Trailer - The Pacific

It's going to be extreamly dfficult for Steven Speilberg and Tom Hanks to produce something better than Band Of Brothers - easily the best miniseries of the decade. In 2010 we will see how they've directed their attention to World War Two's Pacific campaign in a new epic ten-hour miniseries which tracks the intertwined odysseys of three U.S. Marines, Robert Leckie (James Badge Dale), Eugene Sledge (Joe Mazzello) and John Basilone (Jon Seda) across the vast canvas of the Pacific. The extraordinary experiences of these men and their fellow Marines take them from the first clash with the Japanese in the haunted jungles of Guadalcanal, through the impenetrable rain forests of Cape Gloucester, across the blasted coral strongholds of Peleliu, up the black sand terraces of Iwo Jima, through the killing fields of Okinawa, to the triumphant, yet uneasy, return home after V-J Day. Produced by HBO Films in association with Playtone and DreamWorks Television, and scheduled to debut on HBO in early 2010.

Source: HBO

Out, but not down! PALIN 2012!!

The future of US Politics was dealt an Earth-Shattering blow this weekend when the former Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin announded she was stepping down from office as Governor of Alaska.

She cited may reasons for her decision chief of which was to put an end to the "insane" amounts of taxpayers money that Alaska was forced to spend using lawyers to fend off her political opponents. Yes, that's right, she must be one of the only selfless politicians in existance to rather not be in office than to waste taxpayers money.

I'm hoping this is just a bold strategic move before begining her race to the White House in 2012, and not as #2 this time - 73% of Republican voters want this lady in the big chair.

Until then Palin will continue to work for Alaska [and of course she has her $7m book deal to fund her]. Alaska's Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell, who will assume the Governor's office on July 26th, said "She doesn't need a title to effect change and bring some hope to people who need it."

P A L I N 2 0 1 2

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!!

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen - The #1 Movie on the Planet!

As no one watching this movie should be jumping into it without seeing the original then there are only two camps – one that loved the original, as I did and the other side that thought it was trash. If you’re a member of the latter then you’ll find this equally shit and you should just wait until I review Public Enemies. If however you’re one of the former, then I think you’re in for a real treat. This is a fantastic voyage through the insane mind of a wholly unrestricted, unleashed Michael Bay and you’ll be swept into more exciting chases, battle scenes, robotic transformations, Megan Fox pouting and running in slow motion, military jargon and spectacular explosions. As God once said, [when creating Skywalker Sound] that "sound is 50% of the cinema experience" and this is really an aural assault like no other – even against Bay’s own Armageddon!

Now I won’t pretend the movie is without problems, the opening half hour is far too long and contained unnecessary sequences that had no business at all being there. For example: Sam’s mother accidentally eats a hash brownie resulting in ridiculous American Pie style “hilarity”. Bay is undoubtedly the greatest action movie genius director of the modern age, but he must forever stay away from the realm of teen-comedy. I also thought the Leo Spitz character was completely redundant and expanded an already bursting cast without reason. However, these issues and the multitude of obvious continuity errors are not significant enough to spoil the magic.

Despite being a ridiculously hokey plot it’s technically superior to the original in several ways, the character models themselves are more defined and more recognisable against the backgrounds of this movie. Transformations are upgraded for the better and the voice actors seem somewhat more believable than they originally did. And is it my imagination or is Megan Fox even hotter this time round?

Final Verdict: This is one movie that just doesn’t require a lenghty review. It’s not one of these movies that taxes your brain, or where the merits of it explosions can be debated for hours. It’s simply a joy to watch and meets all the criteria for a loud and action packed summer blockbuster.

Colonel Creedon Rating: *****

Official Site / IMDB / Wikipedia

R.I.P. Karl Malden 1912 - 2009

Oscar winner Karl Malden has died at his home in Brentwood, Los Angeles, three years shy of his 100th birthday. He was awarded the Best Supporting Actor in the 1951 Academy Awards for A Streetcar Named Desire and was later nominated for On The Waterfront in 1954.

During his early years, his theatrical career was interrupted by World War II, during which he served as a noncommissioned officer in the 8th Air Force. While in the service, he was given a small role in the U.S. Army Air Forces play and film Winged Victory. After the war ended in 1945, he resumed his acting career, quickly becoming an in-demand film star.

Malden also played the famous Army General Omar Bradley in Patton [Pictured] and was the spokesman for American Express during whose advertisments he coined the catchphrase "don't leave home without it!" However it is his protrayal of Lt. Mike Stone on the classic cop show The Streets Of San Francisco that he will undoubatedly be most remembered.

