TIME TO GEEK OUT

Scene: Dark sky...ash drifts amongst the twisted wreckage; fire-gutted, charred ruins litter the landscape. A vista of moonlit devastation, bathed in blue. Then, the roar of an alien-looking aerial patrol craft as it enters from close overhead. Its powerful searchlight stabs at the terrain, sweeping away the darkness below while its twin, vertically-angled cylindrical jets emit a wheezing whistle during its menacingly slow, low & forward-tilted prowl. Another aerial unit hovers many blocks away, both stocking the ground, firing tracers that scream & illuminate short burst of bright purple light which effectively set off smoke-filled explosions. Cue soundtrack: low Eb swells in from a synthesized keyboard; root note droning over a paced ascending/descending walk from the 5th & 6th intervals of the Phrygian mode. Close-up of the terrain; blackened bones lie in heaps everywhere. The steel tracks of a massive, matte-gray leviathan crush the skulls that blanket the ground. Industrial-style red & blue lights flash & flicker across the side of its head as it turns ponderously in the dark sky. Hydraulic metal arms are folded mantis-like towards its torso, likening it to that of a mechanized monster. These are machines of death, called HKs; Hunter/Killers...suddenly, a helmeted figure in a makeshift military outfit dashes out amongst the ruins while cradling an energy rifle; sprinting away from ominous doom. The figure is quickly spotted by the ground-HK's searchlight. One of two under-slung turret guns flanked on each side of the tank quickly follows the movement, firing numerous, thundering & powerful bolts which light up the hastily moving figure's trail. Finally...a direct hit. The figure explodes...torn apart; vaporized in a red mist. Chunks of fiery pieces are scattered. The cloud of ash settles, effectively adding a continuous coat to this terrain of terror. The tank proceeds with its patrol. The figure it just stalked was a soldier, in a nightmarish war. Cue dialogue: "The machines rose from the ashes of the nuclear fire. Their war to exterminate mankind has raged for decades. But the final battle would not be fought in the future. It would be fought here, in our present."

This perfectly sets the stage & premise for one of the most iconic, archetypal sci-fi/action films of all time, The Terminator...a film that, in December of 2008 was considered culturally & historically significant enough to be entered into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, for future preservation...a film with theories & concepts that have undoubtedly inspired not only other films, but ideology & moral dialogue pertaining to technological advancements as well...a film that captivated me as a kid, where I would sit hours on-end, introspectively drawing out inspired artwork of the post-apocalyptic battles; you see, there was no video game nor toys for the first film; it was only a pencil, paper & my imagination.

Yes, I am what you would call a die-hard fan. And a bevy of imagery used to depict the opening paragraph was inspired after my reading the fourth-draft of the 1983 screenplay written by James Cameron...who's masterpiece was arguably inspired by the previous works of sci-fi writer/legend Harlan Ellison...but ALL of my fervor & passion, including the well-versed nomenclature to follow, derived directly from a notable few: Christopher Shields (an equal, who's extrapolations have further expanded my knowledge within the Terminator Universe through the years), Randall Flakes/Bill Wisher (who wrote the story & novel), the unequivocally imaginative creations of the late-great Stan Winston (I cannot fathom my childhood without the influence he had on my imagination), the immensely unnerving, mood-drenched melancholy & terrifying drama expressed in the original score composed by Brad Fiedel (of which I am listening to as I write this very sentence; instantly transported through time) & of course, the visionary genius of James Cameron (whose original ideas & depiction of the future war captivate me to this very day).

I most certainly can lay claim at lengths-end to every nuance & concept of the franchise as it relates/equates to my love for it, but that would still leave me short of my goal. The purpose of this piece is two-fold: to convey passion & informative concern; the latter works in sympathy with the former. In light of anticipation for the latest installment to the franchise, I felt first thrilled, then scared...thus catalyzing the IMMENSE need for a proper outlet to express my intensely bottled thoughts & feelings, which in turn helps better express reasons for them; all with respect to the latest installment.

Terminator Salvation is set post-judgment day: the day which Skynet (Artificial Intelligence; a neural-net based processor developed by Cyberdyne Systems Corp.) after becoming self-aware, sees all humans as a threat, then-with its complete & absolute control over all U.S. military & nuclear firepower-lays waste to 3 billion human lives in a matter of hours; the prelude to iconic, futuristic figures...enter Skynet's world ruled by mechanized machinations, the terminators; terror personified. The theater for this point in time was perfectly realized through James Cameron's dark, haunting vision & I have been waiting for this story to be told since childhood...

