Comments on The Rejectionist: Terminator Offers Some Lessons for the Salvation o...

These are the same arguments someone made about St...

2009-12-23T14:54:01.603-05:00

These are the same arguments someone made about Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. See this link, which had me laughing:

http://blog.writersdigest.com/norules/2009/12/22/GreatStorytelling101OrWeveForgottenHowToTellStories.aspx

In a pretty backwards way, this was a very inspira...

2009-12-14T13:55:13.791-05:00

In a pretty backwards way, this was a very inspirational post for me.

Work from home India

"You guys should definitely review 'Li...

2009-12-13T07:10:46.171-05:00
"You guys should definitely review 'Live Free or Die Hard.' The only thing constant in that movie is action."

No it isn't.

Great post. We saw it in the theater and then my h...

2009-12-12T13:44:00.766-05:00
Great post. We saw it in the theater and then my husband went and rented it the other day! He'd forgotten we'd already seen it.

I also like #7, escpecially since three out of my four novels have a person of color as the main character. I'm not afraid!

You guys should definitely review "Live Free ...

2009-12-12T10:51:08.374-05:00
You guys should definitely review "Live Free or Die Hard." The only thing constant in that movie is action.

Seeing Nine Inch Nails in 1995 doesn't make yo...

2009-12-11T22:45:59.761-05:00
Seeing Nine Inch Nails in 1995 doesn't make you that old. Or, if it does, I am a freakin' dinosaur. Just saying.

I was so excited for this movie too. CHRISTIAN BAL...

2009-12-11T19:46:26.854-05:00
I was so excited for this movie too. CHRISTIAN BALE AS JOHN CONNOR!!! I thought, there is no way they can go wrong with that combo. And then McG proved me wrong.

Your review was dead on. I didn't care about any of the characters, the plot made no sense (and messed up the previous movies' timelines - jerks), and the action scenes were not even that cool.

The trailer with the NIN music was so awesome, and then to have no NIN in the movie... it was just another blow. I say, lets just watch the trailer and forget the movie ever happened.

Loved the tips for writing. Will keep those in min...

2009-12-11T19:19:58.782-05:00
Loved the tips for writing. Will keep those in mind :)

I was lucky I didn't have to pay to watch this movie. My husband and I got it as a free rental since it was my birthday. Thank goodness. Christian Bale totally annoyed me, and I usually love his acting. Except for his role in Batman. I think his earlier work was better, especially "Newsies." Can't beat a singing and dancing Christian Bale :)

Amen, sister.

2009-12-09T21:57:32.238-05:00
Amen, sister.

*bows* Thank you, thank you, and thank you again ...

2009-12-09T14:29:33.769-05:00
*bows* Thank you, thank you, and thank you again for saying these things. As a spec fic writer I hate what Hollywood does to science fiction films. Totally makes the genre seem to be written by idiots who can't think, when they produce movies like that.

Wait, you know someone with a boombox? But really...

2009-12-09T12:12:49.084-05:00
Wait, you know someone with a boombox?

But really, excellent guide to how not to crap on one's audience.

And while it may not be raisable over NIN/Bowie, for sheer age alone I call with a 1985 Clash concert in Portland.

I so wanted this movie to be good. I really, truly...

2009-12-09T09:40:30.672-05:00
I so wanted this movie to be good. I really, truly did. The character (glimpsed briefly in the previews) of the robot dude who thought he was human could have been fascinating and emotionally exciting and tragic and awesome...

But alas, that didn't happen. I haven't even seen the movie - but I have heard from scads of trusted friends and sources how much it sucked, so I didn't bother.

I just watched this instead:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2P7yx3q3m8k

FANTASTIC post, btw. Thank you for making me laugh 'til I peed. :)

Regarding using the advertisement soundtrack as th...

2009-12-09T03:56:31.235-05:00
Regarding using the advertisement soundtrack as the actual soundtrack of the movie, this is what killed Starship Troopers for me. Not the crap acting. Not the logistical plot holes. Not Doogie Howser (actually, he was the only redeeming quality, I thought...might just be me). What killed it for me was the fact that every commercial for months had Blur's heart-revving guitar riffs leading to a mosh-pit-inducing "WooHOO!"

And where was the woohoo in the movie? Nowhere until the ending credits, long long after I had stopped caring.

We recommend the movie 2012 - for many of the same...

2009-12-09T01:07:05.711-05:00
We recommend the movie 2012 - for many of the same reasons. Sight gags and bending the laws of gravity within a 50 years old geophysical theory does not a story make.

The plus was casting a hero of color, who almost had as much film time as the antihero.

when i grow up i want to be funny like you.

2009-12-09T00:37:46.664-05:00
when i grow up i want to be funny like you.

I must point out that a veterinarian performing a ...

2009-12-08T20:46:50.808-05:00
I must point out that a veterinarian performing a heart transplant is way more likely than a helicopter flying through a nuclear explosion.*

While we're on the subject of things we'd like never to see again, can we PLEASE not make the villain's entire motivation for badness be the fact that his PREGNANT WIFE DIED? (For those not privy to the jumps in my brain, we're now on the new Star Trek rather than TS.) The villain saw HIS WHOLE PLANET BE ANNIHILATED but apparently the death of multiple billions of people was not sufficient motivation for him to seek revenge. No, if his wife had only lived...a little meditation, a little healing massage, and he'd have gotten over the whole my-homeworld-was-eaten-by-a-supernova thing. But she died, and therefore HE MUST DEVOTE HIS LIFE TO DESTROYING insert spoiler here. YAWN.

