Category: Daily

It’s never too late to give another stiff kick to the ribs of “Terminator Salvation,” it seems.  The film just opened in the UK last week, opening the doors for this David Cox blog entry on the Guardian website.  It’s a thorough, well-conceived, smart piece about the fact that Hollywood seems to be making a mess of science-fiction these days, choosing nostalgia over novelty and sadly missing the boat on some of the most captivating ideas that lie right in front of our faces.

Of course, this is why we should all rally around a guy like Duncan Jones who is clearly interested in those ideas and could push the genre, finally, into its brave new world.  But until creative people make the calls rather than fiscally conscious business conservatives, it’ll just be more of the same.  I’m elated that “Star Trek,” a film that at least touches on some more intriguing possibilities if by way of plot device alone, is the highest grossing film of the year.  Maybe that can help signal a change and guys like Jones can get their work out there more and more.  Ditto James Cameron’s “Avatar” when it finally makes its way to theaters.

Here’s Cox’s argument, in a nutshell:

A quarter of a century ago, when The Terminator hit the screen, things were a bit different. Then, advances in computing were a disquieting novelty to many. Hal’s terrifying takeover of the Discovery still haunted cinemagoers’ imaginations from 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was a time for murderous cyborgs. Now, however, we take artificial intelligence for granted. It’s become humdrum rather than chilling.

Future global conflict was an all too real prospect in the era of the cold war. Post-apocalyptic, Mad Max worlds, like the one in which Terminator Salvation is set, were far from fantastical for a generation living in genuine terror of imminent nuclear holocaust. Today, our fears lie elsewhere…Our own age ought to provide it with plenty of raw material for the performance of these functions. Cosmology, sub-atomic physics and the life sciences are transforming our understanding of reality, while the way human life should be organised has come once more into question.

Yet, Hollywood continues to offer us sci-fi spectaculars that, like Terminator Salvation, seem strangely out of time. Star Wars: The Clone Wars was perhaps the most egregious example of an attempt to suck box-office dollars from the decaying corpse of a cold war masterpiece. Our decade’s superhero sagas carry a whiff of nostalgia for the age of the comic book. Star Trek was a reminder that space was once the final frontier. We’ve learned since then that the frontiers that matter are closer to home.

Read the rest over at The Guardian.  Also, I have to say, I don’t think there is another traditional media outlet that has utilized new media, specifically blogs, as completely and smartly as The Guardian.  The posts are consistently interesting, never derivative and always reflective of the best op-ed journalism or commentary.