Culture Surfing

Given that the previous Terminator movie, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines made $150 million and the first Night at the Museum made $250 million, I guess it’s not a surprise that Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian beat Terminator Salvation on their opening weekend. It’s still kind of like seeing Ben Stiller kick sand in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s face. I wonder, with three previous movies and one TV series out there, if the Terminator market is pretty saturated already. Which begs the first (non-spoiler-y) question about the new movie:

1. Just how many time-lines are there by now? There are at least two. According to the original Terminator, “Judgment Day,” when self-aware military defense program Skynet launched a devastating attack on humanity, took place on Aug. 29, 1997. T2: Judgment Day attempted to avert that disaster, but according to Terminator 3,  the heroes only postponed the robot holocaust, which began on July 24, 2004. This puckish whiteboard tries to explain it, but muddies the waters even further. I can’t say I noticed anything in Terminator Salvation that directly contradicted Terminator 3 (apart from the obvious recasting), but it’s getting pretty darn confusing. And this doesn’t even address “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.”

Continue reading “Spoiler questions, now that we’ve seen Terminator Salvation” »

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Now that the long-anticipated, much-hyped pop epic Watchmen has reached theaters, we can finally get on with our lives… by anticipating the soon-to-be-hyped pop epic summer movies! Several studios have recently released a batch of new, full-length trailers for the would-be biggest blockbusters of the hot months, including the latest from Pixar and several relaunches of science fiction’s most lucrative franchises. Based on these clips, which do you most want to see?

X-Men Origins: Wolverine (May 1)

Oscar host Hugh Jackman stars in this prequel to the X-Men trilogy that fills in the backstory of Wolverine and should answer questions like, “How old is he?” “Why does he have a metal skeleton?” and “Why is Liev Schreiber portraying Sabretooth, a bad guy played by huge wrestler Tyler Mane in the first film?” Director Gavin Hood previously made some heavy dramas, including South African Oscar nominee Tsotsi and the homeland security thriller Rendition, but hasn’t helmed a huge Hollywood action franchise before. At any rate, it’s the season’s only big comic book movie.

Continue reading “Which summer movie has the best trailer?” »

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