6 Watches Stuff and then Talks About Them
Feb. 17th, 2008 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
newnumber6Let's start with the recent Stargate Atlantis episode, "Midway". Some relatively significant spoilers behind the cut.
This is the big Teal'c-meets-Ronon episode and... I have to say, I'm a little disappointed. They kind of went the ultra predictable route. The two start off at odds, and then through shared conflict begin to respect one another. Okay, it's a standard plot, that itself is not a reason to be annoyed. But it just felt too timid to actually delve into things. For example, they seemed to want to play 'these guys are equals in every way except their personalities' card, what with the fight that went on forever, like they were the two ultimate badasses. At least portray some differences between them, like, say, having Teal'C best Ronon at hand to hand (making him hate him even more because he's used to being the best), but Ronan being slightly better at weapons combat, since Teal'C's had decades more Hand to Hand experience and a strength advantage, but most of his weapons fighting has been with a long awkward staff. But no, it seemed like they were too timid to even suggest that one of them might be better than the other for fear of alienating one group of fans or another. Reminds me of comic teamups where both characters do unaccountably well against each other even though one character should be clearly superior.
My other main problem was the continued ultimate wussification of the Wraith. I've complained about this before, specifically in the episode "Sateda". It used to be that even one Wraith could be a threat to a whole team, they were supposed to be ultra tough and normal weapons had trouble taking them out, especially if they'd recently fed. Now one blast of any weapon kills them, and worst of all, _Shepherd_ is able to outlast them in an 'air rushing out' scenario. Come on, this just felt like a lazy episode.
(and what was with the whole paranoia about the possibility of the Wraith 'infiltrating' the population, so much that they considered nuking the whole base? They're _Wraith_, not Goa'uld, even if they get out into the public they can't exactly hide among the population. Though I think it might be cool to have a Wraith have escaped and then a followup ep to hunt it down on Earth)
For that matter, if Todd hacked in and got information on how to get to Earth, doesn't that make it that much _more_ unlikely that he didn't tell the rest of the Wraith about Atlantis' location? Wouldn't attacking there be a more logical outcome than going for Earth through a gate that's heavily fortified and could be easily shut down? (Oh, and the whole 'no need for an iris' thing on the gatebridge was a big flaw that should have been seen coming).
For that matter, once Midway blew, what stopped the puddlejumper from just going back through the gate? Shouldn't it have been fairly easy? The gates themselves weren't destroyed as far as I could tell (it usually takes a lot more)
On the other hand, it was good to see some old characters again... not just Dr. Lee, who is always a pleasure, but also Kavanaugh. And I suppose it gets the first meeting between the Ronan and Teal'c out of the way so their next interaction (hunting the last Wraith on Earth, who has a 'wraith DNA' injection and is turning normal humans into 'vampires'? I should totally write for Stargate!) can be on less conventional terms.
I also finally got around to rewatching Terminator 2. So yeah, the timeline problems with the movie series are clear. What was a surprise to me though was that T2 wasn't even able to stick to its _own_ timeline.
Okay, T2 makes it very clear that T1 happened in 1984. The Police report the T1000 uses also makes two other things clear: John Connor was born in 1985, and that when the movie starts, he is 10 years old. Not 12-13 as they say he was in T3. Or the same age as they suggest he was in T:SCC. He's 10 years old throughout the movie. They also make it very clear, Judgement Day is in August of 1997. (Since T:SCC is set in 1999 and says 2 years have passed since T2, that means that either Judgement Day was delayed in that series, or T2 happened in the immediate month or two before Judgement Day).
Okay, all of that is fair enough. The movie, despite coming out in 1991, is set in 1995. If the other movies aren't consistent with it, that's their problem. Sounds good, right?
Until you get to a little later in the movie, when Arnie is telling them about Dyson. "In a few months he develops a remarkable new prototype chip. In three years, Cyberdyne Systems is the leading supplier to the military."
