The teaser trailer and stills for 20th Century Studios’ “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which first debuted in cinemas on May 5, is available now. James Cameron’s first follow-up to his “Avatar,” the highest-grossing film of all time, will open in Australian cinemas on December 15.
Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, “Avatar: The Way of Water” begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure. Directed by James Cameron and produced by Cameron and Jon Landau, the film stars Zoe Saldana, Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement and Kate Winslet.
To whet audiences’ appetites, the studio will re-release “Avatar” in cinemas on September 22.
Summary: Terminator Genisys sees John Connor (Jason Clarke) about to defeat Skynet and its machines so to ensure the victory he sends his dedicated right-hand man Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 to protect his mother, Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) from a potential attack.
However this is where everything changes from the original Terminator storyline. Yes when Kyle arrives back in 1984 to protect Sarah the T-1000 (Byung-hun Lee) is waiting for him but many other things are a miss. Sarah Connor is not the innocent waitress he is expecting – instead she is ready for the Armageddon that is about to happen and already has a protector, a Terminator named Pops (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who has been looking after her since she was nine years old.
Year: 2015
Australian Cinema Release Date: 2nd July, 2015
Australian DVD Release Date: TBA
Country: USA
Director: Alan Taylor
Screenwriter: Laeta Kalogridis, Patrick Lussier, James Cameron (characters), Gale Ann Hurd (characters)
Cast: Brett Azar (Guardian – young/T-800), Wayne Bastrup (Young O’Brien), Patrick Constantine Bertagnolli Jnr. (Officer Cazzuto), Kerry Cahill (Lt. Whitley), Emilia Clarke (Sarah Connor), Jason Clarke (John Connor), Kyle Russell Clements (Commander Pike Sumner), Jai Courtney (Kyle Reese), Ian Etheridge (Skynet – 10 yrs old), Matty Ferraro (Agent Janssen), Griff Furst (Agent Burke), Michael Gladis (Mt. Matias), Douglas M. Griffin (Garber), Nolan Gross (Skynet – 12/14 yrs old), Sandrine Holt (Detective Cheung), Johnny La (Harry Lu), Byung-hun Lee (Cop/T-1000), Seth Merriwether (Skynet – 18 yrs old), Dayo Okeniyi (Danny Dyson), Afemo Omilami (Perry), Bryant Prince (Young Kyle), Otto Sanchez (Detective Timmons), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Guardian) J.K. Simmons (O’Brien), Douglas Smith (Young John Connor), Matt Smith (Alex), Nathan O’Neil Smith (Officer Schanker), Willa Taylor (Young Sarah), Courtney B. Vance (Miles Dyson), Joseph Velez (Special Agent Romero), Gregory Alan Williams (Detective Harding), Teri Wybble (Mariam)
Runtime: 126 mins
Classification: M
OUR TERMINATOR GENISYS REVIEWS & RATINGS:
David Griffiths:
After hearing critics and fanboys alike talking about Terminator Genisys after the screening I attended I have ended up believing that you will never ever make a fanboy happy. Over the years I have heard people complain that the latest film in the franchise ‘never does enough to tap into the earlier films in the series.’ Well that certainly isn’t the case for Terminator Genisys, here director Alan Taylor (most noted for being the man at the helm of Thor: The Dark World) takes the film right back to the happenings of Terminator and T2 and then simply doesn’t a little (okay a major) reset. So here was I thinking the fanboys would be in the same rapture I was, that was cool? Right? Wrong!!!
It seems the major problem that most fanboys are having with Terminator Genisys is that a certain character (if you’ve seen the trailer you’ll know who I am talking about) makes a massive switch of sides, through no fault of his own I should point out. Well I’m sorry but a character’s destiny isn’t exactly something that a fan of a series gets a say about. If they did then Dumbledore probably wouldn’t have died in Harry Potter and Jar Jar may have been killed off painfully in Star Wars. No what happens to characters in any franchise lies solely with the creative team behind it, so we have no right to complain. Keeping that in mind both Arnie and the man himself James Cameron gave the script for Terminator Genisys a huge thumbs up so let’s just relax and judge this film on what ended up on the big screen and not what we wanted it to be in our daydreams.