His star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame can be found at 6231 Hollywood Boulevard.

M-ATV in the fast lane!

The Pentagon has announced that Oshkosh Corp. has won the $1 billion contract to build new, mine-resistant vehicles for off-road use in Afghanistan, with the Army and Marine Corps to receive the bulk.

The Wisconsin-based vehicle maker will oversee production of 2,244 heavily anticipated Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicles [M-ATV] and the order could grow to as many as 10,000 M-ATVs, Pentagon officials have said. The M-ATV is needed to provide the same type of protection expected of the MRAP while offering additional mobility, top Pentagon officials have said. The current MRAPs have struggled with the rocky terrain in Afghanistan.

On June 2, the Joint Requirements Oversight Council approved a plan for 5,244 M-ATVs to be built and called for the Army to get 2,598, the USMC getting 1,565, SOCOM receiving 643, the USAF 280 and the Navy receiving 65. An additional 93 vehicles would be set aside for testing.

Because of the Pentagon’s urgent demand for these vehicles, Oshkosh began daily production on its manufacturing line a few weeks ago and may enlist the help of others to increase production, company officials said in statement. Oshkosh beat out three other teams to build the M-ATV: BAE Systems, Navistar International Corp., and Force Dynamics, a joint venture between General Dynamics Corp. and Force Protection Inc.

Marine Colonel "Whopper" Creedon voiced concern: "This thing is is a lightweight MRAP right? Well it weighs 32,500lbs and that's mainly due to the Plasan Composite armour. Now I'm OK with that because even with that, it's top speed is 65mph but a fully armoured Humvee's top speed is also 65mph. The problem there is the Humvee offers the protection of a motorised egg-carton wrapped in tinfoil by comparison to an MRAP." And Creedon has first hand experience as he was injured in March 1991, when as Captain of a Force Recon element attached to the 13th MEU in Iraq, his own Humvee was destroyed by a landmine killing his driver.

"This new M-ATV may not be as nimble as a Humvee, but my boys are not in situations now over there where they're dodging 20 RPG's a day - they're dodging roadside bombs and sooner or later you're gonna hit one no matter how maneuverable you are. I'd rather have the protection of an M-ATV when that happens, but the brass ain't replacing Humvees with them. Now dammit, I'm not suggesting that that all the Humvees are replaced, but at least consider those that are being sent into serious hotspots in-country. They should apply some of the MRAP tech to the JTLV program instead of the fucking about with contracts for that program which has stalled again - but don't get me started on that." The Colonel was referring to the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle programme, which is slated to create a true replacement for the Humvee by 2015.

Source: Marine Corps Times, Army Times, Oshkosh Defense, Military.com, Global Security, Reuters, Defenselink

Col. Ken Reusser a 3-War Vet 1920-2009

Colonel Kenneth L. Reusser, the most decorated US Marine Corps aviator in history and the only aviator to survive being shot down in all three wars of WWII, Korea and Vietnam, has died of natural causes at age 89.

Reusser flew 253 combat missions in World War II, Korea and Vietnam and was shot down five times in all. He earned 59 medals including two Navy Crosses, four Purple Hearts and two Legions of Merit, five Distinguished Flying Crosses, and nineteen Air Medals.

In 1945, while based in Okinawa, then Captain Reusser stripped down his F4U-4 Corsair fighter and intercepted a Japanese observation plane at a high altitude. When his guns froze, he flew his Corsair into the observation plane, hacking off its tail with his propeller.

In 1950 in Korea, then Major Reusser led an attack on a North Korean tank-repair facility at Inchon. In the face of fierce ground fire, he destroyed an oil storage facility. With his bombs and rockets expended, Maj. Reusser next attacked a camouflaged oil tanker at anchor in the harbor, raking it with his Corsair's 20 mm gunfire until the ship exploded, almost blowing him out of the air.

In Vietnam he served as commanding officer of Marine Aircraft Group 16, flying helicopters. He was leading a rescue mission when his Huey was shot down. He needed skin grafts over 35 percent of his burned body.

After retiring from the Marine Corps, he worked for Lockheed Aircraft and the Piasecki Helicopter Corp. He remained active in veterans groups. Col. Reusser died June 20 of natural causes in Oregon. He is survived by his wife, Trudy, and sons.

Sources: Stars & Stripes / Marine Corps Times

Children of the world rejoice...

