I Am A Machine!

The new Terminator is revealed….

TF Film Review: Terminator Salvation

The Japanese release of this new installment in the Terminator franchise was for once only a couple of weeks after the western world and having bought my ticket in advance a few weeks ago (saves 500 yen!) I went to see this reboot of the Terminator series on Sunday with a work colleague.  It has to be one of the noisiest films I’ve ever seen, full of gunfire and things blowing up. Inevitably I enjoyed it though to be honest I don’t think it will live too long in the memory. Furthermore, I can’t really see it being so appealing to the casual cinema-goers who aren’t really Terminator fans. I love what Christian Bale has done to help rejuvenate the Batman franchise which had become a bit of a joke but his fellow actor Sam Worthington stomped all over him in this one with a big metal foot. Also, nice to see that there was no mis-placed humour though this could be debated with the famous lines ‘Come with me if you want to live’ and ‘I’ll be back’ included as almost throwaway lines. There was also the appearance of a certain Austrian former body builder albeit in CGI form as his Governor of California duties meant he was too busy to film a cameo. Given his age that was maybe for the best.

You can see my photos of the Terminator Exhibition in Odaiba here.

“Come With Me If You Want To See….The Terminator Exhibition”

As a fan of the whole Terminator franchise I just had to go to Odaiba and see ‘Terminator Exhibition: Battle or Coexistence? Robots and Our Future’. Most museums may be free in England but not here in Tokyo where myself and Ethan had to cough up 1200 yen to enter the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation.

Japan is of course famed for its development of pet and cleaning robots and this exhibition was based on the possibility of robots and humans coexisting (whether killing or protecting) as portrayed by the Terminator series. Having read this blurb I wasn’t expecting too much in the way of Terminator related things and I was half right but there was actually more than I imagined. Of course the whole thing was basically just a big promotion for next months new film and there was a mini-cinema zone playing the trailers. One other zone featured the costumes and robots from the next film including the more black degraded robots (rather than shiny and silver) and the Mototerminator which as the name suggests is a cross between a motorbike and a terminator. The main zone featured exhibits, costumes, artwork and photos from all the movies as well as a model of Cameron (played by the gorgeous Summer Glau) who plays the terminator protecting John Connor in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series.

I was told off three times for use of flash photography but given that they don’t eject you for such a thing I just had to make sure that it was a different staff member who spoke to me each time and as always in this country there were loads of workers present.

Luckily we could sell our tickets outside at half price which made the exhibition more satisfying and inevitably it did its job of whetting our appetite for the forthcoming Terminator Salvation (Terminator 4 in Japan) film which is released in Japan on June 13th.

You can see my Terminator Exhibition photos here