TERMINATOR SALVATION - Relearning what makes us human

I caught Terminator Salvation - sneak peek - on digital format and have to say that I was satisfied. It was not Christian Bale's wooden protrayal of John Connor as the conflicted and angst-filled prophet of doom in post-apocalyptic Judgement Day earth that made the film watchable. In fact, his guttural grants and grimaces do nothing to build up the John Connor character after we last saw Nick Stahl play the young man - although I prefer Edward Furlong's protrayal best. Anton Yelchin hits amazing notes playing the youngest Kyle Reese, originally played by cool-dude anti-hero Michael Biehn in the first Terminator movie. That was the real "horror" flick which none of the sequels could ever surpass. It did not depend on as much EFX or absurb science, and that simplicity made it very effective in its prospective horror and doom. In Terminator Salvation, it is relatively unknown Australian-born actor Sam Worthington that steals the show. He is no Arnie nor Bale, definitely, but just like Biehn, the sort of anti-hero you end up empathising and rooting for. He plays Marcus Wright, a condemned killer who is executed by lethal injection but persuaded by his sister to donate his body to science. Next, he awakes in a SkyNet dominated world with a cybernetic organic host implanted into his system, as well as having major parts of his anatomy replaced. Because he plays a resurrected man who thinks he knows who he is, he doesn't notice how he has already changed as a person, with more skills and knowledge in electronics than before. I like that he gets rescued by Kyle Reese trying to earn his stripes. I like that it takes gorgeous Blair Williams to work up his heart-rate and snuggle up to him for body heat while they flee back to base after a foiled rescue attempt. I like the way he is strung up on a railcar axle completely unaware of his torn-apart body revealing his prosthetic innards until John Connor peels off his head restraint and he looks down into his own torso. I liked it when Christian Bale describes how Marcus Wright completely believes in his own humanity. In the end, John Connor is fatally hurt and it takes the Wright hybrid to donate his heart to save Connor's life. It is cheesy somewhat but necessary sometimes in morality tales to press a point: what does it take to make us human, we hear Connor ask rhetorically at the end. It is the ability to love, to care, to sacrifice. The end of the film leaves open follow-up plotline, where perhaps it will be Marcus Wright's cybernetic memories and brain which will be cannibalised and used by Connor to send the second Terminator back to protect his mother and himself. Maybe that, even if that Australian accent became warped into an Austrian twang along the way. But after this, we will definitely see Sam Worthington make it big as celebrity. He played himself opposite a rather boring Christian Bale, and as a result, looked ever the more appeal character onscreen and human. Christian Bale was quite wasted in this plot - he seems to be reduced to a hollow stereotype after "Reign of Fire" and "Batman Begins/Dark Knight", particularly post-apocalytically bland as he was in "Equilibrium". Whatever happened to that brilliance we first saw in "Empire of The Sun" or "Little Women". Perhaps, he outgrew his appeal. But Sam Worthington played a straight character that lost his humanity as a cold-blooded killer, only to be made part-machine and then rediscover his humanity all over again - that redemption is to be the sub-text to this Terminator Salvation. It was not just about saving the future by saving Kyle Reese who would be the father of John Connor; it was also about how in War, we all cross sides and some times even bond - care for - those we are supposed to destroy. What makes us human? The ability to put ourselves in another person's place: empathy.