... one of your Bogeymen is gone forever. Gone is the yelping, the unnecessary fingertip bandages and the jeweled gloves, even in the middle of summer.

Sam Fisher to come out of hiding!

Despite the multitude of serious bugs that Splinter Cell: Double Agent had upon it's release; Anticipation has not been dampened for the return of Sam Fisher in Tom Clancy / Ubisoft spy series . Since we last saw him, Sam has evading the authorities and gone "dark" - deep under-cover. Set two years after the events of Double Agent, he's now forced out of hiding to hunt down the drunk driver who killed his daughter, Sarah in the previous game. Sam's quest will once again take him globe-trotting to Malta and Washington DC in an effort to unravel the most-certain-to-be-conspiracy behind her death.

What makes this quite different from the previous entries in the series is that now Sam will not have the gadgets he has as a member of Third Echelon, a wing of the NSA. Now he has to procure makeshift items in the field or from a network of allies, as well as obtain weapons from downed enemies. For example, Sam can break off a car rear-view mirror and use it as a makeshift snake cam. While his familiar three-sensor night-vision goggles wont be a part of his arsenal, he may encounter enemies who have NV equipment

Conviction's creative director Max Beland said that the goal for the development team was to create the fantasy of being one of the world's best stealth operatives, without the slow pace that's usually associated with stealth games, including Splinter Cell. While using stealth and the shadows is still important, you can move faster than before with a more fluid animation system. For example, you will see Sam run, climb, drop, leap, and kill with a minimum of sound. He can now run up pipes and shimmy across ledges in record time.

One addition is a "mark and execute" feature [also seen in Rainbow Six: Vegas]; it allows you to identify targets before storming a room and eliminating them. Instead of assigning their death to a teammate, Sam will have to do the dirty work by himself. By marking targets beforehand, he will auto-aim and fire once you issue the command. You will need line of sight to shoot targets, and you can not only select people but also interactive objects, such as lights, barrels, or traps.

Due to the personal nature of the mission, Sam's attitude is more aggressive and desperate this time around. This is demonstrated through interrogations. You can grab people by the throat or put them in a headlock and proceed to beat the information out of them. Depending on the circumstances, Sam can either knock them out or kill them outright, doing even Jack Bauer proud :)

The final feature revealed was "last known position." When an enemy breaks line of sight with you, a "ghost" of Sam will be superimposed into the environment to indicate where that enemy last saw you. Sam will be able to use it as a tool for escape, it will aid in creating an ambush while the enemy makes a beeline to your last known position. Conviction has eschewed the light meter for allowing the environment itself to indicate your visibility level. When Sam is exposed, everything will appear in full-colour; but when hidden in the shadows, it will all turn to grayscale. In this mode, objects still in colour are interactive--such as a chandelier that you can use to kill multiple guards.

Players seeking an immersive experience will be pleased to know there are no lengthy cutscenes or loading screens in Conviction. Instead, everything is presented to you through the game's engine. Ubisoft has taken a cinematic approach, and in-game text will be projected onto the world itself, such as buildings (for example, "infiltrate the mansion"), or roads. Fans of Fringe will be familiar with this technique. Video updates will also be projected in front of you. The videos seem to represent a mental projection of Sam's thoughts, including information on suspects and flashbacks of Sarah's death.

Michael Ironside will return to voice the ageing agent and Splinter Cell: Conviction is an exclusive for the Xbox 360 and PC and is currently due to ship in October.

Source: Gamespot

Has Obama Declared War On Bugs?

UNETIDA was placed on it's highest alert level Wednesday when it was learned that President Barack Obama personally slew a rogue fly in The White House.

UNETIDA Commander - Air Vice Marshal “Albatross” Davenport flew to Washington DC. Wednesday to meet with the US Joint Chiefs Of Staff concerning the President's recent actions during an interview for CNBC where the he had threatened, assaulted and subsequently murdered a Musca domestica or Common Housefly, and then gloated about it.

“Basically, I had to be sure that the US wasn’t going to single handedly wage war on the flies” AVM Davenport said following the meeting. He said that UNETIDA does have a degree of autonomy but The UN Security Council must authorise their actions on a global scale. “President Obama’s somewhat reckless actions had us poised for war, should any of the insectiod races chosen to retaliate against any of us, ...and by any - I mean literally anyone! We don’t know if those blighters recognise our geopolitical divisions, they could take out whatever country was facing them at the time depending on the rotation of the planet. There’s no knowing how close, we came or even if the danger is passed. What if the fly was an ambassador or a peace envoy? We’d be rightly stuffed!”

