For those who have watched the Terminator trilogy, they must be full of expectations for "Terminator 2018". I watched the first episode of Terminator in the theater before Hollywood blockbusters entered China in a big way, even before the VCD thing was invented. In that era, the Terminator in the fire, moving the steel skeleton and chasing it step by step, was full of shock and was a well-deserved visual spectacle. When LD came out (I don't know how many people have seen that thing now), I watched the second part of "Terminator" on the projection TV, the shape-shifting robot, the Schwarzenegger jumping off on a motorcycle , holding a RIFE shotgun and sweeping in the hail of bullets, it has become an indelible image.
Cameron changed the history of the Terminator, and the second episode ended, it seemed that Judgment Day had become a legend, but Hollywood was reluctant to waste such a lucrative subject matter, so the third part came out. With the prestige of the first two, the third is among the blockbusters imported every year, and I have the opportunity to watch it in the cinema. Although the original structure of pursuit and protection has been maintained, the chase scene has brought forth new ideas, and the coming of the final judgment day gives people a glorious sense of epic opening. But the third part obviously lacks new ideas. Although the old Schwarzenegger is still cool, he still swept around with a shotgun. The director's imagination is really problematic, and it can only be regarded as a tribute to the previous work. Terminator 3 doesn't feel like an epic ending, it's more of an excess. Judgment Day comes, and the story enters a new phase. The earth has been turned upside down, the war between humans and machines has begun in an all-round way, and a glorious epic like "The Lord of the Rings" has begun. The courage of human beings to resist after the disaster and the dangers of redemption are full of fables and magic, just like "The Matrix". When Terminator 2018 opens, it looks like this new space is about to unfold.
However, after watching the whole film, it was disappointing. The director conservatively chose the usual story structure of the first three films, and "Terminator 2018" has become a film of pursuit and protection. I don't know why the robot doesn't think about how to eliminate the human resistance, but it doesn't know who John Connor's father is. The capture of John Connor's father was not a fatal blow, but he was imprisoned as if waiting for a rescuer to arrive. You can think of it as Skynet's trap, but this trap is superfluous, not Skynet's style at all. It is child's play to go to great lengths to create a robot that is the same as a human, and to convince the machine that it is a real human from beginning to end, but expecting him to go to the opposite of human in a few words. The logic of "Skynet" sometimes spans time and space, and sometimes it is chaotic, but it is just the director's needs. Obviously, the producer did not plan to create a new epic, but borrowed the name of the previous ones to make another money-making journey.
The stunts are more sophisticated, but also less intentional and lacking in highlights. Huge robots, like Transformers, hold humans in their wombs, like Tom Cruise in "War of the Worlds." If you have watched "Earth Strikes Back" starring Will Smith, female pilots must have a sense of deja vu. In terms of characters and plots, the leaders of the resistance army are stubborn and arbitrary, such as the human leaders in "The Matrix". The huge robot assembly line, is it a bit of the shadow of "Star Wars Prequel"? "Terminator 2018" is more like a jumble of sci-fi films, packed together in old Terminator bottles.
Perhaps the director is trying to explore the grand topic of what is human in Marcus, allowing Marcus to ask the eternal question of "who am I". But the director does not try to dig this kind of thinking at a deeper level, but only serves as a fuse for conflict, making the robot the ultimate savior, finding an evenly matched opponent for other robots, and maintaining the balance of the story. Of course, action movies are just action movies, and they don't necessarily have to have the profound and complex philosophical examinations of "The Matrix", but a good script is also the foundation of a good action movie. A story full of imitations and clichés is really hard to inspire enthusiasm for watching movies.
There was once an opportunity to tell a great legend in front of the director, but he did not cherish it. It is said that the film company also tried to make the sequel into a trilogy. With such a mediocre beginning, it is really doubtful whether the latter two will arrive as scheduled. .
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