Overheard: Evangelical Prophets discussing American Idol

One: The millenial apocalyse has been delayed it seems? Two: It is a misreading. We did not take into consideration that JC was born in April 6BC, or that he died around 33AD. So in fact, the Christian Era actually started in 33AD-6BC = 27AD, which means that the real Millennium is 2027 and not 2000. One: Gee, I mean, Gosh. That sounds right! Two: Consider the new Idolatry that is emanating in popular culture. Heard the news last week? One: Yeah, you must be talking about the terrible upset on Fox's American Idol? The punting prophets were predicting Adam's win? Two: Yes, it was the sign of the Times... [now, a third joins them in their ride on the LA bus towards the modern EMMAUS cafe next to the Nokia Theatre] Third: Hi there. You heading near West Hollywood? Might I join your chat? Two: Sure. One: Of course, where abouts are you from? Third: Just arose from the East, and decided to come down. Town seemed awfully quiet. One: Are you kidding? Where on earth have you been. You must have been buried these past week, dude! Two: Haven't you heard all the buzz about what has happened all over America? Third: Oh, you must mean about President Obama's controversial address at Notre Dame? One: That was nothing, dude. No one really cares about abortions or embryonic stem cell discussions: that sort of thing does away after a while. Two: Tell him, dude! One: We were discussing real news, man. About American Idol's results and the upset win! No one saw that coming. Even after Danny Gokey got kicked off! Who could have predicted any of these things. Two: I sure lost my money on that! After Dan, the prophecy was all off. How do you explain that. He was really good, you know, wife was Sophie - that was Greek right, for "wisdom" or something? Third: I see. Why did all these events surprise you? Was it all not according to the old prophecies? One: Well, that was what the elders taught but the results - what happened - just too upsetting. Adam was meant to win! Two: Yeah, you know - Simon, the Rock of Rockstars, Idol-maker, even believed in Adam. One: Even Paul-la, you know the evangelist to all things Gentile, sort of proclaimed she was a fan of Adam's forever. Two: Yeah, even the other two - Gioguardi - what John, the guardian? - kinda of like a woman in bikini that ran off stage at the results show, also said she was a follower of Adam's. One: Yes, even that man, Jack-Son, with the first name of R-Andy - I thought he was related to Andrew or John, right, said Adam was always "in the Zone", up there, right in the lights and hazy cloud, descending in a white garment that was just dazzling as he sang out with a booming voice those lyrics from Tears For Fears. Very emanating, man! Two: I think that Gioguardi person called Adam "Rock God". He even sings like the "Sound of Gaudi", eclectic shrieks and all... Third: I thought you said that Simon was the Rock? Two: Yeah, but Adam was a Rock God, totally. Third: Any chance you want to hear what I think? One: What you have got to say, buried-and-risen Man From The East? Third: You almost got me there! How did you guess? Well, here's what I think you forgot to consider... Two: Speak man! Third: Well, a season ago, you must remember that it happened to pass, in the heavens of new Pop Stars, the conjunction of two Davids - the Cook and the Archer-letta (ie. small archer) - in the Finale, right? One: Yeah, one David was a bar-tender, and the other a schoolboy or something - Two: Yeah, he was from the Salt Lake, a follower of the angel Moroni. He sings with a dead "C". Third: Er, well, okay. But the two Davids were meant to signal that the Time has Come. That the final battle would occur after another season. One: What you mean, now? Third: Did you know what Malachi said, or Eye-shy-Yah, or Jerry Meyer? Two: The famous prophet, you mean - "I-Sigher", who said: Out of Jesse, a young shoot? Third: Sort of; that indicated that after the season of David, the next would be the trial of the Great King. One: Wow, that's an idea. How does that fit in between Danny, Kris and Adam. Adam was still meant to win, right? Third: It had seemed so. Adam was the Original Choice, as Simon the Rock had assumed. But all Judges had failed to consider the Apocalyse of Daniel regarding the appearance of the Son of Man, as victor in the end. Two: You mean, like when Danny sang "Jesus Take The Wheel" as everyone as drunk with liberty, freedom, and gay marriage rights and only the J-Man was left as the designated driver of humanity Fate? But the J-Man left the scene. All we had heard after that was that Rock was in and Gospel was out. One: Yeah, Rock on! Third: Wait a minute, guys! You folks were just standing