“Annoyed? You bet your goddamn ass I’m annoyed” responded Colonel "Whopper" Creedon, UNETIDA's Special Operations Commander as he prepared his men, when asked if he was annoyed about the sudden mobilization of his unit due to Barack Obama’s new-found killer instinct. “But not pissed at my at my CinC for growing a pair as big as mine! No, I’m annoyed at these PETA morons for revealing that we possess “non lethal” methods of dealing with Bugs and that there is a section of human society that is prepared to use these devices willingly. Hellshit! The last impression we want to give our potential insect overlords is that we’re weak and faggoty about dealing with their threat and don’t wanna harm ‘em. Screw that! They’re gonna to get a subscription to a new broadsheet “The Daily Dose of Death” and I’m the Delivery Dude! Hooyah!!!”

In a related note, Lt. Colonel “Dingo” Stuart, UNETIDA Asst. Director of Intelligence, has been given an assignment to detect any agency reporting the missing/damaged status of one of these.

Here is the video which is now being beamed into space and could anger those watching... from afar...

Chi bi - Red Cliff: John Woo's greatest achievement

I always thought that one of the great signs of the apocalypse would be when my 5 favourite directors would craft a historically set epic. Cameron made Titanic, Bay made Pearl Harbor, Verhoven made Black Book and now Woo has directed this Red Cliff leaving only Tony Scott to stave off the end of the world single handedly.

I was honestly not expecting anything like this; yes I knew this was going to be epic, clocking in at the best part of 2.5 hours [cut down from the original 2-part 4.5 hour arse-numbing Chinese version], but I thought maybe along the lines of The Curse Of The Golden Flower or Hero and I also thought it was going to be Woo's attempt at an "Oscar type" movie. However I think I may have prejudged it a bit too quickly. This movie wouldn't win Ocsars because it's just too good, not a heaps of shit like they've been giving the golden statue to for the past 10 years. No, this is a brutal war movie, with lo-and-behold- a plot! Yes! A well crafted and properly written and thought out plot, not just filler to tie a host of spectacularly choreographed gun-ballet slow-mo dove-infested action sequences together! I was as shocked to discover this as you are reading it. But does this departure from the Woo-norm detract from the experience you expect from a Woo-movie? No. In fact I'd go as far as saying that it enhances it.

The movie is set set in 208 A.D., in the final days of the Han Dynasty. Emperor Han's Prime Minster- Cao Cao, convinced him that the only way to unite all of China was to declare war on the kingdoms of Xu in the West and East Wu in the south. A military campaign of unprecedented scale began, commanded by Cao Cao, himself. Left with no other hope for survival, Liu Bei of Xu and Zhou Yu, Viceroy of East Wu formed an alliance to defeat the plans of Cao Cao to both gain dominion over them and usurp the throne of Emperor Han. Red Cliff is where the final battle was fought changing the course of Chinese history forever.

I'll be putting a copy of Red Cliff on my shelf with the likes of Glory, Gladiator, The Last Samurai and Brotherhood as the finest examples of modern epics in movie history. Despite this being a "respectable" movie, however- it still retains the John Woo staple elements: A generous use of slow-motion, not the excessive bullet-time but just enough to show us the diverse expert fighting styles and weapons of the different generals fighting in the war. [Note: soldiers don't get any slow-mo unless being slaughtered or dismembered by the generals, and there are a lot of generals hanging about Red Cliff :)]. At the very end of the movie there is a Mexican Stand-Off, but instead of pistols and assault rifles [as this is in 208AD] we get swords and bows and arrows and the tension is even greater than normal. Finally we have a dove. An impossibly white sometimes CGI dove.

While the cast did a more than adequate job, but in order to have achieved the faultless rating, the original casting for the 3 main characters would've had to have been in place. The notable absence of Chow Yun-Fat was felt; he was to appear as Zhou Yu [and so Tony Leung would have played the strategist Zhuge Liang instead], but Chow's contract had 73 clauses that the movie's insurance company could not reconcile. The excellent Ken Wanatabe was to portray Cao Cao, but due to protestations of a Japanese actor being hired to play a prominent Chinese historical figure, Zhang Fengyi was cast instead.

I think personally, my favourite John Woo movie will always be Hard Boiled, but there isn't a shadow of a doubt that Red Cliff is easily his greatest achievement and is possibly enough to forgive him for some of his dodgy US movie choices. As an old friend of mine, Lo Wang once said: "Be proud, Mr. Woo!" and for this, more than anything else he has crafted - he can.

