Overview: What happens if you take the original Terminator idea, morph it with T2, get rid of any semblance of a coherent, cool story, but add a really hot chick in leathers kicking butt to it? Answer: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines! Director Jonathan Mostow really kicks the FX up a notch, but unfortunately, the story fades into more of a prop than the centerpiece it was in the first two movies. While the key cast members are all fine (terrific in the case of Lokken), they can only work with what they’re given.

The Story: In Terminator 3, 10 years have passed since John and Sarah Conner destroyed Cyberdyne Systems and stopped the Skynet apocalypse. Unfortunately, it seems that the future is not what we make of it (As Desirina reminds us in the T2 comments), instead, fate is now predetermined. Why? Who knows…roll with it, buddy. You’ll get no well thought philosophical time travel notions here. Instead, the Terminator mystique is just that – a façade to get us to the juicy action sequences!

Over the years, John Conner (Nick Stahl) has turned into a drifter – he never really believed that the end of the world was abated, so he has spent his life leaving no clues as to his existence (no phones, bank accounts, and FORGET that damn phonebook!). He wrecks on his motorcycle, and due to his fear of hospital records, decides instead to break into a local veterinarian’s office and take some random medicine in the hopes that it’s a pain reliever (apparently, in the future time of 2003 the west has forgone local clinics that treat illegal aliens without recording their names and addresses). It just so has it that Conner has broken into a vet where Kate Brewster (Claire Danes), a former junior high fling of Conner’s, works.

While this is going on, The TX (Kristanna Loken), or Terminatrix as Conner refers to her, arrives from the future. The new Terminatrix is nanotechnology enabled, and can control all computer networks and most electrically powered machines - in short, she’s a badass. Because Conner has all but disappeared, her mission is to bump off his lieutenants, and if possible, to then locate and terminate Conner. Arnold Schwarzenegger as the obselete CYberdyne Systems 101 model is once again captured in the future and dispatched in an attempt to save John Conner, and his future wife from the nuclear holocaust, and if possible, protect them from the Terminatrix.

Philosophical Problems: I understand the desire to “go to the well” once more in the Terminator series, but it seems like they could have been a little more sophisticated in how they went about it. For instance, why, if Skynet is going to keep sending Terminators from the future, doesn’t it send them all back to 1984? Even a little throwaway line, similar to Star Trek’s magical matter-anti-matter converter, telling us that this isn’t possible would have helped this. Also, there’s the problem that Skynet’s grid was smashed in T1 – which was the whole purpose for the last ditched desparate attempt at a retroactive abortion. If the grid has been smashed (which if Skynet is an AI, what does this even mean?), how is it that Skynet can keep on producing newer Terminator models? Clearly, things are going all that badly for Skynet. I almost envision Skynet being in it’s “last throes” as similar to another conflict in today’s time. 

More harmful than the problems above is the issue of fate being predetermined. Um, OK, sure, I suppose it could be, but couldn’t they have tried to justify this a bit more? The Original Terminator provided us a wonderfully nuanced time loop; Terminator 2 at least still kept a pretty solid story with the idea that the future is what we make of it. Terminator 3 basically says, “Fuck it. You’ll all screwed anyways, so lets just throw down!” And throw down they do.

The FX: Although the story takes a significant hit in T3, the special effects do indeed rock in an over-the-top sort of fashion. I thought the truck-car race was a bit too over-done, but I LOVED the Terminatrix’s FX. And truly, Kristanna Lokken played her wonderfully. I loved her facial expressions and demeanor. She knew what the part was supposed to deliver (a hot android terminator chick kicking ass) and did it wonderfully. The FX surrounding her from beginning to end are reason enough to watch this movie.

The Bottom Line: While this movie rates highly as a “hot chick kicking butt” flick, it suffers in comparison to its two predecessors as the ending to a trilogy. Terminator 3 certainly was enjoyable, but not in the sophisticated sense that the first or second one was. The sliding scale I see with this series is as follows: Terminator had an awesome story and pretty great visuals for its time; Terminator 2 delivered a very good story, and provided awesome visuals – the type that raise the bar on future movies; The third does away with the cool story but at least still delivers the visuals. In short, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a bubble-gum chewing summer blockbuster, pure and simple. But on that level it works fine. However, based on the downward quality trend, if Abbot & Costello were still alive, I’d say that the next movie should be titled “Abbot and Costello Meet the Terminator.” Regardless, 5-6 stars is a reasonable place for a movie that delivers extremely well on the visuals but falls off on the story. In this case, 6 stars seems appropriate. Watch it for the FX and Kristanna Loken-Arnold battles, not for a continuation of the story.