For a start the storyline of Terminator Genisys ain’t that bad. Just as I was getting déjà vu from Taylor’s re-created Terminator scenes I was suddenly jolted into a realization that while he hadn’t exactly rebooted the franchise he had delivered a pretty decent mind-wreck that had me suddenly more interested than anything in Terminator Salvation or Rise Of The Machines had. And that interest remained for the rest of the film as Taylor constantly put his characters at risk and messed with timelines. Once you have realised that the screenwriters here were only too happy to mess with existing timelines you suddenly also realise that the suspense level was raised to extreme… after all what stops them from bumping off someone major to the franchise as well?
At times the CGI in Terminator Genisys makes you suspend belief a little too much, but that is more than compensated by the fact that the screenplay gives this film a little bit heart as well. While I’m not 100% sure I enjoyed the so-called humor put into the film, Arnie pushing the point ‘old doesn’t mean obsolete’, I did enjoy the fact that suddenly questions were raised over whether or not a robot like ‘Pops’ could develop human feelings after a while. We’re kidding ourselves if we didn’t believe that Pops was seeing Sarah at his daughter for most of the film.
When it comes the cast things were a little up and down. Firstly Arnie does absolutely nothing wrong and I can only hope that when I’m nearly seventy years old that I am still wanting to jump off helicopters and get into physically demanding fights with stuntmen. Terminator Genisys shows that bar Sylvester Stallone Arnie is one of the fittest near-pensioners going around. He is also well supported by Emilia Clarke who shows that she has more than just looking pretty in Game Of Thrones in her arsenal. Here in Terminator Genisys she steps into the role of Sarah Connor with complete ease showing that she has the skills to be both a dramatic actress and an action star when she wants to be.
But there are some problems with the casting of Terminator Genisys as well. Jason Clarke is passable as John Connor, although fans of the series beware he does take some getting used to. The same can’t be said for Jai Courtney though. With all credit to Courtney we have seen in films like Jack Reacher and Divergent that this is a guy that can act and be the action hero, but here something is badly amiss. He just simply doesn’t fit into the role of Kyle Reese at all and at times his acting seems well below the par set by Emilia Clarke and yes even Arnie. If he wants to retain his role in any further Terminator films you get the feeling that Courtney is really going to have to try and step up a little.
At the end of the day Terminator Genisys is an entertaining and very different Terminator film that grew on me more and more the longer it went. Given it is nowhere near as good as Terminator or T2, but then did any of us expect it would get close to their perfection, but is a lot better than the very bland Rise Of The Machines. Yes, some people may not like the changes to the timeline but hey this could have been a lot worse and to give Terminator Genisys credit I never once grew bored of it all and that isn’t something I can say about some of the action films that have been around recently. Terminator Genisys is a pretty decent effort that I can’t wait to explore again.
It’s funny that whenever a list gets put together of the best science fiction television shows of all time it always seems like people gravitate towards programs like “Star Trek,” “Babylon 5” and “Stargate” – all the predictable ones. But what about those great shows that always get forgotten about. The ones that you watched religiously when they on television, you may have even bought them on DVD, but always seem to be forgotten during the traditional ‘best of’ discussions and debates. Well let’s take a look at some of those forgotten greats.
“Firefly” (2002) – From the ultra-creative mind of Joss Whedon (yes the same man that is now mostly known for “The Avengers” movie) came “Firefly.” This short lived series came at the height of Whedon’s “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” period… the man could do no wrong. Well that’s what people thought but Firefly kind of proved he could – the show never really gained any traction and the network axed it after just one season. But then the show found a new life on DVD and quickly became one of the highest selling DVD box sets of all time.
“Firefly” is an absolute gem of a science fiction series, Whedon wrote it as a space western with the cowboy being Captain Malcolm ‘Mal’ Reynolds (Nathan Fillion), a virtual outlaw who was always up for doing something a little dodgy if it meant money for himself and his trust crew/passengers which included a prostitute, a preacher and a number of ‘gunslingers’. With some great dialogue, entertaining story-lines and amazing characterization, this is one sci-fi show that all fans of the genre must sit down and enjoy.
“Dark Angel” (2000-2002) – With so many big name directors and producers making their presence felt on the small screen it seemed only fitting that one of the best minds behind sci-fi would bring something to the table. In 2000 James Cameron introduced the world to “Dark Angel”, a television show that revolved around the character of Max (Jessica Alba) a genetically-enhanced human that lives in the real world after escaping from the lab where she was born. With the help of the dogged Logan Cale (Michael Weatherly) helping her out part of the fun of the show was watching as Max learnt more about what had happened to her while she avoided capture and made moves to expose her plight to the world.