Up till now, I have only been baited with brief, minute-long morsels of the future, but it was enough to reel me in; hook, line & sinker. The future-based story is at the very core of my imagination & passion. And in all honesty, I never subscribed to the plot device of time travel; by the 2nd, bastard-child of a sequel (Mr. Cameron was not involved with Rise Of The Machines), the concept became repetitive & formulaic: send machine through time to eliminate future resistance leader, resistance counters with a protector. If you follow this concept, you'll find that it leads to fatuous conclusions via extraneous effort; you can't continue down that line of thought for long before getting your mind tangled in Time Travel Paradox: if John Connor were not conceived...if as a threat, he was terminated by the machine that was sent back in time to do so...then John would never exist in the future, thus negating the need for Skynet to send a machine through time in the first place...however, Skynet would concurrently cancel out its own existence, since the failed machine's arm & microprocessor were the remains that were discovered & eventually reverse-engineered at the Cyberdyne facility it was destroyed at; reverse-engineering which ultimately led to Skynet's existence in the first place. So one would deduce that John Connor had to exist in the future in order for Skynet to have reason to send a machine through time, which would then have to fail in the Cyberdyne facility in order to lead to Skynet existence. One way out of this time-loop is to consider the concepts of Alternate Time Lines & Parallel Universes, where within each are slightly altered variants of the future/present: one where John exists but not Skynet, then one where Skynet exists but not John, etc...so you see what I mean by extraneous...

Adding to the quandary present in previous sequels is the "star" himself: Arnold, portraying the same T-800/850 model sent back every time; why would each machine look exactly the same? Think about it, if Skynet had the intelligence to create cyborgs then surely it would have the capacity to understand the innate need to vary each design. Skynet developed the T-800 specifically for infiltration, so duplicate designs would defeat its purpose...thus are the follies overlooked by Hollywood in light of big bucks. No, I choose to dismiss these weaker concepts. They take away from the true substance, the real stars of the film; directorial vision, sci-fi technology & aesthetics.

As previously stated, James Cameron is a visionary. He has a unique, action-scene signature that is all his own; a cinematic fingerprint, if you will. In each of his films (specifically T1, T2 & Aliens) he implements the use of filtered lighting; bathing each picture in trademark blue, effectively intensifying the look with a sort of visually-droning effect. The result is a modern, timeless look & feel; very clean, crisp & resolute picture, especially in high definition. Another idiosyncratic method is his Panaglide work & camera angles. For me, the real sense of drama in the future war is felt when the action is shown between eye-level & worm's eye perspective. By starting low, then slowly panning to the point-of-view of the resistance soldier, he puts you in the thick of the drama: you feel like you are there, in the middle of the fight. This allows for the sense of horror one would feel in the midst of explosions as aerial HKs swoop toward you & terrifyingly so, whilst blasting shots from its belly-mounted turret gun, just as in the 3-minute sequence that opens T2. The technique succeeds in making the action look & feel bigger by dwarfing you in perspective. And this, to me, is where Cameron's vision will truly be missed.

I am not trying to prejudge McG's directorial contributions & am settled in the fact that this film will most certainly look different. But I must admit, I am already dissatisfied with specific trailer footage; where he utilized birds-eye-view during two explosion scenes: one at a gas station & another is a bridge chase. The scoped, panned-out aerial shots actually have a negative, inverse relationship with the desired reaction; these shots quite simply look too staged & don't give much impact to the depth of human conflict; I want to be put in the middle, not pulled away from it. Cameron most definitely would have left these scenes on the cutting room floor. Oh well, I digress...every director has his/her own style & no matter how you slice it (a little editor's pun for you) the future of the franchise will forever be altered while out of the hands of the originator. Now that doesn't necessarily equate to a bad thing, but that doesn't mean that the franchise should be altered to the point of unfamiliarity either.

Which leads to my next point & concern: aesthetic, the original of which has been altered beyond the point of recognition. Put briefly: to me, aesthetics are everything. And this goes for anything I am passionate about. But as it applies to the topic at hand, my concerned is best expressed through the concept art of Martin Laing; which depicts an aerial HK that has been altered in design, with a more streamlined chassis & nose. The backdrop is lit by sunlight reflecting off big bright clouds. Equally unnerving is the foreground, which depicts wreckage draped in vegetation. How can this picture be painted when I am under the impression that a nuclear shower has just scorched the earth? In the wake of such a catastrophic event, ground levels would be soaked in radiation & a smoke-filled sky would blot out any sunlight, bringing about a nuclear winter which would further impute any vegetative growth. I want to believe the story, but this picture doesn't compute.

