re going in to see the $250-million version of ‘Primer,’ let me stifle those belief right now.   This isn’t the most ingenius storyline to come down the pike.   But, where ‘Star Trek’ succeeds where so many, other, big-budget, Summer movies fail horribly, is in the tightly wound ways screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman flesh out the characters.

No one gets lost in the mix.   Everyone has their respective moments to shine.   If you’re favorite ‘Star Trek’ character growing up was Sulu (played here by John Cho), fear not.   He gets his moment.   Same goes for Chekov (Anton Yelchin), Uhura (Zoe Saldana), Scotty (Simon Pegg), and McCoy (Karl Urban).

The film’s lead characters, Kirk and Spock, played by Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto, respectively, clearly have the most amount of screen time, and it’s odd to think that one got billing over the other (Pine over Quinto here).   However, don’t think that just because the driving forces behind the film are Kirk’s destiny and Spock’s logic vs. emotions conflict, this means the other characters in the film get any kind of short-change.

Orci and Kurtzman do an incredible job at taking us back to these characters in their earlier days, long before the Tribbles or Khan showed their faces.   They do two things with their screenplay.   They set it up so that the film can rest gently in with the established canon of the ‘Star Trek’ universe, and they also create a world where anything can happen.   I’m sure Trekkies all over the galaxy would have issues with certain liberties the screenplay takes with the characters and events depicted.   However, all of that naysaying can be brushed aside.

The amazing opening sequence of the film quickly introduces us to Nero (Eric Bana), the villain of the film, who has traveled back in time through a black hole to take on some kind of revenge.   He seeks Mr. Spock, and we get a quick glimpse of the man he is searching for.  Ã‚   It is Leonard Nimoy, the man Quinto will grow into.   After a few introductions, Nero unleashes his strength, and what ensues is both eye-opening and grin-inducing.   With that opening scene, Summer officially kicks in.

We are shown early moments from Kirk and Spock’s childhood.   On their respective home planets, they ready themselves for adulthood, each one in his own way.   Jump forward a number of years when each one is about to join Starfleet Academy (although Kirk doesn’t know it just yet).   I was worried with a “prequel” to the ‘Star Trek’ series and films, Orci and Kurtzman would write a ‘Harry Potter’-esque film that showed the characters going through school, taking classes on warp drives and speaking Klingon.   Fortunately, the screenwriters and Abrams know how lame this would have been, and the storyline instantly progresses three years to when the cadets get their first assignments.   Enter the USS Enterprise.

Orci, Kurtzman, and Abrams never let the film lag, nor do they ever allow the film to fall into ridiculous moments of either hilarity or over-the-top action. Â  We get subtlety with our big-budget bravado in ‘Star Trek,’ and that is something more Summer movie filmmakers should attempt to accomplish. Â  Much of this is found in both the film’s visuals, which are shocking in how grand they are, and the sound.

This is some of the best sound design work heard in recent years, and sound effect editor David Barbee and legendary sound designer Ben Burtt deserve mentions here. Â  The sound in ‘Star Trek’ knows exactly what to do and when to do it. Â  It cuts out in the dead of space (something I, shockingly, don’t remember seeing since ‘Robot Jox’) and it revs up and kicks in at the most perfect of times. Â  If you are anywhere near an IMAX, this would be the ideal way to see this film for the sound effects alone.

This isn’t to say ‘Star Trek’ is the picture perfect film that goes without issues. Â  There are issues here, particularly with the convenience factor. Â  There are a number of times where elements occur just for the sheer sake of driving the plot, and, during such moments, you can practically choke on the deus ex machina.

An issue that I have always had with ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Star Wars’ alike is how small the universe appears to be despite being made up of hundreds of planets each home to billions of beings. Â  In all this vastness, it still amazes me that two characters having connections to the same story can just bump into one another. Â  A certain Disney theme park song just popped in my head, and I hate it.

Another issue with ‘Star Trek’ is the finale that doesn’t seem quite as grandiose as you would expect given how the film opens. Â  Much of this is in how Bana’s Nero is fleshed out. Â  We understand his pain, and we know full well why he is seeking the revenge that he is seeking. Â  However, there seems to be something missing, and much of this can be found in the way Nero never has a dual side. Â  He is hatred and scowling through and through, and, in the end, that ends up hurting the character.

Despite these minor setbacks, ‘Star Trek’ is an absolute thrill-ride of a motion picture, the kind of big-budget yet story-driven spectacle that needs to be seen more than once. Â  With this new introduction to these characters, Abrams has officially revitalized a franchise that had grown hokey and stale in its later entries. Â  This is ‘Star Trek’ at its coolest, at its best-written, and, certainly, at its biggest. Â  It’s the kind of Summer blockbuster that you should definitely run to see.

Kirk out.

Overall: 4.5 stars out of 5

Review: ‘Charlie Bartlett’ on DVD

Ram Man:

Unless you are a true movie geek this one probably slipped by you like a thief in the night. Charlie Bartlett is out on DVD this week. This is a modern day high school angst movie that belongs in the class with Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Charlie Bartlett (Anton Yelchin) is a little rich kid that has trouble fitting in at school. His mother attempts to cope with it by sending him to shrink after shrink to drug him into submission. The young enterpriser, Charlie decides he can carve his own niche in school by becoming a self appointed councilor for the school. Charlie sets up shop in the boys restroom , in a pair of “confessional” type toilet stalls. He soon has a line around the hall. Bartlett not only listens..he goes one further..he prescribes medication. Charlie brokers a deal with the school heavy for some of the scripts and protection and the rest he brings to his own shrinks and just gives the pills away. This is a very witty film with outstanding performances by Kat Dennings (40 Year Old Virgin) and Ironman himself… Robert Downey, Jr. as the troubled principal who tries to alleviate the students of all their human rights.

I saw this film last summer. It was finally released in the theaters last February for it seemed like a week. Don’t miss it again. The DVD is rated R for you guessed it… DRUGS and some language. there are no special features but the movie alone makes it worth adding to your library at home. Dr. Ram Man prescribes one DVD of Charlie Bartlett and 2 “cold ones” but don’t call me in the morning!

Check WAMG’s original reviews here!

[rating: 3.5/5]