Final Verdict: If you've been unhappy with the more recent modern epics like Kingdom Of Heaven, Flags Of Our Fathers and Alexander; you don't mind reading 2.5 hours of subtitles and you don't squirm at the sight of flowing blood; then this is for you. One stuntman died and others were seriously injured to make this what it is and it's well worth the human life lost.

Colonel Creedon Rating *****

Official Site / IMDB [Part 1] [Part2] / Wikipedia

Why I despise the liberal media

This is a joke [thanks Bruce], but the idea is based on countless examples of fact...

A Harley rider is passing the zoo, when he sees a little girl leaning into the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by the cuff of her jacket and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The biker jumps off his bike, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch. Whimpering from the pain, the lion jumps back letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly.

A New York Times reporter has watched the whole event. The reporter says, "Sir, this was the most gallant and brave thing I saw a man do in my whole life."

The biker replies, "Why, it was nothing, really, the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little kid in danger, and acted as I felt right."

The reporter says, "Well, I'm a journalist from the New York Times, and tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front page...So, what do you do for a living, and what political affiliation do you have?"

The biker replies, "I'm a US Marine and a Republican."

The following morning the biker buys The New York Times to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on front page:

U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT
AND STEALS HIS LUNCH

Alien Bugs attempt to kill German Boy [14]

UNETIDA scientists in Dresden, Germany have been studying a small meteorite that crashed to Earth in the German city of Essen and allegedly struck a schoolboy. The event was set upon by the press on Friday including The Daily Mail, Sky News, The BBC but it's not until it appears on Fox News "does the Special Operations Division of UNETIDA take notice," affirmed Colonel "Whopper" Creedon, the divisions commanding officer, in Germany today.

"Taken at face value, the news story that has been circulated is very disturbing," said The Colonel. "It's not too far fetched to assume that this is just a test strike by the Alien Bugs of the planet Klendathu. They could start with something small like this but eventually could send ones big enough to take out Buenos Aires."

Creedon also expressed concern that any human being that could have survived a direct hit from a meteorite travelling at such tremendous speed, may not in fact be human at all. "What the hell could he be? Superboy! That's all we need now another Kryptonian obliterating real-estate," said The Colonel who promptly entered a Humvee and was driven away.

Discover Magazine has an online blog entry which, although does not debunk the essence of what happened, it points out the lack of some of the most fundamental understanding of science in the original news articles.

GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator

The USAF recently announced that they are going to buy an arsenal of a new precision-guided bunker buster, the GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator [MOP]. This is a 30,000-pound bomb which will be incorporated into the B-2A bomber fleet. Manufactured by Boeing, they are designed to destroy any bunker buried under ground.

While I'm not worried, [they'll not be used against me, after all] Kim Jong-Il, Osama Bin Laden or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should be, as where ever they're hiding, or run to hide when these start dropping will no doubt be obliterated come June 2012 when the weapon will reach operational status.

The GPS-guided MOP has a 2.7 metric ton high explosive warhead, and can penetrate 60 meters of 5,000 psi reinforced concrete, 8m of 10,000 psis reinforced concrete, or 40m of moderately hard rock.

Fuckin-A!

Source: The Whitehouse, Gizmodeo,Wikipedia

No Salvation for Terminator

Many closed-minded individuals had already made up their mind about Terminator: Salvation long before the cameras rolled. It was the strange and certainly controversial choice as director, one Joseph McGinty Nichol, better known to the world as McG, Commanding General of the stupid Hollywood nickname brigade. His Charlie’s Angels movies are fun and entertaining [and are both on my DVD shelf] and Chuck, which he produces for NBC Television is loved by all who watch it. Both, while rich in action, are infused with a level of humour which he has extracted from his writers and performers to make those projects work for what they are. Terminator, on the other hand is rightly devoid of almost any humour whatsoever and McG is too unqualified and inexperienced to direct what is essentially a serious production; he's is a one-trick pony and Terminator and movies like it are not his trick.

