Another Terminator Movie

Anyone who knows me well knows that I sort of freak out over most (I deliberately don't use the word all) things Terminator. I love all three movies--I think they probably comprise the greatest science-fiction/action trilogy of all time. I think the story is wonderful, and the films are really very, very good. James Cameron, before he sort of dropped out of the industry after Titanic, was the most talented director of action films in the last...well, at least thirty years, but possibly ever. He was responsible for the first two (brilliant pieces of work, both), and the third one, in my not-so-humble opinion, was a fine film as well.

I'm not too hot on the TV series that gracing Fox these days, but it could be worse. I've been watching it because I'm compelled to. That's what obsession does.

But what I'm infinitely MORE excited about is Terminator Salvation. There are two trailers for it on Apple right now--the second one was added today, and it looks pretty wonderful. That's the primary motivation for this post.

A lot of people that are much bigger dorks about the Terminator franchise than I (yes, it's possible...frighteningly possible) are extremely skeptical about whether this film will be any good. Here's why I think it will be great:

1. Christian Bale. The man can't miss. He's been in some of the most solid blockbusters of the last few years, and I can't see him making a bad choice for something like this. He's smart--in the last three years, he's had the lead role in Batman Begins, Rescue Dawn, The Prestige, 3:10 to Yuma, and The Dark Knight. That's three years.

2. Jonathan Nolan and (to a lesser degree) Paul Haggis. Jonathan Nolan is the writing talent behind Memento, The Prestige, and The Dark Knight. Jon is simply a brilliant writer, and he has, to my knowledge, final writing credit on this film. But if that's not good enough, Paul Haggis had the script before him, and he's been behind such little projects as Crash, Million Dollar Baby, Flags of Our Fathers, Casino Royale, Letters from Iwo Jima, and, most recently, Quantum of Solace, just to name a few. If you can't trust the Terminator franchise in these guys' hands, well...you get the idea.

3. The trailers. Admittedly, you can never fully determine whether a film will be good or bad based solely on its trailer. Everyone has had the experience of being fooled into seeing a terrible film because the trailer made it look slick and sexy. But I'm getting better at being able to see through the bull, and these two trailers look extremely promising.

Alright. I'm done advertizing for this film. Mostly I just wanted to vent about how excited I am about it.