Tag Archives: terminator

Wizard World Philly ’11: Programming Highlights

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ww_phillyofficial

I must have missed this in the inbox, as Wizard World Philadelphia Comic Con recently announced its programming schedule. From the official press release:

Some of the highlights include:

* “Buffyfests” with “Buffy: The Vampire Slayer” stars Nicholas Brendon, Kelly Donovan, Mercedes McNab and Clare Kramer
* “Green Lantern” franchise discussions with featured creators like Ethan Van Sciver, Carlos Pacheco, Shane Davies, Todd Klein and others
* Rare Q&A sessions with Margot Kidder (“Lois Lane” from the SUPERMAN movies), Julie Benz (“Dexter,” “No Ordinary Family), Bruce Campbell (“Burn Notice,” ARMY OF DARKNESS), and Adam Baldwin (SERENITY, “Firefly”)
* “Stargate Universe” Q&A with the beautiful tandem of Alaina Huffman and Julia Benson
* “Kids’ Day” program with face painting, balloons, other fun activities specially designed for children
* Popular panels with Billy Dee Williams and the “Dynamic Duo,” Adam West and Burt Ward of “Batman” fame
* Sessions featuring stars of other huge multiplatform franchises such as STAR WARS (Jake Lloyd, Peter Mayhew, Daniel Logan), TERMINATOR (Michael Biehn, Kristanna Loken), “The Incredible Hulk” (Lou Ferrigno) and “The Walking Dead” (Chandler Riggs, Iron E. Singleton, Addy Miller)
* Wizard Art School and Q&A’s featuring leading creators like Bill Sienkiewicz, Greg Horn, Humberto Ramos, Mike Grell, Francisco Herrera and others
* The popular adult costume contest and fun kids costume contest with great prizes

The full scheduling lineup is after the jump:

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Even After The SkyNet Holocaust, Guns N’ Roses Still Fucking Rules

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This past weekend I was finally able to see Terminator Salvation, the latest entry in the venerable franchise. As a whole, I found it to be moderately enjoyable. The fanboys may hate him, but I think McG was competent in the execution of his vision of the Terminator universe.

Much furor was raised when the original ending was leaked. In this version John Connor actually dies and his likeness is grafted onto the body of Marcus Wright, who was revealed to be the prototype Terminator Infiltrator Unit. The Human Resistance felt that John Connor meant more as a symbol. The ending, a description of which can be found over at /Film, goes even darker. When I heard that … I was stoked. That would be a totally fucking badass way to end the new chapter in the Terminator mythology. Instead we got an ending that was pulled from the King Kong Lives … which smells like a cop out to me. McG should have sacked up.

I give credit to McG in utilizing the in camera effects when possible. Stan Winston Studios came through in a big fucking way in redesigning the Terminator endoskeletons. For what it is worth, there was nothing more terrifying to the 9 year old version of me then the opening “future war” sequence of T2, when that T-800 crushed that human skull.

My favorite part of the movie was to be the nod to T2, which I embedded below. It goes to show that even after the world has burned out, Guns N’ Roses still fucking rules.

I’ll give McG a solid B. It was hovering around B- until the GnR bit … but he won me over. Unfortunately for him, I don’t think he’ll be making any more Terminator movies.

Is Terminator Salvation Really That Bad?

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Things are not looking good at all for McG’s Terminator: Salvation. Of the reviews I’ve read, they seem to range from “I fucking loathed it” to “meh, the robots are ok”. Good ‘ol Harry Knowles just eviscerated the picture after pretty much massaging McG’s prostate for the last 6-8 months; so it is understandable if I feel that his opinions don’t have much integrity.

My favorite comments have to come from FilmDrunk, where they said it is tolerable to a point and then it turns into:

a dick-fisted homage to Terminator 2, with the good guy cyborg protecting John Connor from the bad guy cyborg

Is Terminator: Salvation Really That Bad? McG FAIL

A guy whose opinions I do value, Peter from /Film said:

That said, the character development is almost non existent, the pacing is a mess and the dialogue could’ve been written by a 10-year-old

It’s currently hovering right around 35% over at Rotten Tomatoes and with fan backlash starting early due to early Thursday screenings it might cause a big ding in the box office receipts. I’m still going to see this movie, and I’ll be sure to offer my thoughts once I do.

But here’s what it does have going for it … there’s no way it is worst that T3: Rise of the Machines.

Four Minutes of Genocidal Robot Madness

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I’m late to the game on this one (as usual), but someone over at WB decided that it would be a good idea to cut a 4-minute trailer of Terminator Salvation that is pretty much chock full of spoiler material.

I picked this up via /Film, and after having watched it I’m still thoroughly pumped up for it. We’re treated to more explosivey goodness and what appears to be some very polished CGI work with the T-800s or whatever model number they are.

I’ve been on board for this for sometime, and while I had my doubts about McG’s capabilities it looks as though he’s taken the framework of the great Jim Cameron and made it his own.

The biggest thing I’m worried about is the Terminators themselves. What made them frightening is that they were tangible, real things. The opening sequence from T2 still makes me jump, when the skulls get crushed … still awesome.

Finally, An Explanation for Summer Glau

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It was only recently that I caught onto CBS’ Big Bang Theory, and through the magic of Netflix I finished Season 1 this past weekend.

