This is a pretty spoiler heavy trailer so don't watch if you do want anything ruined for you. It looked pretty decent until 1:06 into it. I mean seriously...



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a hot teenage girl as a Terminator that protects John Connor? In a pink sweater? Ouch! Hello, creative decisions driven by execs, focus groups and demographics. That is just beyond terrible.



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At least Summer's working; let's hope she'll have better luck the Nathan Fillion.

Once again, TV is investing heavily in sci-fi/horror concepts next fall, as if the 2005-2006 debacle never happened, and once again, I expect disappointment. I might tune in to JOURNEYMAN, to see what ROME star Kevin McKidd is up to.

Just bumping this up as a reminder that the show debuts tonight on Fox. I don't have very high hopes, but I will tune in for it. More discussion later I guess.

He's in THE WAITRESS. I'd say he's doing okay.

Do we get to count his lead role in WHITE NOISE 2 here? Whew... poor guy.

I actually mentioned SLITHER and WHITE NOISE 2 in my original post and then streamlined it when I realized I was in danger of undermining my own point. ;)

But since you mention it, the DvdTalk review of WHITE NOISE 2 is largely positive. So, it doesn't sound like it was too embarrassing of a paycheck for our boy. Aside from that unfortunate title, I remain a firm believer that worthwhile movies can occasionally surface in direct-to-video franchises. I don't often put that theory to the test, but I do think that HELLRAISER: DEADER (another unfortunate title) is almost a good movie thanks to some decent direction and really nice lead performance from Kari Wuhrer.

And I think that most of us like SLITHER here. Even if you didn't like the movie, you have to admit that Nate Fillion holds his own.

His day will come. It better!

I'd still love to see him as Louis Creed in a PET SEMATARY remake. Of course, just about any other King lead will do. Hell, cast him as Roland.

I have seen WHITE NOISE 2 and it's nothing to get excited about. A few cheap scares (set to the appropriate orchestral stingers) are all it has going for it... oh, and a pretty good stunt involving a piano. It IS an interesting idea, but if ANYONE can make sense of the end, please tell me what exactly happened because it sure lost me after the diner. Oh yeah... if you ever wanted to know what a RUSH song would sound like sung by a church choir, then I guess this movie is for you!

Also, Both Fillion and Sackhoff (who I also like) strangely seem almost, oh I dunno... too "heavy" in WN2. They are put in clothes that make them look so much fatter than they really are... actually, I'm not kidding... it distracted me. Too many carbs on set, perhaps?

For the record, I also like HELLRAISER:DEADER, by the way...

Now, we return to the topic at hand. I will be watching the SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES tonight on Fox. It looks pretty interesting. Rumor has it that there is an early "pre-air" version floating around on the internetz that has different/alternate footage. I haven't seen it, so I don't know for sure... perhaps the show may have been edited down for TV (a la BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: RAZOR). Besides, it's a Sunday night... not a bad time to be on the lookout for hot teenage terminator-girls, I guess.

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Dead-Abe turned into an oversized electrical spark, leaping across power lines and chasing down the ambulance, kind of an exaggerated version of the roving electrical disruptions he'd seen earlier in the movie. Zzzaxxx-Abe then touched Sherry and yanked her spirit out of her body. Since th' devil apparently needed her soul in a corporeal body for him to manipulate both her and the events around her, Abe freeing her enabled the ambulance driver to pull out of the path of the gas truck. And they all died happily ever after.

At least, that's what I came away with. My reaction was pretty much the same as yours...just about total indifference. There were aspects of it I liked, but it's rental/TBS fare. My lousy review: http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=31996

Edited to add -- I think I would've been more negative about the movie if I hadn't just come off of watching the original White Noise, which has taken an early lead as the worst movie I've watched so far in 2007.

GASP! What sort of strange time travel paradox is this? I revive the thread from the past and it has turned into a discussion of WHITE NOISE 2!?! :lol:

So I watched the debut of TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNER CHRONICLES complete with a logo covering 1/3 of the screen telling me I was watching TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNER CHRONICLES (I don't watch too much network TV I guess) and was surprised by it. Nothing too offensive to the TERMINATOR fan in me and it seems to fill in the void between T2 and T3 pretty well (although one major date is fudged with).

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I liked the continuity with the mentioning of the Dyson murder and mental institution stuff. The idea of them sending someone back to 1963 to build stuff for them and store it in safety deposit boxes was clever. The jump to present day was clever, but they better get John back to 2004 so he can experience the events of T3. Man, I feel like my head is going to be hurting and I pray for the "simplicity" of the BACK TO THE FUTURE time line after watching this entire series.

The FBI guy on the case reeks of THE FUGITIVE, but it is consistent with the idea that Conner is considered a criminal. I love how she makes a big splash again in 2007 thanks to a video phone handling teen. The only thing that really bothered me is the horrible editing during the action scenes.

I know I complained about the idea of the latest TERMINATOR being a teen in a pink sweater, but that Summer Glau is quite fetching. Now I understand why FIREFLY/SERENITY has so man fans. Or was that because of Fillon?


