More New York Comic-Con: We’re still catching up.
On Saturday, Warner Bros. ended their panel with McG’s “Terminator Salvation” presentation. McG is a relentless huckster and bullshitter, and to get on the audience’s good side, he came out, pumped up about the OTHER movies presenting during the day, both “Watchmen” and “Avatar.”
“I can say firsthand that [James Cameron’s] ‘Avatar’ is going to be phenomenal. He’s reinvented the wheel technically and his story understanding is second to none so i would get your hopes really high for Avatar.”
He also did he best Hulkamania impression during almost every question.
“I can’t do this unless we all a little bit more excited [pause for WWF like applause]! I can’t be subdued, I can’t do it! I happy to come here to cheer the film, but this whole film has been energized by the passion of the franchise and the interest of restoring order to an idea and furthering a great idea that was birthed by Jim Cameron and we’ll see if we’re successful or not.”
He also gauged the audience’s feelings about Christian Bale (“what do you guys think of Christian Bale, huh??!”) , calling Bale’s house, only to reach his “wife” in a setup that felt more than a little rehearsed. He then produced a seven minute sizzle reel that showcased several action sequences out of context, with a few ill-advised jokes and an agreeable-but-boring “Black Hawk Down” visual motif. It looks as if they blow up many things, in between moments where characters wonder out loud about their “destinies.”
What he did reveal was that memorable tough guy Michael Ironside (“Starship Troopers”) plays the leader of the human resistance, and that Bale’s John Connor was considered something of a crackpot hosting underground radio programs foretelling the future his mother told him about. He also confirmed they were lifting from the other movies but not at all from the television show.
Our biggest beef, was this footage was essentially made to dazzle geeks and dazzled they were, but there’s drama and plot and conflict in this film, right? Christian Bale was hired to do more than just grunt like “The Dark Knight,” yes? Because if so, drama and reasons to display some acting chops were not on display in this seven minutes of footage. Again, it’s probably because geeks don’t care about drama and as long as things blow-up and are “badass,” they’re pleased, but we’re hoping for a lot more. – Gabe Toro
As we’ve already noted McG practically ran at the mouth all day, revealing the fact that Linda Hamilton would probably appear in the film in some shape or form, that today’s Arnold Schwarzenegger would not appear — though some CGI-like version of young ‘Terminator’ Arnold likely will – commenting on Bale-gate and dropping a diss on composer John Williams.