One of the episodes touched on the concept of Summer Glau’s character on Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. Why did Skynet make a hot teenage cybernetic teenage girl?

Regardless of Skynet’s intentions, I do enjoy me some Summer Glau.

Terminator Producers Know What Fanboys Want

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I’ll be honest, I have no fucking clue what’s going on in Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles. It’s not the epoch of television, but it does have an excessive amount of hotness in Lena Headey & Summer Glau.

Now I know I’m a little late on this one, but on the episode where Sarah Connor ends up in a sleep clinic (WTF?), Cameron the hot fembot cruises through the Connor household in her panties … and it was awesome.

That is all. I’ll be in my bunk.

Terminator Salvation? I’m In

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I think I’ll have to add Christian Bale to my Man Crush list. He’s rapidly reaching levels of awesomeness once only attained by the likes of Kurt Russell. Twenty years ago, Russell was able to pull both Snake Plissken & Jack Burton with relative ease. Now we have Bale doing double duty as Bruce Wayne and John Connor.

The Terminator Salvation teaser is running in front of The Dark Knight, has already hit the Interwebnet .

My ultimate reservation is that this newest McG helmed entry into the franchise will be rated PG-13. Something about cybernetic death machines hellbent on erasing humanity screams just a little more edgy that PG-13 … but that’s just me.

What’s Next For The Sarah Connor Chronicles?

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Last night was the season finale for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and it left me with a few thoughts:

Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles

  • Why didn’t Cromartie bust a cap in Agent Ellison’s ass?
  • What was up with the Latina gang chica?
  • How is it possible for Derek Reese to occupy the same space/time as the younger version of himself? Doesn’t that create a rip in the time-space continuum?
  • This show will not come back for a second season due to the fact it’s on Fox. Call it the Firefly effect.

When T:TSCC wasn’t getting into emo story lines, it wasn’t a bad show. I enjoyed the last 4 episodes especially as it took some time for the show to get into a rhythm. The Terminator mythos is a very confusing one indeed, and I think that this show has done a lot to bring some new life into the franchise, as a new feature film will be back screens in 2009 with Christian Bale in the lead.

I’ll admit that the show stumbled at first, but was it good enough to bring back for another season? I think so … and according to SyFy Portal the ratings were up last night across the board. I would appreciate it if T:TSCC returned if to be able to gawk at Lena Headey & Summer Glau for an hour each week.

First Impressions: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

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I just got done watching the pilot for FOX’s latest iteration of the venerable Terminator franchise, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Lengthy title aside, critics speak rather well of it as do the viewing public, as the premiere reeled in roughly 18 million viewers making it the highest premiere of the season thus far.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Cast Promo

The Terminator franchise ran out of steam after the dismal T3: Rise of the Machines, which was never a fan favorite nor well received by the general public, (which I talked about here). As a fan of the first two Terminator movies, (with T2 being one of my favorites) my interest was piqued by the concept of an hour long Terminator drama. Set after the events in Terminator 2: Judgement Day we catch up with Sarah and her son John on the run and off the grid, in hopes to avoid those pesky cybernetic death machines to allow her son to become humanity’s savior.

Aside from some awkward pacing in the beginning, the show was pretty decent. The only thing that I fear is that this may become a Terminator-of-the-week scenario, which would get old reallllly fast. Other than that, it’s got me hooked and I’m glad to finally have something new to record on my TiVo. The one thing that was kinda creepy was how at the end of the episode when John, Sarah, & Cameron traveled from 1999 to 2007 via the bank vault device … they arrived in present day LA naked. Nothing would be weirder than time traveling naked with your mom … but that’s just me.

Hot Terminator Action

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An odd title to be sure, but bear with me for a few minutes … JoBlo has linked up to the Entertainment Weekly premiere of 4 posters for the upcoming television series “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles“. You can check out one below … I was too lazy to gather all 4 of them here. Back in 1992, T2: Judgment Day blew my fucking mind. For a 9-year old kid it was pretty much the balls. I popped in the DVD not too long ago and found it to be entertaining still. Since then I’ve always maintained an interest in the franchise, hell I loved the end of T3 (even though 95% of the movie kinda blew).

Lena Headley Terminator

Dynamite Entertainment has launched a new monthly book, titled T2: Infinity which I picked up on a whim and it happens to be generally entertaining. The comic picks up 2 years after the end of T3 and has lots of post-apocalyptic awesomeness each month.

Rumblings about The Sarah Connor Chronicles have been circling the Interweb for quite some time, unfortunately we’ll have to wait until January to catch it. There have been some viral ads for it as well as some screeners that have gone out to blogger much more reputable than myself to good reviews. Fox sums up the story as:

THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES reveals what happens when SARAH stops running and goes on the offensive against an ever-evolving technological enemy bent on destroying her life, and perhaps the world. Her son, 15-year-old JOHN CONNOR, knows that he may be the future savior of mankind, but is not yet ready to take on the mantle of leadership that he’s told is his destiny.

I’ll be adding this show to my TiVo for two reasons: Cyborgs & Hot Chicks. Lena Headley (Queen Gorgo from 300) and Summer Glau (River Tam from Serenity) star as Sarah Connor & a Terminator respectively. I’m glad to see that scifi is making it back to network television.