The Next Terminator Film

The second trailer for the next Terminator film, Terminator:Dark Fate, has gone online over the last couple of days. I had a look at it today during my lunch break and i still have some major reservations, but I’m not quite as anxious as I was.

A little background. Terminator 2: Judgement Day is my favourite movie of all time. I saw it at just the right time for it to embed itself into my DNA. It blew me away! After seeing The Terminator I found I loved that one as well. Terminator 2 is still my favourite movie, but The Terminator is a fantastic movie. Then Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines came out. If I was listed top to bottom my favourite Terminator films this would be second from bottom. I love the concept, showing how Judgement Day went down should have been a wet dream for me. It wasn’t. It tried to be too funny, I think the casting was off and I’d have liked to have seen it having a bigger scope to it. This was the film that should have sown the rise of Skynet. It should have detailed it and given us an epic movie showing this all happening. It didn’t though.

After Terminator 3 we had Terminator:Salvation. Now I like Salvation a lot. I was super excited with the thought of a movie showing us what we’d only seen in flashbacks before. I’ll admit I was worried about McG directing it. I’m also not the biggest Christian Bale fan, but I do enjoy it. I didn’t really care for the Marcus Wright storyline, and I’d have liked to of seen the piles of bones you saw in the flashbacks from the first two films. I didn’t like how Connor became the leader of the resistance. It felt lazy and has been done repeatedly on screen. It did have strong points though. Anton Yelchin was fantastic as a young Kyle Reese. I loved the fact that so much of it took place during the day. So many films nowadays have to have all the action at night. The visuals of the film, and the score, were really good.

Ugh, I suppose I ought to address Terminator: Genisys. Okay. I like Emilia Clarke a lot, but I’m not sure this was the role for her at this time in her career. I’ve a lot of respect for her for giving it a go though. Jai Courtney is a good actor, but he isn’t a leading man in my opinion. Just look at how good he is in Suicide Squad. Jason Clarke didn’t sell me if I’m honest. Arnold Schwarzenegger was good, but he was born to play this role. I wish they wouldn’t keep trying to make him comedic in these films though. What they did with him in Terminator 2 worked for that film. It hasn’t in any of the rest of these films. The storyline wasn’t great and had some huge plot holes in. What I really hate about this film though is it erases the first two films from the existence. That and the fact they waste Byung-Hun Lee, J.K. Simmons, and Matt Smith. You just have to watch Matt Smith in his few scenes in the film to see the quality he has. Why wasn’t he Kyle Reese? But that wouldn’t solve the plot problems. Something that also annoyed me was the big reveal about one of the main characters in the trailer! Like really? Don’t you think that would have been better to reveal when people are in the cinema!?!

Terminator: Genisys feels like a slap in the face of the fans who love this world. They tried to take away the two best films in the series, and I still don’t understand why?

Right, I’m going to (try to) stop ranting.

On to Terminator: Dark Fate. I’m comforted by Linda Hamilton returning. I’m a little anxious about Schwarzenegger though. Is he playing another old terminator? Will he be the comic relief? I’m 50/50 on James Cameron’s involvement. I seem to recall him praising Terminator: Genisys. I like that Tim Miller is helming the film. I liked what he did with Deadpool and I hope he pulls this off. I like the look of Gabriel Luna, he was really good as Ghost Rider in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and I like that Mackenzie Davis is in this. I’ve only seen her in The Martian and Blade Runner 2049 but thought she was good in both, especially Blade Runner 2049. I’m looking forward to seeing what they both do in this movie.

There was what I think of as a reveal in the trailer. I’m not sure it’s a big one but why not keep it vague so people learn it when they see the film for the first time? This isn’t jut a problem with Terminator films, its something that needs to be made extinct.

I am anxious about this movie. I want to go into the cinema and have all my sweet spots hit with it, but I’ve been burned before (damn you Genisys), so I’m not going to let myself get too excited about Terminator: Dark Fate.

Tie-In Novels

A good friend of mine brought me the tie-in novel of the Battlestar Galactica mini series/pilot. Now I’ve read a couple of the Halo tie-in novels and neurally enjoyed them and I’m now just shy of 200 words into this and I’m really enjoying it, but it has got me thinking. Would I be able to write a novel like this. I’m not sure I’d write a tie-in in this manner. I’d love to write in say the Galactica universe, or the Terminator one! I reckon I could write a really mean Terminator story.

I’m not sure how it would work writing a tie-in novel would work. Did the writer, Jeffrey A. Carver, have a copy of the original screenplay? Or did he just have a copy of the pilot?

One thing I was hoping to get from this book is some of the thoughts and emotions from the characters as well as some of the background to the storyline. At first there was not too much but as I’ve got through it there is a fair mount of these extra details discreetly placed in the story. It’s been a quick read so far (when I have time to sit down and read that is!) it’s a good example of how to write a quick paced story. The chapters and paragraphs are generally short and snappy, like the scenes in the TV show.

Once I’ve wrapped up the read ill give a quick review of it 🙂

And We’re Off!

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Day one of NaNoWriMo and I’ve made a good start by hitting a little over 3000 words, almost 2000 of them in about two hours this evening which I am pretty chuffed about 😀 I’m not exactly a NaNo veteran but I know that this is the initial excitement of NaNo which is bringing forth the motivation. Last year I got about ten days in before I started loosing that motivation. As I’ve said I’m hoping that having done a little perpetration will help but also now that I know a few other writers who are also doing NaNo so that’s my little circle. When I am struggling I know they will be there to support me and my support will be there for them, and there is also my competitive side 😉 lol.

Right now though I am chilling out with a little Sarah Connor Chronicles before bed. I’m setting my alarm for a half an hour earlier then normal as I am not a morning person. It takes me about five, ten minutes to get out of bed of a morning so I’m hoping that setting my alarm earlier will allow me to wake up before I start my morning writing session.