Overview: Canadian film maker Vincenzo Natali, master of doing more with less, delivers us an excellent cyberpunk flick for a virtual pittance budget. At 7.5 million, Cypher is FAR more polished than it has any right to be. This paranoid conspiracy, near-future espionage thriller provides a continual stream of mindfuck moments. Expect your head to get jerked around so much that you’ll need to check yourself for whiplash after watching it.

The Story: Jeremy Northam stars as Morgan Sullivan, a nerdy and slightly incompetent salesman who leads a bland life. His job is boring, his nagging wife is overbearing, and he spends most of his time yearning for some excitement to infiltrate his mundane life. In pursuit of this, Morgan applies for a job at Digicorp, a high-tech company, to become a corporate spy. But so far, the job is not the excitement he was looking for. The job involves assuming an fake identity, and then traveling to various non-envious US destinations and secretly recording boring conference speeches.

Morgan, now calling himself “Jack Thursby,” develops a persona associated with the name he’s given by Digicorp. He starts to imagine himself to be a suave and sophisticated player, who likes to smoke, drink scotch and pick up sexy women at hotel bars. During one trip he meets Rita Foster (Lucy Liu), who claims to work for a freelance expert named Sabastian Rook. She warns him that he is being brainwashed by Digicorp in order to infiltrate their rival company, Sunways Corporation.

From there, the story becomes too complex to try explaining. The plot reveals layer upon layer of unraveling truth and reality. Morgan realizes he has become enmeshed in an ongoing high stakes corporate battle, and worse, events have so overtaken him that he has nowhere to turn and can trust nobody. Everyone wants to use him for their own purposes, as Morgan, while still a pawn in the larger scheme of things, has come into play.

The Acting: Jeremy Northam, a British character actor, is simply brilliant at acting completely different personas over the course of the movie. He really nails a role requiring complex and diverse acting. Lucy Lui plays a terrific femme fatale who leads Morgan further down into the abyss. The rest of the cast also holds up well, including Nigel Bennett as Digicorp’s mysterious representative, and David Hewlett, who plays a completely bizarre character who lives in a data vault.

The FX: Truly, I’m blown away that Natali is able to pull over as many special effects as he has with a 7.5 million dollar production budget. The brainwashing headsets are clearly the highpoint of the movie, but many of the effects throughout are muted, but important. In looking at Cypher, most would conclude that this should have taken at least 25 million or so, and even then, they would have needed to watch costs. The range of sets, and completely different looks staggers the mind when the overall cost is presented. Make no mistake – I’m not comparing Cypher to big budget fares like the Matrix, but for the money, Cypher’s FX really look terrific. More importantly, they add important touches in bringing a near-future feel to an otherwise modern day setting.

The Bottom Line: In many ways, Cypher comes across as a cyberpunk version of Hitchcock’s North by Northwest. The pacing and feel of Cypher is very similar, and in both movies, you really never know what’s coming around the next corner, but most assuredly it will involve more layers of out-of-control untruths. With all the goodness that Cypher gives us, you’d almost expect the final score to be a 9 or 10. But unfortunately, Cypher’s story falls apart at the end. The technical believability, which is decently high throughout the film, flat-out does a belly flop at the end, and expects us to buy something that anyone who knows a whit about data security, just can’t stomach (I can add a spoiler page on this if anyone is interested). However, this sore point is not enough to sap enjoyment out of an otherwise wonderfully made film. You may not have heard of Cypher, but this is not an indication of its quality. Give it a go – chances are you’ll love it!

Overview: Often sequels are just made to cash in or earlier successes with a rehash of the existing story. To Cameron’s credit, he comes up with an entirely different take from the original Terminator movie, yet still maintains some level of believability to the story. Cameron certainly ratchets up the FX, but doesn’t forget the essentials that made us love the original (a well told story). Arnold Schwarzenegger returns as the Terminator, but this time he’s the good guy. Sarah Conner’s transformation from the girl next door to toughened soldier, willing to do anything to see to her son’s viability and stopping the enemy.