Uhm... it's 1995. Add three years and you get 1998. That's _after_ Judgement Day. In any normal situation you could write it off as a mistake by the character, but this is a Terminator, a computer with detailed files, who is not known for being inexact. I think the only solution you can reach is that they were still writing it as though the movie was set in 1991, despite the age of John Connor and the date of the first movie.
Anyway, the best solution for T:SCC is still the Stargate model: Assume, generally, the events of the movies happened. However, in specific details and timeline issues the TV series is free to ignore to make the transition. I would have preferred a more rigorous adherence to a form of continuity, but when the source materials themselves are inconsistent, what can you do?
Still, I still believe T2 was the best of the series. It's not perfect, but it's quite good. It manages to avoid some big pitfalls. It's commonly cited as one of the few examples where the sequel is better than the original. But that's not the only convention it defies. For one thing, this is one of the few examples of a "Sequel, With Kids!" phenomenon. This almost _never_ works out well in a movie, but here it did, because you can't have the movie without the kid. The first movie set it up. So it's not a case where, like with The Mummy Returns or Temple of Doom, where the movie would probably have been better off if they never had included a kid. They had to. As a result, even if the kid is a little annoying and too precocious at times, it works.
Another thing is the movie seemed to have come at just the perfect time technology wise. Most of the effects are practical ones, except the T-1000, which is perfect in that the way it's used, the unreality of it actually makes it more convincing. In traditional CGI it all looks slightly off, but here that's okay, and the movie isn't overloaded with CGI that looks fake. Everything looks convincing, not hokey and plastic like T1, and not overly CGIed like a lot of other movies (T3 wasn't too bad in general for that, but the Terminatrix looked too obviously CGI when she was roboty since she was supposedly a hardbody). I think if it came a few years too early, it would have looked stupid. If it came a few years too late, they would have thrown too much CGI in it.
It's not perfect... it suffers from the standard terminator problem where the evil machine doesn't do the smart or logical thing at times when the plot requires. Like instead of killing Sarah and calling for John himself in her voice, he demands she do it, and threatens her long enough for Arnie to come up and smack him away.
I do like the Director's Cut more for everything except the 'far future everything is peachy!' ending. Much prefer the theatrical 'who knows what the road ahead brings' one.
This is the big Teal'c-meets-Ronon episode and... I have to say, I'm a little disappointed. They kind of went the ultra predictable route. The two start off at odds, and then through shared conflict begin to respect one another. Okay, it's a standard plot, that itself is not a reason to be annoyed. But it just felt too timid to actually delve into things. For example, they seemed to want to play 'these guys are equals in every way except their personalities' card, what with the fight that went on forever, like they were the two ultimate badasses. At least portray some differences between them, like, say, having Teal'C best Ronon at hand to hand (making him hate him even more because he's used to being the best), but Ronan being slightly better at weapons combat, since Teal'C's had decades more Hand to Hand experience and a strength advantage, but most of his weapons fighting has been with a long awkward staff. But no, it seemed like they were too timid to even suggest that one of them might be better than the other for fear of alienating one group of fans or another. Reminds me of comic teamups where both characters do unaccountably well against each other even though one character should be clearly superior.
My other main problem was the continued ultimate wussification of the Wraith. I've complained about this before, specifically in the episode "Sateda". It used to be that even one Wraith could be a threat to a whole team, they were supposed to be ultra tough and normal weapons had trouble taking them out, especially if they'd recently fed. Now one blast of any weapon kills them, and worst of all, _Shepherd_ is able to outlast them in an 'air rushing out' scenario. Come on, this just felt like a lazy episode.
(and what was with the whole paranoia about the possibility of the Wraith 'infiltrating' the population, so much that they considered nuking the whole base? They're _Wraith_, not Goa'uld, even if they get out into the public they can't exactly hide among the population. Though I think it might be cool to have a Wraith have escaped and then a followup ep to hunt it down on Earth)
For that matter, if Todd hacked in and got information on how to get to Earth, doesn't that make it that much _more_ unlikely that he didn't tell the rest of the Wraith about Atlantis' location? Wouldn't attacking there be a more logical outcome than going for Earth through a gate that's heavily fortified and could be easily shut down? (Oh, and the whole 'no need for an iris' thing on the gatebridge was a big flaw that should have been seen coming).
