Z/Web

I wasn’t going in with the highest expectations, but I really enjoyed this film. It’s non-stop action from start to finish, with the rebel heroes continually getting out of the most incredible jams when it seems the odds are totally against them. The story isn’t too complicated, but complicated enough: it’s in the future during the war against the machines and John Connor is trying to find and save the man who will be his father (in the first movie). What I really liked is that the film tells the story of several groups of people and it does it in a non-rushed manner (most films give short shrift to secondary storylines). Another positive is the wide variety of machines we get to see: underwater snake-like machines, motorcycle-bots, giant multistory Transformer-like robots, and of course, a number of Terminator models. With such variety, the action sequences feel fresh and different, and the ways the humans escape death come out of the situation and tools at hand and don’t feel forced like in some flicks. There’s definitely a ton of explosions here: they must have spent half the budget on dynamite, though there are some other excellent special effects. All this is not to say the film’s perfect: in a couple places the acting/writing/editing felt off, just awkward, but that’s minor. For the most part the cast is great (though unknown) and the story fits in well within the Terminator lore. I wouldn’t describe this film as being innovative the way the original and sequel were, but that’s a tall order and this one is certainly better than the third film, maybe even better than the first. Definitely a great summer action movie. Go see it!

Pretty good spy flick about an American Muslim who goes deep undercover to stop some terrorists, so deep his own government doesn’t know he’s a double and is trying to stop him. Unfortunately, that double agent aspect is clear from the title (I expected it) yet the film sets everything up as though that’s a surprise somehow. That weakens things, but it’s still a good film even though there aren’t many surprises. Excellently written and acted, and there are hints at the debate on faith though the film doesn’t get as deep as it could. It’s a little too serious overall, quite somber, but has a good ending.