The Story: In Terminator 2: Judgement Day (T2), over 10 years have past since the events of the first movie, and the Skynet from the future has made one last attempt (um, well, until T3, that is – I believe the final last attempt will be Terminator versus Predators) to destroy John Conner. This time, they have skipped the “retroactive abortion” ploy, and are targeting him directly. This time, they are sending a more advanced unit – the T1000 – an android made out of liquid metal. The T1000 has the ability to copy virtually anything it touches, but prefers to assume the form of a police officer (Robert Patrick) to aid in its pursuit of John Conner.

John Conner of the future, in a desperate attempt to save the gains made, captures, reprograms and sends back Cyberdyne Systems model 101 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to protect John Conner in the past. His primary mission is to ensure John Conner’s survival by any means necessary. A secondary aspect of his programming states that he must take orders from John Conner.

John Conner is currently living in a foster home, as his mother has been committed to an insane asylum by the good Doctor Silberman (Earl Boen). Now, disenchanted to learn that his mother has basically fed him a fantasy his whole childhood, he has become a troublesome youth. He spends his time stealing money from ATMs, jerking off with friends, and playing video games.

As the plot evolves, the familiar chase and pursuit feeling from the first movie returns, only this time we get the added benefit of Terminator on Terminator conflict. John Conner eventually hooks back up with his mother, and they decide to make an attempt to eliminate Cyberdyne Systems in the present, thus, eliminating the apocalyptic future that awaits the human race. Unfortunately, the T1000 has other plans.

The Acting: The most impressive aspect of T2 is the personal training Linda Hamilton put in to make her transformation to a soldier absolutely believable. She really looks the part, and for a short time, almost comes across as a terminator-like powerhouse. Her acting is also spot on, as is Edward Furlong and Schwarzenegger. Robert Patrick puts in a serviceable job as the T1000, but still pales in comparison to Schwarzenegger’s character in the original. Joe Morton is also decent as Cyberdyne System’s top scientist, Dr. Miles Dyson.

The FX: T2 is remembered for raising the bar on CG enhanced FX. Cameron transformed the T1000 into almost as large a phenomena as Schwarzenegger’s Terminator became in 1984. The liquid metal effects had the benefit of looking ultra-cool while not requiring the detail necessary for facial features. In this way, Cameron really played to the strength of the available technology. However, over time, as FX have continued to evolve, the impact of the T1000 has been significantly diminished, while the original Terminator is more embedded in our psyche than ever.

The Bottom Line: While T2 is a very well made film, personally, I still like the original lots better. Simply put, the movie is a very well made sequel, and still includes the best android fight on film. But in my mind it’s not nearly as sophisticated in terms of the whole Time Travel angle, and worse, it invalidates a key part of the original story – that nobody goes through after the first pairing. One wonders why they Skynet of the future didn’t just send the T1000 back to the same time as the first movie – then they’d have 2 Terminators pursuing Sarah Conner (or 3, 4, or 5 depending on how many Terminator movies we finally end up with). Still this is a minor point, and I know of many who disagree with me about the original being better.

T2 Page 2: More Screencaps–>>

Overview: The inspiration for Judge Dredd is based off of a comicbook hero, which Hollywood determined needed to be brought to the big screen. Vice working to recreate the comic (apparently the beginning actually does this pretty well), most of the movie is completely derivative. Judge Dredd is a terrific example of an overblown Hollywood, trying to feed us a pile of crap, all dressed up with a super-hero action star and glitzy FX. The story sucks, the acting sucks, and the overall look is cheesy, but at least the FX and deaths are well done. This only barely qualifies as cyberpunk due to the setting which are made up of Blade Runner and Robocop ripoffs.

