Terminatin'

We caught the new Terminator film last night. I must say I was mightily impressed. After 2 of the strongest science fiction films to come out of Hollywood, the third one was pretty poor, so I wasn't expecting much of the new one. Also, the way in which Auckland Sky City was promoting the film inside the cinema - a few old car tyres with bits of grass sticking out of them, to symbolise the apocolypse - left me with the feeling that I was about to see some college theatre.

Aside from a few dodgy special effects, and a few "jump the shark" moments, it was top notch. The dystopian future was perfectly realised - even though it was all a bit A-Team in that most of the action took place in the Californian desert - and all the performances were spot-on. Well, everyone except Bryce Dallas Wishy Washy Howard, who should have just stayed at home.

Unlike most effects-driven movies, where the action is too visible, it was neatly trimmed down to short, episodic set-pieces. For example, an early encounter with a primitive T-600 was awesome and ran under 3 minutes, whilst a later encounter with a huge machine (and a couple of nice nods to War Of The Worlds) was only marginally longer. Don't get me wrong - the film is full of special-effects and CGI, but the action leaves you wanting more rather than less. Which is nice for once.

If it's made with the same respect for the story, then I'm looking forward to the fifth film, but please please please can we not have the finale take place in a foundry - it's wearing a little thin.

The other thing is that they totally missed the chance to have Christian Bale's well-publicised rant playing over the closing credits, in a Cannonball Run-style gag reel. They could have even shoe-horned in a nice cameo with Sammy Davis Jr and Dean Martin. Dressed as priests.