on the wrong Rock and did not see what you were standing on. That Son Of Man Danny the prophet sang about, before he got voted off, was inspired by Wisdom - you know, his wife as she was called in Greek, Sophie? Wisdom inspired Danny to prophesy: it would be a battle between the Kingdom of Old and the Kingdom of New. One: I don't get it. Two: No, I think I see. You are saying that according to Simon the Rock, it was expected that Adam the Rock God, Original Man designated by All to Win, would emerge the winner, but... Third: But there would be a new Man, a Christ, or called Kris, of a new order. It would be not about the old theatrics, not about shrieking kings of old dressed in drag and wearing eyeliner, with men kissing men on billboards or hitting high notes like Eunuchs in paradise. What was to come, according to the Davids and the Daniel, would be a naked Kris, plain and unadorned, who would be bethrothed even before he would be known to all, to that which is "Pure", which in Greek is called Katy. One: So, this Kris, would be a pure Man? Like Simple, Humble, Honest, guy-next-door sort of way? Third: Yes, Christ would be espoused to all that is Katy, or Pure. Two: Wow. You have a great imagination, man! Third: Yes, that is pretty Creative, or how else could we have all this diversity in the Universe? One: That is so true, dude! I like you. Tell us more! Third: Well, Idols in America is not new, as you know. Young Americans have already abandoned what they call the old way for the Rock Gods, of which Adam represents the Original Concept. One: Like sin? Two: Like sin! Third: Rather, "they like sin". One: Oh, wow. It's all becoming clear to me. Two: You shed some light, man! Tell us more! Third: So, after Danny had been cast out by vote, out of the pan into the fire (where he met his other friends), the battle for the crown would be between Adam - the Anti-cipated Idol and Rock God and Kris - whose surname Alan or Allen in Breton means "small rock", similar in Latin to petrus, like Peter. Danny "go-key" surely passed those votes off Simon, who did not take those "gold keys" as seriously as he should have. One: Really! Third: So, it was meant to pass that unknown to all, Kris The Small Rock, who came from Little Rock, Arkansas, would be like that pebble David would use in his slingshot to fell the Goliath - you know, the Giant of the Philistines - the heathens! That is what New Life is all about, that is what it is "With The Way", con-way, you know. Or as they say in that University of Central Arkansas campus, "Chi Alpha" - which is Christ the First, for short in Greek: that Kris would be first, or the "winner"! Two: Amazing man! Third: Amazingly grave! This Kris would rise up, unexpected, from his humble Origins, Pure and seemingly unworthy, to throw down all of America's expectations and strike at the heel of the Rock God's Ironclad stronghold. This same Kris The Small Rock would replace Adam as the First Born of the new Creative soft Rock scene. It is, was it was written, as it was meant to be. One: And herald in a new Age? The Science was all there, all along! Third: He may bring out the Finale to American Idol by smashing once and for all what the Idol stands for, contradicting Simon's cowing from beneath his cowl and all cowering about Adam. Kris will be Katy - I mean Pure - and like an unblemished Lamb, renew all of Creative hope, with soft singing instead of shrieking and grinding of teeth. Here, let me share this tune from Kris... One: "Wastin' Time"? Third: Totally. But I don't mind. Two: "Brand New Shoes"? Third: Only for Simon to step into; he'll have to review what it means to be a fishin' for new Divos after this. One: "Beautiful Moon"? Third: Okay, what I meant to share was "To Make You Feel My Love", "Come Together"... One: "Ain't No Sunshine...." tonight! Two: (I think I am...) "Falling Slowly" Third: Be "Fearless"... One & Two [Together]: It is you! "How Good It Is To Be Loved By You"! Third: I have to go now... One & Two: No, stay. Don't go, please don't go. KC. We'll be your Sunshine Band! [the third gets off the ride and quickly disappears from their sight] Two: Man, didn' you feel really weird? One: Yeah, while he was speaking, I felt my hair stand on its end. It was like the softest rock being sung, soothing, listenable, likeable and totally calming! Two: Got a fire burning in me for more! One: Made me think of "The Way You Look Tonight". Two: Chilling. One: No, I meant like "What's Going On?" Two: Whoah! I think we better head back to tell the others! Let's check first with Ryan John Seacrest... One: Did you know Ryan was born on 24 December 1974? Two: Boy, you mailto:#@%21% me not! Look, there's the man... One: OK: hey, Ryan - secrets' out!