Judge Dredd takes place in a twenty-second century dystopia, where anarchy reigns supreme. Now, only the fabled “Judges” keep the peace. Judges are the ultimate authorities – they have the ultimate power in determining someone’s innocence or guilt. Here’s the big surprise that Judge Dredd enlightens us to – “power corrupts.” Stallone is the lone “good guy” who holds to the “Law” at all costs. Unfortunately, he is framed by his evil friend, Rico, a judge he previously sent up the river. Now with Judge Dredd out of the way, Rico has full reign to inflict insane terror over “Mega-City One” (and WOW, what an imaginative name for a cyberpunk city!). I could go through the rest of the plot, but I’m guessing you can probably figure it out – here’s the highlights - escapes with help of sidekicks, kicks ass, uncovers plot, beats more ass, and you can guess the ending.

The Bottom Line: The pacing and tone of Judge Dredd just never seem to click. Sometimes it tries to be serious, yet others it faints to a faux-lite side. Unlike the masterful Save the Green Planet, which is able to blend comedy, horror, Sci-Fi, drama and action with aplumb, Judge Dredd fails in its attempt to be multi-tonal. The FX are very expensive, but you only can enjoy them if you ignore the endless stream of plot holes Judge Dredd presents. On paper, the supporting cast (Diane Lane, Armand Assante, Rob Schneider, Jürgen Prochnow, Max von Sydow) should be terrific (aside for Rob Schneider, of course), but most seem to have a hard time taking their roles seriously. If you haven’t seen Judge Dredd, you might be able to make it through life without doing so. If you have, and think this is one of the greatest movies ever made (as some reviews on Amazon and IMDB indicate), I’m afraid our conversation is at an end. Still, if you realize up front that all you’re getting is a trashy nonsensical story, with a tough Stallone kicking ass in cool ways, you might enjoy it.

Overview: Director Takashi Miike, better known for his hard edged gorefests like Ichii the Killer, delivers a far different fare with Andoromedia. Andoromedia stars actors from two Japanese pop groups: Speed and Da Pump. Overall, Andoromedia is a mixed bag: On the one hand we get an interesting story involving the recording of a human brain and recreation of a person in AI, yet on the other hand, the truly interesting implications of this are barely explored. Instead we get an evil corporation chasing the “good guys,” with a random music video thrown in for good measure.

The Story: At some point in the very near future, an AI scientist, who has lost his wife prematurely, decides to invent technology to record his daughter’s memories. He does this continually over time, similar to how network administrators save backup tapes of their servers. He appears to have had a previous relationship with a shady VR corporation with roots both in Japan and the US, but has now severed ties with them. His Daughter, Mai (Hiroko Shimabukuro), falls in love with her longtime best friend, Yuu (Kenji Harada), and due to a freak “accident,” gets killed in a car crash.

The scientist, devastated, loads Mia’s memory backup into a VR facsimile of Mai – The facsimile’s name is “Ai,” and appears to be sentient. Ai remembers everything that happens to Mia, and is told that Mia has left this world, and that Ai and her “father” will live together from now on. Shortly thereafter, representatives from the corporation come and try to steal Ai and kidnap the scientist, but instead, the scientist frees his daughter into the net before being killed. Ai, now alone but having seemingly limitless capabilities on the net, eventually traverses the net and finds her boyfriend, Yuu, and her friends from school. Yuu falls even more deeply with Ai, but is soon pursued by the corporate goons who want to take Ai for their own nefarious purposes.

Philosophical Musings: Much of Andoromedia is “magical,” meaning they give no explanation how any of this occurs. Still, the ideas presented concerning the recording and transferal of human memories into a AI lifeform are rather intriguing. Unfortunately, Andoromedia examines these ideas for only 20 minutes or so. Ai “knows” she is not Mia, and understands that these memories belong to someone else. Yet over time, she begins to “feel” for love towards these people from another’s memories. Over time she grows to become “Mia.” This includes an Ai version of the “coming of age” story. This story of course also raises questions concerning her viability as an equal lifeform, but these questions really never get explored.

The Visuals and Pacing: Andoromedia stars off as a Japanese teenie-bopper movie, but as things progress, we get interesting VR visuals, and darker surroundings. The set designs and computer graphics are low-end but futuristic looking. The pacing is inquisitive at the beginning, but then devolves into a standard chase type pacing. Only at the end does it return to its introspective beginnings.