I don't mean to inveigh with my writing, I am just trying to illustrate my points. Let me put it like this; if I were incumbent to the franchise, I would use litigious actions & obdurate restrictions that mandate absolute accuracy to the original aesthetic. A zero-tolerance policy that is to be implemented throughout the cinematic continuum that is the Terminator Saga, regardless of director or producer. The machines, the terrain, the sky, the weapons, the wardrobes, the vehicles; the overall look I grew up knowing...everything, right down to the ribbed texture of the olive-green military vests the resistance fighters wore...is to be considered aesthetically canon & therefore to be left unhampered with. It should now be clearly illustrated that every original nuance & fine-detail are critically integral to the franchise; on par with the story & the score. This should also make it perfectly clear that the overall effect is greater than the sum of its parts.

For all my fervent convictions & all my concerns, I am decidedly optimistic of Terminator Salvation overall. This is due in no small part to the prequel-based stories published by Dark Horse Comics. I have fallen in love with the ideas represented within these pages & it's been really cool to see my passion, which was initially based on sci-fi action, evolve to now include the storyline & plot device; the tale of human struggle during the war, told with insightful detail: terminators that differ based on geographic location (Skynet is adapting its machines to suit the terrain). The use of vacant manufacturing plants to mass-produce terminators. Resistance camps coordinating worldwide strategic, as well as tactical plans to counter-strike by disrupting Skynet's global supply-chain, which would greatly effect procurement of raw materials needed to keep assembly lines running at full-capacity. I also love the intricacies: the makeshift, low-tech communication & tracking devices. The security protocols, encryption & audio decoys used to secure channels & conceal base locations. I even love how the resistance records patrol-activity of the machines; monitoring patterns in movement to best forecast optimum transport & communication windows to/ from camps. This puts you right in the trenches with them, by giving substance & depth to the characters, their perils & their ingenuity, all on a global level. All this is accompanied by lively artwork. If these pages are any indication of what's to come on the big screen, then the movies should make for an exciting trilogy.

Maturity & open-mindedness have allowed me to be as objective as a die-hard fan can be. These attributes have also afforded me the ability to surrender my aesthetic prejudice & acknowledge other qualities: I understand that Terminator Salvation is set in 2018, the very nascent stage of the war. Skynet is barely realizing its potential, still conducting the R&D for the exponential advancements soon to come...so there will be no phase plasma rifle in 40-watt range. There are no T500 HKs equipped with General Dynamics Model 44RD89, traverse-mounted turrets. There aren't even any T-800 Model 101 Infiltrator Units, yet...I will instead be introduced to the age of the mini-gun equipped T-600; a hulking, 7 ft tall crude-prototype, & I'm thoroughly excited to see the story develop from the ground up, so to speak.

I must acknowledge that accompanied with this feeling is mild-guardedness; as with most die-hard fans, I am very aware of Hollywood's perfunctory-past, with regards to their nefarious negligence to the ever-devoted fan, in favor of appeal to the regular movie-going audience. This has been been a long-occurring trend: we (die-hard fans) create the demand for the blockbuster & they turned their back on us by diluting that which we love; watering down or cheesing up our beloved film for the masses, all in the name of big cash profit. But McG may very well break away from the norm. He has been very adamant about honoring us. At Comic-Con 08, he indicated that "this whole thing began with listening. We listened to the fans; everybody wanted to look at the future." He continued by stating his mission to be "respectful to the creators", adding how "wildly encouraging" it is to have the endorsement of Gale Anne Herd (Producer of T1) & James Cameron himself. And though the score will not be a reprise for original music director, McG has enlisted another juggernaut, Danny Elfman. This all sounds good, but I will very soon find out if he will incarnate his words or if he was nothing more than duplicitous in his dialogue.

Today there are no laborious efforts scheduled, nor will there be...today is a personal day that includes a field-trip to the local cinema (preferably IMAX), where I will offer $10 & 90 minutes of my time in exchange for a superb story & sci-fi action, & nothing less. I have already prepped & briefed myself with topical information: I have read the comics & omnibuses. I have scouted websites & fan-based forums. I have revisited the previous installments. I have studied the iconic soundtrack for the first film (detail of Brad Fiedel's efforts deserve an entirely separate platform all its own). I have even set aside my prejudices...now it's up to McG to come through with the rest...let's hope he did his homework, for the franchise's sake.