Terminator Salvation - Twisted Timelines (again?) for New Storylines - Why Bother?

Ever since HG Wells' The Time Machine, we have been fascinated with the idea of using technology to manipulate our sense of time. Like clocks and cogwheels churning forward, or Don Quixote whincing at windmill billows spining over hillocks, our sense of time is determined largely by the progress of events. Or, of energy expended. Like a flame consuming a matchstick. Or, on a cosmic scale, of stellar energy fizzling out in supernova and creating new forms of matter from its debris. While the most speculative forms of physics and cosmology can hypothesize what the nature of Time is, our own human experience and common sense will tell you that Time is just the sequence of matter deteriorating. Consider this proposition: before the Big Bang, before this current material cosmos existed, there was no "Time". Even in the earliest micro-moments after the Big Bang, the laws of Physics were so condensed that the current state of matter as we know it did not yet form. When matter did coalesce and expand, immediate the state of energy deterioration - or transformation - began, and the Four Forces began to exert its formulaic influence over the cosmos. Matter is transformed into energy and energy is constantly expended and the sequence of transformation is what "creates" Time. Time is observed as velocity, as acceleration, as consumption and explosion, as evolution and deterioration. And even is what was aflame is extinguished and rekindled, the new flame may resemble what was previously observed, but it is a new phenonmena, similar to what may be witnessed in a previous moment but it is in essence, not the same flame. This is what happens even if science were to "reverse" a material event by recreating the same material substance eg. destroy matter and reconstruct it: the new material may resemble the atomic structure of what was destroyed, but in essence, it is not the same as what preceded the destruction event.

So, I postulate that Time Travel is purely fantasy. And rightly so: the only universe where Time Travel backwards has ever occured yet is just past the "Writers' Block", the familiar old lame avenue where fiction writers and cliched Hollywood screenwriters have re-visited too frequently. In STAR TREK, the new writers wanted to stay within the established mythology and create a whole new timeline of events from the very beginning of James T Kirk and his history with the USS Enterprise NGC-1701. For the JJ Abrams 2009 version, they have old Spock (now lamely called Spock Prime) return to a pre-Borg/post-The First Contact universe and streak off a new series of events that will re-write histories for the Enterprise crew. The same unimaginative treatment was saved for Terminator Salvation. Ah, with Christian Bale (post-re-imagined Batman of course and as well). It is as if it was important for the studio or producers to try and retain the interest and support of the franchise fandom. I think that most of the people who fancied the Austrian muscleman as the Terminator or cute-faced Nick Stahl as the young John Connor (dead-ringer for American Idol Kris Allen, you say?) are a generation removed from today's Blu-ray audiences. Even the robot effects of T3 look phoney by today's EFX standards. But whether the re-shaped storyline of the 2009 Terminator will be better than a Transformer-meets-Alien format will depend on whether audiences just want action and explosions per second, versus what was originally a morality tale about nuclear holocaust and an over dependence on computer networks. Both have been neutralised as threats in a post 1980s world: comets came and went as fashionable catasphrophes and gay marriages are more talked about than tsunamis. It is time for another plotline in popular culture: perhaps the next new threat even after Da Vinci or Angels & Demons is no longer the old religion but common sense.