For that matter, once Midway blew, what stopped the puddlejumper from just going back through the gate? Shouldn't it have been fairly easy? The gates themselves weren't destroyed as far as I could tell (it usually takes a lot more)
On the other hand, it was good to see some old characters again... not just Dr. Lee, who is always a pleasure, but also Kavanaugh. And I suppose it gets the first meeting between the Ronan and Teal'c out of the way so their next interaction (hunting the last Wraith on Earth, who has a 'wraith DNA' injection and is turning normal humans into 'vampires'? I should totally write for Stargate!) can be on less conventional terms.
I also finally got around to rewatching Terminator 2. So yeah, the timeline problems with the movie series are clear. What was a surprise to me though was that T2 wasn't even able to stick to its _own_ timeline.
Okay, T2 makes it very clear that T1 happened in 1984. The Police report the T1000 uses also makes two other things clear: John Connor was born in 1985, and that when the movie starts, he is 10 years old. Not 12-13 as they say he was in T3. Or the same age as they suggest he was in T:SCC. He's 10 years old throughout the movie. They also make it very clear, Judgement Day is in August of 1997. (Since T:SCC is set in 1999 and says 2 years have passed since T2, that means that either Judgement Day was delayed in that series, or T2 happened in the immediate month or two before Judgement Day).
Okay, all of that is fair enough. The movie, despite coming out in 1991, is set in 1995. If the other movies aren't consistent with it, that's their problem. Sounds good, right?
Until you get to a little later in the movie, when Arnie is telling them about Dyson. "In a few months he develops a remarkable new prototype chip. In three years, Cyberdyne Systems is the leading supplier to the military."
Uhm... it's 1995. Add three years and you get 1998. That's _after_ Judgement Day. In any normal situation you could write it off as a mistake by the character, but this is a Terminator, a computer with detailed files, who is not known for being inexact. I think the only solution you can reach is that they were still writing it as though the movie was set in 1991, despite the age of John Connor and the date of the first movie.
Anyway, the best solution for T:SCC is still the Stargate model: Assume, generally, the events of the movies happened. However, in specific details and timeline issues the TV series is free to ignore to make the transition. I would have preferred a more rigorous adherence to a form of continuity, but when the source materials themselves are inconsistent, what can you do?
Still, I still believe T2 was the best of the series. It's not perfect, but it's quite good. It manages to avoid some big pitfalls. It's commonly cited as one of the few examples where the sequel is better than the original. But that's not the only convention it defies. For one thing, this is one of the few examples of a "Sequel, With Kids!" phenomenon. This almost _never_ works out well in a movie, but here it did, because you can't have the movie without the kid. The first movie set it up. So it's not a case where, like with The Mummy Returns or Temple of Doom, where the movie would probably have been better off if they never had included a kid. They had to. As a result, even if the kid is a little annoying and too precocious at times, it works.
Another thing is the movie seemed to have come at just the perfect time technology wise. Most of the effects are practical ones, except the T-1000, which is perfect in that the way it's used, the unreality of it actually makes it more convincing. In traditional CGI it all looks slightly off, but here that's okay, and the movie isn't overloaded with CGI that looks fake. Everything looks convincing, not hokey and plastic like T1, and not overly CGIed like a lot of other movies (T3 wasn't too bad in general for that, but the Terminatrix looked too obviously CGI when she was roboty since she was supposedly a hardbody). I think if it came a few years too early, it would have looked stupid. If it came a few years too late, they would have thrown too much CGI in it.
It's not perfect... it suffers from the standard terminator problem where the evil machine doesn't do the smart or logical thing at times when the plot requires. Like instead of killing Sarah and calling for John himself in her voice, he demands she do it, and threatens her long enough for Arnie to come up and smack him away.
I do like the Director's Cut more for everything except the 'far future everything is peachy!' ending. Much prefer the theatrical 'who knows what the road ahead brings' one.