Does that mean this movie is complete shit? No, quite far from it, but neither is it a worthy sequel to James Cameron’s seminal work. This is a superb action movie; it has guns, explosions, outstanding production design, and a host of never seen before Terminators, Skynet machines and defence-systems which flesh out the whole Terminator lore more than adequately. It will thrill most action-seeking cinemagoers [assuming you live in this part of the world where it’s been far more successful than stateside for some bizarre reason] and delivers a satisfactory experience. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for die-hard Terminator fans, but I’ll get back to that.
The acting is very mixed. On one hand we have Christian Bale as John Connor, who despite being an amazing actor – somehow appears beyond wooden here, I’d even go so far as saying he’s beyond even real wood – he’s like MDF or something – he’s that bad! I almost burst out laughing at one point when he’s after surviving a helicopter attack and an assault from a T-600 and the radio crackles into life to which Connor responds “Here!”, but it’s not “Here!” as you or I would say it, even out of breath with serious bruising or whatever; no, Bale delivers the word like an acutely constipated Batman who’s been winded by a Scotsman’s saber to the chest. The amount of projection he infuses into almost each line is staggering and far more distracting than his permanently-choking Dark Knight – it’s ridiculous. Add to that, the insanity of casting Michael Ironside, who talks like that normally!!! [Hang on didn’t Ironside play a resistance leader who was also prepared to sacrifice prisoners for the good of the mission in a certain Alien invasion TV show in the mid-80’s?]

Thankfully, John Connor is only half the movie. The better half is Sam Worthington, whom Cameron has also bagged for Avatar, as Marcus- who as you’ll know from the spoiler-ridden movie trailers is a highly advanced Terminator – who thinks, nay – believes- he’s human. This man single handedly saves this film from shitsville despite the character making absolutely no sense at all in the grand scheme of the Terminator timeline. It’s an incredible irony. Another casting decision I must wholeheartedly agree with is giving the role of Kate Connor to the one true Goddess Bryce Dallas Howard who [has achieved #1 status in Whoppers Hotlist 2009. If only I could make a cream out of her and rub it all over my naked body] despite being somewhat underused she lights up the screen when on it.

The best accolades you’ll find bestowed on Terminator: Salvation in reference to how good a Terminator movie it is will be that is that it is about as good if not better than Johnathan Mostow’s Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines. What’s different in McG’s vision is that people are not just running around in blind panic [practically everyone in the movie is a hardened vet]. I don’t suppose you can have that going on for a two-hour movie and not have it labeled as survival-horror, a notoriously saturated genre today. However the essence of Terminator is “the chase” and “the suspense,” it is still possible in this setting, but McG just doesn’t deliver. It seems like he thought that if Cameron did one better than Alien with the vastly superior Aliens by changing the “threat” of the Alien by having more of them rather than just one powerful one- that he could do the same with Terminator. The problem was that Cameron made it work, but McG and his crew did not. Even Danny Elfman who composed an adequate score- did not use Brad Fiedel's Terminator theme, something T3 composer Marco Beltrami knew was an essential part of the essence of his movie but there's nothing familiar here either now.

I was very impressed with the art direction, namely the ruined L.A. and there are some amazing technical achievements in this movie, not least of which is an outstanding CGI rendition of Ahnold as the original T-800 prototype. Sadly after spending a colossal amount of money on this sequence, McG completely bollixed up by assassinating the character of a Terminator – he had the T-800 toy with his prey by throwing him off ledges, up against surfaces and all sorts of crazy shit instead of grabbing them and rending them limb from limb or crushing the throat. A Terminator terminates – full stop, there’s no game, there’s no playing, a Terminator doesn’t soften up its victim – this was bad writing – it would have been much better to show the T-800 emerging from its cocoon or whatever and start eliminating the fleeing prisoners and approaching- but never catching John Connor until the last moment when Marcus would step in or something; a lost opportunity – that would’ve created tension and we’d see a load of people die horribly. That was something else this movie lacked too; the 12PG rating meant little in the way of the horrific deaths we should have seen with blood, dismemberment, bullet impacts etc. It was all just a bit too sanitized. There’s a reason why the original is so loved 25 years on – it’s R-Rated.
While it’s unfair to equate the Terminator franchise with the Batman franchise of the 90’s, it would seem that once again an unpopular director has been responsible with a loss of confidence in the brand. I think it may be better for Fox now to forget about a T5 and wait and attempt to do exactly what Warner did for Batman, what Paramount did for Star Trek and what Sony did for James Bond and that is to wait a while and just do a reboot for the new generation. We can wait 10 years if it’ll be done right.

Final Verdict: This is a great action movie but not such a good Terminator movie. While I’m positive that McG is not a bad director, he was just totally the wrong director for the serious, bleak subject matter.

Colonel Creedon Rating ***1/2

Official Site / Wikipedia / IMDB