Kris Allen Strikes A Chord with homecoming tour

Imagine being half the way around the way and we are watching local FOX 16 station coverage by the hour on American Idol Top 3 Kris Allen's homecoming tour to Little Rock and Conway, Arkansas. This is really weird, too. He's been considered the underdog in the line up and "dark horse" by the judges, who notice his technical perfection in his music. But for some reason, Simon Cowell has been particularly pointed, insinuating (actually explicitly saying so) that Allen did not deserve to be among the Top Four. At the results show, host Ryan Seacrest seemed to have been cued to let Simon Cowell revise his position (albeit too late) before the bottom three were to be identified, and Simon said, "Kris, you deserve to be right there." I don't know if folks watching notice that the "humble" boy-next-door and hero of Arkansas does not hide his feelings well, and he was clearly demoralised from the moment Simon Cowell bluntly praised Danny Gokey's singing ability as being the better of the two in the Rock duet performed this week. Whether it affected his subsequent performance is moot. Cowell evaluates the performers much from their potential to haul in sales. As a result, his comments in the past have been brutally honest to a fault: consider how he revised his personal remarks towards David Cook at the Finals, etc. The thing which Cowell does ignore - even as a businessmen - is that it is not just the singing ability that will sell, but the sort of album that will eventually get produced. Adam Lambert has the punters all rooting he will win; I think "so what". He may cut a Rock Fusion album that is part Broadway and part Klingon for that matter, but on the Pop charts you are not likely to want to hear his tunes over and over again. Are his songs going to be very listenable for high repeat play? Danny Gokey's got terrific singing ability, except for those really high notes that trip off the scale. He does the lower register much better and if anything, when it comes to pop tunes, he is rather boring. What makes Kris Allen so different - part from all the hype online among his fans about this humility and so forth? Well, honestly, it is his approach to his songs and the arrangement/interpretation. Soulful, personal and with a story to tell. That makes for good listening ability and popular appeal. I cannot imagine Cowell being ignorant of how many albums this guy will sell, whether he drops out the next round or not. Besides, he's 23 and very accessible as a young pop star with gut-renching versatility. How accessible will Adam be? And Gokey doesn't have that popular sex appeal at all. It will be a real stunner if Adam get's booted off next round and shock the heck of the whole world with a showdown between Danny and Kris, the two Christian "worship leaders" so to speak and I can't imagine if it will be a pop-Gospel soul hit that will be belted out at the Finals! But I think if America is going to be judging these three singers as to whom they want to believe in, based on the whole "new America" milieu, it will be really anyone's guess. Indeed, all three have proved to be the most talented as of the past eight seasons to make the Finals. But in the end, the ones who do the best after Idol are the ones who have been versatile and very hardworking. So, the money will be in not just the talent but whom will prove to have that matchless ability to develop their musicality into a substantive expression - I think what many of the Finalists, not necessarily the Winner per se, have been successful achieving - whether we look at Michael Johns or Jennifer Hudson, and so forth. Kris Allen deserves the win not for being humble; he deserves it because he has grown through the season very significantly. Now, he needs some really good, professional PR advice to polish up what he says in his interviews and how he says it, and work on enhancing his overall image to drop that "college-boy drop-out" look. He needs to surprise the Gokey and Lambert supporters to give them a chance to consider him worthy of their attention, too. Sure, his career as a music artist (maybe even producer/actor?) may be a done deal, but this has first to be about winning. Someone with professional know-how really needs to give him some solid advice to boost his confidence so that he does that"Ain't No Sunshine" magic again, and again, and not repeat his "Kick. Awesome!" (blooper which sweetly became an adopted motto among his fans).

Star Trek (2009)

The much anticipated film of 2009 perhaps, at least among sci-fi-natics and Trekkers/Trekkies alike. I count myself as a long standing Trekker and have made it a point to follow the ins and outs of the Star Trek mythology from its original series, the studio noise and thoughts of the eventual shapers of that universe such as Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner. Now, I have followed Shatner through his TJ Hooker days to Boston Legal, and inbetween also paid heed to his love of breeding horses - which I think he once appeared on Oprah about...

But Shatner (and I am the proud owner of a music CD he produced called "Free Enterprise") is even more vocal and prankish than ever. If you follow his video blog The Shatner Project where his daughter is sometimes offscreen as the intrepid interviewer, you get a terrific sense of his wit and humour, which may be too spicy for some yet. But he is brilliant as an actor and what a wise-crack! If you have watched some of his interviews in the Star Trek film DVDs, you realise that he does sometimes act up and say things that leave you wondering if he's teasing or not (he usually is...) And as such, I wonder about the enduring friendship between Shatner and Nimoy - they don't see much of each other these days. But in the mythology, these two men are the epitome of strength in unity, etc.

In the JJ Abrams movie (my reaction to the film which I blogged immediately is linked here), both Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine, as well as the whole cast, under the astute direction of JJ, pulled it off spectacularly. It is quite a phenomenon. The credit must also go to the writers who put a script together that is both intelligent as well as progressive, in terms of how we have witnessed the mythology play out over five decades.

But I liked Chris Pine as the young Kirk. You can't separate Kirk from Shatner, really - just as having another actor play Spock in any way is just absurb if Nimoy is around. But Quinto is both intelligent and particularly bright in his approach, and credible. We will probably get to experience a whole new Spock in this timeline, and for diehard fans, it would be a trip while new Star Trek fans will probably not appreciate the possibilities played out. Back to Kirk, the only thing I had a sense of disappointment was that young Kirk gets a headstart on how the fact that two of them will eventually great friends. In the ice cave Kirk runs into for refuge from a spider-like predator hot in pursuit of him, he encounters the Spock Prime. Here, I only wished JJ had slowed the pace down somewhat. But he seemed in a hurry to try and introduce the ensemble cast and bring them together before the last quarter of the film.