*Let the record reflect that I am a veterinarian, and therefore hugely biased.

Now that's what I call a close encounter! Oka...

2009-12-08T20:22:28.085-05:00
Now that's what I call a close encounter!

Okay, I kinda love Independence Day. B-Movie goodness.

For some reason I take much more joy (and have much more patience for) cheesy pulp in movies than I do in literature. Books... not much tolerance anymore. But I like me a good B-movie action flick. Brain release. Explosions! Woo hoo!

And if you want a good evisceration of this film, check out the review by novelist Catherynne M. Valente here.

Love this post; I almost, almost watched this movi...

2009-12-08T19:17:49.216-05:00
Love this post; I almost, almost watched this movie with my boyfriend last night, thanks for the heads up. I have a feeling I'll have to watch it with him eventually though. Love your points about plot, and making my novel make sense consistently. Great advice--you rock.

LOVE IT!!!!!!!! Astute, clever, and patently hyst...

2009-12-08T17:47:16.316-05:00
LOVE IT!!!!!!!!

Astute, clever, and patently hysterical (' narrowly evading sexual assault does not, in our experience, make the ladies feel frisky'...someone please tell crime novelists this!).

I think she was pregnant purely to follow throu...

2009-12-08T17:32:38.849-05:00
I think she was pregnant purely to follow through with the continuity of the third movie in which Ah-nold says she has 3 children before he dies.

Okay, that makes sense. Forgot about that. But I still have issue with them not saying a damn thing about it in this movie, which is explained somewhere in the mess below. Read at your own risk.

People are pregnant for 9 months, they don't always have babies during dramatic points in time.

My husband actually said the same thing when I questioned it. Here's my problem, though. This is a movie, aka not real life. Every last detail is pre-planned for some kind of effect.

When I first saw her character, I thought, "Hmm. She could pop at any moment. Wonder how that fits in."

A pregnant woman is noticeable. And she is not just any pregnant woman, she is the wife of the MC (well, sort of...I really couldn't tell you who the true MC of that story was: John Connor, Kyle Reese, or Marcus the Machine Man).

Now I'm not saying that her pregnancy had to have some grand significance (if it had, that would have been interesting, as I stated above), but at the very least, they could have mentioned it in some way, even in passing. Like, for instance, John looks at her belly and says, "Hey, at least this baby's father isn't 15 and stuck in the future/past/whatever-it-is-because-I-honestly-get-a-headache-form that-whole-story-line."

Or something like that.

But no, they just ignore it completely, like she isn't knocking people over with her giant uterus every time she turns. Seriously. She was not just a little bit pregnant.

Did the actress just happen to be pregnant at the time of filming? That wouldn't surprise me, especially after Keith's comment that you can do shitty work and not have it affect your resume at all.

Excuse me, Le R, but I seem to be in rant mode today. Sorry for the excess wordage. I'll make up for it with a double shipment on Friday. Promise.

I was actually more bothered by the fact that a ve...

2009-12-08T16:52:45.902-05:00
I was actually more bothered by the fact that a veterinarian seemingly did a heart transplant (and with no anti-rejection meds, how that's going to work out I don't know) than most the other stuff, but what can you do?

Lydia - I think she was pregnant purely to follow through with the continuity of the third movie in which Ah-nold says she has 3 children before he dies. I was actually kind of refreshed by the fact that she didn't have a baby. People are pregnant for 9 months, they don't always have babies during dramatic points in time. Sometimes babies are just born on "Tuesday".

(Darn it, one of my comments got lost. Trying agai...

2009-12-08T16:48:19.296-05:00
(Darn it, one of my comments got lost. Trying again...)

The fact that a lot of Bale's scenes have nothing to do with the (theoretical) plot may not be entirely the writers' fault.

McG originally offered the part of the human-cyborg to Bale. Bale insisted on playing the far less interesting John Connor instead, reasoning that Connor *should* be the MC.

It looks to me like McG rebalanced the movie to give Bale-as-Connor a bunch of extra screen time, without giving him any more story.

Ardendra: I am NOBODY whose opinion should matter ...

2009-12-08T16:38:55.203-05:00
Ardendra: I am NOBODY whose opinion should matter to you but as a consumer of books I would have no issue with what you propose. That is not an arbitrary minority sidekick character unless you also make him gay and he is inexplicalby crucial for all shopping expeditions. What you're describing is totally legit and a few people (like me)might notice if you avoid any racial reference.

Bahahaha! Love number 4. Action films obey their o...

2009-12-08T16:20:18.254-05:00
Bahahaha! Love number 4. Action films obey their own laws of physics. My favourite: Bond and a plane falling off a cliff in Goldeneye and Bondy CATCHES UP TO the plane as they fall, by sheer determination of his winged eyebrows, it seems.

A plot? A PLOT?! That's just crazy-talk! I ...

2009-12-08T15:55:43.685-05:00
A plot? A PLOT?! That's just crazy-talk!

I don't feel so bad now for interjecting in threads on the NaNo humor forums saying, "Yes, you do, in fact, need things to happen in your novel. 'Wacky people standing around being wacky wacky wacky. WACKY!' doth not a novel make." If I had a nickel for every person who gave the advice that you don't need any plot in a novel, I'd have enough to go buy myself a cassette of GNR!