Time lapse + tilt shift video!

Not that I understand it much … but some bloke does this as his pet project.

This was done at Sydney ports … amazing !

Bathtub V from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

TIme to pick up photography !

 

Terminator Salvation

Went and saw Terminator twice !!!! Yesterday and Today (Warning: Spoilers below)

I loved the first two Terminators… (well the 2nd one…mostly). In my mind there were quite a few factors that made it stand out

1. The Terminator was a proper character. The director (James Cameron … also known for directing Aliens/Titanic) made the terminator more than just a tin can with legs and hands attached.
2. You could relate to the main characters. Sarah Conner, Young John Connor, Terminator (Arnie) .. and to some level T-1000(the melting man)! You could tell what the main characters felt like, the struggles they were going through, the tension at various points when T-1000 would get an arm’s length close to the Connors and Arnie (T-800) would be there just in time – to fight to keep those two alive.
3. You could feel the internal struggle that both the Connors were going through – particularly that they were both getting more dependant/attached to T-800, while at the same time realising that it originated from the same machines that was trying to kill them.
4. You could feel the Terminator becoming more human over the course of the 2 hour movie… while at the same time not forgetting that it’s a machine ! (Which I think is quite an achievement …)

However…. with Terminator Salvation.. this is what I saw

1. John Conner (i.e. Christian Bale) – This was terribly portrayed. It could be the writers and/or the acting, but in brief. I thought Bale performed the same voiceovers that he had used for Batman. (short brief raspy voice) … In fact all he would’ve had to do is put on the batsuit & he’d fit right in !
2. Marcus Wright (i.e. Sam Worthington) – This one was much better done. He appeared even more human than Connor and had a lot more sentences to speak!
3. The trouble with the two points above… is that wasn’t the movie supposed to be highlighting Connor’s fight!!!!! It did everything but that. The whole role of Connor appeared to be rather insignificant and it certainly wasn’t convincing enough.
4. And what’s the deal with Connor’s wife being shown as pregnant…but not a single word was uttered about this. (I mean.. didn’t they feel like discussing at any point how difficult it would be to raise a kid in a post-apocalyptic world ! … unless they were expecting to enrol him in the nearest available kindey ..!)
5. Admittedly, the terminators themselves were well done. It would great to be able to see close ups of T-600 and for them to come up with a story as to how T-800 could’ve come about. However, the introduction of a CG animated Arnie just to please fans was probably the silliest thing they could’ve done. The scene where the door blows off and he’s standing behind it (with liquid nitrogen ’smoke’ fuming around him) was probably the comical highlight of the whole movie. I was almost expecting him to go ‘Hastalavista Baby!’ at some point.
6. At the end of the movie, the only character I thought I understood and began to care about was Marcus Wright. He was the only character whose history was somewhat portrayed, what he was thinking about, his internal struggle and his quest to retain his human-ness. Every other character seemed to be an add-on with their role seemingly ‘fitted’ around whatever Marcus needed to achieve.

Having said all this.. my recommendation is as follows

Rating: 5/10

(Would recommend DVD rental to only die-hard Terminator fans, otherwise wait till it comes out on free to air TV. Hint: I’ve not mentioned going to the movies to see this)