The Bottom Line: Andoromedia provides enough ideas to be interesting. I would have wished Miike took this plot in a more insightful direction, but he apparently wanted to keep some of the kookiness running throughout (the American evil corporate leader, played by Hero Cinematographer, Christopher Doyle, is especially kooky). The two leads do a decent job and have nice chemistry. Overall, aside from the random “Da Pump” band video thrown in the middle, Andoromedia is decent, but not great fare.

Overview: In yet another very well made Korean Sci-Fi movie, we have a terrific story, great acting, and a wonderfully unfolding secret that really adds to the suspense. 2009: Lost Memories is one of the best Time Travel movies out, and takes place almost completely within an alternate timeline. In this alternate reality timeline, Korea is a Japanese territory called Choson. The primary language of Choson is Japanese, and although the natives still speak Korean in private, they speak Japanese in the course of normal operations. Japan won WWII, and the atomic bombs were dropped on Germany. The Furei-Senjin (Choson Libration Army) are the last ones alive who know that the timeline has been tampered with, and will do whatever is necessary to set things right.

The Story: Sakamoto Masayuki and his partner and best friend, Saigo Shojirou are police officers living in Choson (a province owned by Japan that we know as Korea) who are investigating and confronting the terrorist organization called the Furei-Senjin. Sakamoto discovers that the Furei-Senjin have been after a crescent shaped stone called the Lunar Soul - an ancient artifact purported to have the soul of the moon in it. In pursuing the story, a number of different strands in Sakamoto’s life start to fall into place.

For most of his adult life, Sakamoto has a recurring dream about a beautiful woman he has never met - she has a crescent necklace, and in the dream, they shoot someone. Sakamoto knows he is in love with this woman, and, for some reason, thinks they are destined to be together. During the second confrontation with the Furei-Senjin, he meets this woman - it turns out that Oh Hae-rin (the woman from his dreams, played by Seo Jin-ho) is in fact a leader of the Furei-Senjin. She too feels the connection, and stops her followers from killing Sakamoto when they get the chance.

Through his investigation, Sakamoto discovers that back in 1909, in the area surrounding Harbin, there was an attempted assassination of Ito Hirobumi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ito_Hirobumi), a prominent Japanese politician back than, and Japan’s first Resident General of Korea following the Russo-Japanese War (which Japan used to occupy Korea). This assassination was prevented by Inoue, an unknown soldier, who was later rewarded for his feat by becoming the second Governor. The Inoue Foundation has spent the last century collecting all artifacts from the 1909 time period.

In following the trail, Sakamoto learns too much, and is framed for the murder of a fellow police officer. Sakamoto eventually discovers that history was altered at that moment, and that Hirobumi was supposed to die that day, and that there never should have been an Inoue back in Harbin on that day. This leads him to the astonishing revelation that the Furei-Senjin are actually the last group alive aware of this tragedy, and that they are trying to restore the proper world timeline. As the movie develops, Sakamoto and his partner become enmeshed on opposite sides of this timeline struggle.

Cost of Entry For Understanding: There is a cost of entry to understanding 2009: Lost Memories. It helps if you recognize the difference between Japanese and Korean Characters. Japanese characters are pictoral in nature, whereas Korean characters look like boxes, half-boxes (L-shaped characters) and circles. This is significant especially at the beginning. The other important element is to know which language they are speaking. Sakamoto is Korean, whereas his partner, Saigo Shojirou is Japanese. The importance and meaning of the scenes is often given away when they switch over to speaking Korean (most of the movie’s “public” scenes are in Japanese). For instance, when Sakamoto is with his uncle, he ALWAYS speaks Korean. Also important to know is the latent hatred that still exists in Korea towards Japan for the time they were occupied (up until WWII). To Koreans, this movie will come off as far more emotional than for foreigners.

The Bottom Line: 2009: Lost Memories is a very intelligent Korean sci-fi film. I include it as cyberpunk primarily for the wonderfully done time-travel theme done in the very near-future. Te intense confrontation between the best friends that occurs as this movie develops is just terrific. The visuals are all high-tech current visuals though - they are not futuristic in most of the cyberpunk sense. But the world they create is cyberpunk in the sense that it depicts a reality changed by a future traveler to a past time. Also interesting is the notion, that even during a “time-shift” souls might potentially “know” something is amiss.