Terminator Salvation and Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian

So, I guess I am not as insane as I, and everyone else, would like to think. I did take today off from any sort of athletics. Now I am lying awake thinking about tomorrow and what it may bring. Fortunately, I figured out how to commence the online summer school. All I need to do now is figure out how to customize my own web site with quizzes and worksheets with automatic feedback and data collection.

Alright, enough about me. Here are two more movie reviews:

Terminator Salvation

What to say...special effects were awesome. But, I think that is really all I can say. The story seemed nonexistent, except for the obvious that was given in the trailer: machine thinks it's human; real humans react favorably as well as unfavorably to this new machine; machine has a choice to do as it is programmed (destroy humans) or try and become what it could never be - human. I think the trailer gave away too much. I am also disappointed with John Connor. All the original Terminator movies make John Connor to be some sort of prophet to the "resistance". This movie was the perfect opportunity to display some of this prophetic behavior. Unfortunately, I am not a big fan of Christian Bale. With this in mind, John Connor had no personality, charisma, nor any real character to make him distinct, honorary, and just plain heroic. Any other actor probably could have been sufficient and might have brought a different appeal to the character. Never (that I know of) has John Connor's character been thoroughly been defined, except through word-of-mouth. As a viewer, I have always been expected to accept John's heroism and allow him to make choices that I should believe in. For me, this is not so; Christian Bale's portrayal of John Connor simply lacked...

Besides this major character flaw, I didn't feel the sense of anxiety that I did for the existing Terminator movies. Yes, I was rather young and most likely was easily scared of those things horrific to any seven-year-old; however, those same anxieties still exist when I watch it now despite my age. The difference from 1984 to now is that I have much better control over my emotions than before and life experiences help me to better understand the fiction of it.

Night at the Museum Battle of the Smithsonian

The first Night at the Museum was new, original, and simply refreshing. What a great premise and appeal to the youth of today: Museums can really bring history to life. This second movie lost that initial appeal. This one seemed calculated and redundant. The same sort of jokes were said again and again without enthusiasm or even originality. Now I can't be too mean; I did enjoy the movie. It was funny. However, it seemed as though it was a movie to see how many times they can make children laugh. Now I like a good children's story, but this one seemed too elementary without a real cause. What was the moral? What was the enlightening truths that children everywhere will unknowingly understand through laughter and adventure?

Despite its elementary nature, the lead female was really annoying. She was overbearing, rude, inconsiderate, and "airy" - she liked to hide her intellect. Yet, the lead male was continually polite, courteous, and welcoming. Well that has a nice moral to it, but in the end he never mentions the modifications needed in her behavior. She is allowed to be a "bad" person without any sort of ramifications.

Oh well, for a while all the movies I had been seeing have been really fun. As the saying goes, "all good things must come to an end."