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And for anyone nerdy enough who wants to fill in that missing Cameron entry, YouTube is to the rescue with T2 - BATTLE ACROSS TIME:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaFWs4WsNX4

I was not exactly blown away by this pilot.



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I don't think it's encouraging when the very first scene is an it-was-just-a-dream, one of the most hackneyed of all cliches. Considering future episodes will likely not be directed by David Nutter (I think he does next week's, which was probably designed as the second half of a two-hour premiere) nor have as many action scenes (which were good for 21st-century network TV, not good overall), I imagine we've seen the best this series have to offer.

I mean, isn't it exciting enough that the lead characters are being pursued by super-strong robots from the future? We have to throw in an FBI agent to make the show the 36th FUGITIVE ripoff of the 2000s? I thought the time machine idea was a clever one (even though I saw it coming the moment they stepped into the bank), but it was immediately wiped away by having the characters stupidly transport themselves someplace where their cover would be blown five minutes after they arrived. Couldn't the future guys have stashed their time machine in a warehouse or privately owned residence or at the very least someplace in the middle of the desert where, you know, they wouldn't be seen? Heck, they're lucky they didn't all get run over! So, for the viewer, what's the point of the show taking place in 2007, since the status quo hasn't changed from 1999?

Besides the boring actor playing the Terminator, I thought the cast was fine (though I don't buy Sarah Connor was only 17 years old when THE TERMINATOR took place). Summer Glau has a SF geek fanbase, which can only help the show, and Lena Headey was better than I expected.

I've always been under the impression that they have no control over where they land but that they can just pinpoint a certain specific locale (Los Angeles). After all, the bank was in a major area that wouldn't have turned into a highway in 8 years.

Feel free to read my above comment the Comic Book Guy voice.

As for the change from 1999 to 2007, you are right. It really doesn't matter. Either they didn't want to make a period piece (ha!) or deal with the hassle of deciphering what would have been anachronistic (cars, ads, phones) for the long ago time of 1999. It does give them the great plot leap that the Cyberdine people would now be 8 years more into their technology development and easier to trace.

That actually airs tomorrow at 9pm.

Have I ever mentioned how I love that the director of TRANCERS 4 & 5 is one of the biggest TV guys nowadays?

Maybe, but Cameron said they were in the same place, but a different time. Maybe by "same place," she meant "California." The construction work led me to believe the bank had been demolished.

Reading your response just made me realize who they named her character after. It didn't hit me when I heard it on TV.

William: The show runners have stated that they consider the events of T3 as an "alternate timeline," and are not going to try and stay consistent with any of the films past T2.

Marty: I didn't have that much of a problem with the opening being a dream sequence. For one, the opening narration about dreams hinted as such. For another, the dream was similar to ones Sarah Conner was shown to have in T2, so it's consistent with her character. Also, I don't know how many people who watched the show haven't seen any of the movies, but for those who hadn't the sequence made a strong statement of "this is what's at stake." Finally, it provided the show with an action-packed, FX heavy opening that likely cost half that episode's budget.

In regards to where the time portals spit you out: the first movie strongly implied that both Reese and the Terminator went through the same portal in the future at different times. They were spat out at different places in the past, although roughly the correct area and at the correct time. So I think the portal is somewhat spatially imprecise.

And even if you don't buy that explanation, remember that the bank portal was designed to allow the ones that travel to the past to return completely to the future. Sending people to 2007 wasn't in the original scope of the project, so they could be forgiven for not anticipating that eventuality.

Interesting. So T3 is the redheaded stepchild of the series now. I wonder how this series will impact the upcoming T4 as C2 Pictures is producing both. Of course, if they really want to impress me, bring in Earl Boen as Dr. Peter Silberman!

Well, I guess we know why they jumped to 2007 now

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as, according to this timeline, John Connor was killed in 2004.

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No, it's Sarah Connor who supposedly died, meaning the producers kept one plot point from TERMINATOR 3.

This show isn't very good, and managed to screw up royally in the second episode's first shot when a terminator head came flying through the time portal. Everyone knows that only living organisms can travel through time.

Damn, I need to get some better ears.

And you are right on that Terminator head point.

Fanwank for the head: Sarah pulled the trigger on the weapon just as the portal opened, so the Terminator had flesh on it while traveling, but once in the future, the blast from the weapon hit him, stripping all flesh, and knocking the head to the curb and the body into a pile of rubble.

What disappointed me about the head was that at first I thought they plotted it so that the guy who found it would sell it and thus kick-start the process of someone creating Sky-Net again, making Sarah's destruction of it a mirror of her destruction of the first terminator. But instead the writers thought it'd be cool if a headless terminator could still walk around without it. So it has eyes... where on the torso? And apparently the head has Onstar?

I could buy that the head had some sort of homing device in it, or at least that the terminator body had an electronic link with its head. But the head was definitely all metal when it came through the portal; it bounced right into the camera.

Maybe this series of Terminator is a big fan of Richard Stanley's HARDWARE or THE IRON GIANT?