Pat's Posts: Why Hollywood, Why????

Seeing action movies like Terminator 4 at the Embassy in wellywood was always going to be a special experience. With the NZ’s largest screen, a kick-ass THX certified sound system, big explosions and monstrous building sized robots plus mind bending action sequences, watching Terminator Salvation was always going to be an incredible experience.

Unfortunately that’s where the good news ends. The bad news is that risk-adverse Hollywood corporate group-think has again triumphed, managing to totally mangle yet another solid movie franchise. Comparing Terminator Salvation 4 with the other Terminator movies not only provides some illuminating insights into why Terminator Salvation 4 utterly blows but also what is wrong with the prevailing Hollywood studio mentality.

Where the original Terminator movie was a low-tech affair, its latest iteration incorporates nearly every digital video effect known to humanity (the computer rendered Governator is particularly awesome), the original had a simple, yet compelling story line and a strangely authentic gritty edge. Sadly Terminator Salvation’s characters seem devoid of anything remotely resembling real depth and its plot has more in common with an amusement ride. Sadder still, Terminator Salvation’s post nuclear world just didn’t seem that gritty or terribly convincing either.

The sheer spectacle and near non-stop action sequences of Terminator Salvation on the Embassy’s big screen are indeed thrilling, and would’ve almost made up for these deficiencies if it weren’t for Terminator Salvation’s bizarrely lame ending (WARNING SPOILER AHEAD FOR THOSE WHO HAVE NOT YET SEEN TERMINATOR SALVATION 4).

What drugs were the Hollywood execs smoking? The evil robots were vanquished, their facilities nuked in the mother of all butt-kicking explosion and humanity had once again prevailed against the odds. Trouble is that the execs had decided that our all round action hero John Connor should be severely injured and just to add a completely improbable and superfluous element into the ending, would need a heart transplant.

Adding further insult to the audiences intelligence, the star of the movie,(played by Aussie Sam Worthington) is an infiltration robot who conveniently has a human heart that is against all odds is tissue type compatible with John Connor. After a spot of impromptu open air transplant surgery in a field hospital (where they conveniently had a spare heart lung machine) the movie ends happily ever after.

At least it would’ve if the audience weren’t left wandering out of the cinema uttering WTF just happened???. Is it just me or does adding completely improbable and totally necessary rubbish like this ruin what was an already flawed movie that was only being held together by effects and action sequences? For some bizarre reason Hollywood keeps making these sorts of screw ups, insisting on style over substance. Personally I’d be all for lots of stunning digital, peeper pleasing eye candy effects AND a credible plot with plausible characters. Instead we’re being stuck with brain dead plot-lines that transform what should be a reasonable story into nothing more than an amusement park ride requiring the audience leave their IQ at the cinema ticket booth instead.

Making already grim scifi matters even more intolerable, the TV studios followed their Hollywood counterparts lunacy and dumped The Sarah Connor Chronicles just as they were finally getting really interesting, deciding instead to keep the scifi dross that is Dollhouse. Am I asking for too much wanting intelligent plots, believable acting and a semblance of authenticity?  Perhaps if Hollywood started valuing the intelligence of their audience (and actually listening to what they want) a little more, they might get a little respect and god forbid less piracy.