In the famous scene - never seen but somewhat famously referenced within the Star Trek mythos - is cadet Kirk's "cheat" in his exam, which was programmed by Commander Spock, where the only way was "death". Kirk adverted "death" by entering some subroutines into the simulation computer which resulted in a new, favourable result and no "deaths". As a result, he was suspended, and the stage is set for a Spock versus Kirk rivalry. The turnabout of this relationship midway through the film is a test of credibility for good writing; because we know how that relationship became so iconic in cinema and within the mythology. So, in some ways, the audience is already pandering inside for the two to pair up (some how). Logic, it seems, prevails, and more importantly, coincides with what the heart so much desires.

The best thing about this film is its return to the innocence (or naivete) with which the original series exuded much of, although in almost a literary sort of way (as John Cho/Sulu notes in an interview). Here it is accentuated by serious action and very effective special effects, thanks to the way cinematic magic has evolved since tin models in string and a smoking incenser was the standard.

There is a stylistic inference to the 1950s in the speech styles, perhaps as tribute to the original cast as well. In a way I am glad that Shatner did not make a cameo appearance; it allows us to move into the way the ensemble works without his overpowering presence. Even Spock Prime had to be somewhat muted in his role, but cleverly, Vulcans are perhaps more succinct. I am certain Bill Shatner will be back in someway to grace the new timeline, particularly since we never found his body within the Nexus in Star Trek: The Next Generation. But how will Bill appear? Maybe it will be via a young Uhura intercepting a sub-space transmission of Boston Legal?

I still enjoy following Bill Shatner wherever he's got something to say. I have enjoyed Chris Pine and am just glad that he's been rescued (permanently) from the dumpster of romanic comedies (Just My Luck, Blind Dating...) and will definitely have a whole new future ahead. In his interviews with his pal Zachary Quinto, Chris retains very much his own smart, brash, genuine - "I think and say it as it is" aka Bill Shatner approach. But Zach is all Spock: composed, articulate, intelligent. It is life imitating art imitating the life created those characters, and like it or not, it is happening.

Redefining Purpose

We are surrounded by influence of all sort: we grow up moulded in some way by what culture we adopt and believe in the values exerted around us. You can not claim to escape from any sort of influence, whether these give you a sense of being freed from something or another. Ultimately, our mind and spirit is a battlefield of influence, and the idea that you are independent of the forces that surround us, in the physical environment and what might be metaphysical. Just the mere thought and reflection, awareness and consciousness, brings us into a matrix of signs, symbols and ideas which form our basic language of understanding, essential for an exchange of perceptions and feelings, and this immediately limits our sense of individual freedom. Whatever our argument about the sensation and desire for freedom, there is just no escape from the influence of some idea that pre-existed before us, and exerts itself in our current reality. What is left which is original, to be discovered, is named and defined by some one and then enters into the universal threshold of our common language, creating its own gravity and effect on the intellect, and immediately aggregates and tugs at the minds of those who reflect the idea itself. We are immediately drawn towards it, and if we want, have to breakfree from its gravitational pull to fall towards some other idea or thought in the cosmological heaven of the mind. But the intellect is trapped inside this cosmos, which is not so readily defined by ourselves but by grander egos before us. The only brave might be the mad. The ones whose minds have warped around their own universes, and nothing else in this commonly shared universe matters to them. Not nakedness, not life itself, not how we (the others) live it. Nothing matters except their own reality. I feel this awareness; this otherness. But I can't quite trapeze over, my own being simply too familiar with the present gravity of this reality. You want to let go and flip over, and be completely free from the weirdness of this world, but it takes too much. Like the separation of body and soul; no, body and soul, which seem so knitted together that tearing it apart is like the uncanny possibility of forcing anti-matter and matter to coexist in the same spot without annihilation. All this makes for redefining the fundamental about what influence should indeed let be dominant in one's life, one's consciousness, one's being. Do we really chose, or we become and believe we can be free from all influence. Influence, like a breadth in itself, is something we need to have - like air - in order to enjoy the physical experience. You need to overcome the gag reflex from carbon dioxide building up in your apnea-world so that you can free-dive through life, one without breadth. It is a daring feat. To be free from influence: then, what will be so passionate about, after achieving this nirvanic emptiness?