“Farscape” (1999-2003) – When you first think of quality science-fiction television you don’t immediately think of Australia – yet that is where one of the finest sci-fi shows was made and produced. “Farscape” first hit television screens in 1999 and revolved around the adventures of astronaut John Crichton (Ben Browder) who found himself going through a wormhole and finding himself in a part of the universe that he never knew existed.
While trying to find his way home he lived on a ‘living’ ship with crew that included many alien beings and the very human-like Officer Aeryn Sun (Claudia Black) with whom there was constant ‘will-they-won’t-they’ moments.
“Farscape” was always one of those shows where you would never know what to expect from any given episode. Some would be funny, some would be action packed while others would be extremely dark and make you really think. The show also included one of the most evil ‘baddies’ of all time the mysterious Scorpius (Wayne Pygram).
“Smallville” (2001-2011) – The character of Clark Kent/Superman has fascinated a number of generations now, so it was very little surprise when in 2001 DC Comics allowed Superman to once again hit the small screen. This time Clark was played by Tom Welling and the show was much darker than its predecessor “The Adventures Of Lois & Clark”. “Smallville” allowed viewers to watch as Clark battled with everyday things such as high school with friends such as Chloe (Allison Mack) while also learning about his super powers and trying to work out his feelings for friend Lana Lang (Kristen Kreuk). Fans of the series also got to watch his rivalry with arch-enemy Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) from day one.
“Jericho” (2006-2008) – Perhaps the most underrated sci-fi series of all time, though, is “Jericho.” The screenwriting and characterization on this show was top-notch and it was one of those shows where you simply could not miss the next episode. The show originally aired in 2006 and was centered in the township of Jericho, a township that is not even damaged when nuclear blasts hit most major American cities. Episodes looked at the problems that this caused for local residents as they were now cut off from everything but also looked at how it impacted on family and of course local politics. The brilliance of this show though was that the storylines also made the audience wonder what involvement two of the main characters – Jake Green (Skeet Urlich) and Robert Hawkins (Lennie James) – had in the terrorist attacks.
Just how much “Jericho” was loved by its fans was evident when the show was originally cancelled after its first season and the fans lobbied the television network until a shortened second season was made. Even after that season folded the show continued on in the form of comics.
As you can see there are a tonne of good science fiction shows out there that need to be explored if you have never had the time to sit down and watch them. Sometimes the underrated shows are just as good as those deemed to be the leaders in their fields.
It’s what every young actor dreams of, they are offered a role in a film that looks like it could become a blockbuster. So what do you do? Phone Mum and Dad? Jump in the air? Well for some Hollywood actors they decided to say no… yes that’s right say no to what could have become one of the biggest roles of their career. Let’s have a look at the men who had the nerve to say ‘no.’
Tom Selleck – It almost seems like something that could have happened in another universe, but believe or not Harrison Ford wasn’t actually the producers first choice to play the legendary explorer Indiana Jones. When pre-production first started on “Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom” way back in the early 1980s the producers wanted the mustached-one himself, Tom Selleck to play the action hero. At the time Selleck was hot property due to the fact that he was playing television cop Magnum in the extremely popular “Magnum P.I.” However, when he was offered the role of Indy he turned it down, so George Lucas went with the man he had just worked with on the “Star Wars” franchise – Harrison Ford.
Will Smith – Keanu Reeves has joked in the past that getting to play Neo in the sci-fi thriller “The Matrix” provided him with enough money to feed his family forever. But Mr. Reeves should consider himself extremely lucky for every having the opportunity to don the duster jacket and enter into the realm of the matrix, because he wasn’t Andy and Lana Wachowski’s first choice to play the role. The Wachowski’s first choice was Will Smith who had just completed work on his comedy television series “The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air” and was the toast of Hollywood after delivering great performances in blockbusters such as “Independence Day,” “Men In Black” and “Enemy Of The State.” Ironically, Smith ended up doing “Wild, Wild West” instead of “The Matrix” and as time has since told, that was the beginning of the fall of his career as far as critics were concerned.
Jack Nicholson – Okay, so ultimately it didn’t affect his acting career all that much, but how many people know that screen legend Jack Nicholson once turned down one of the most iconic screen roles of all time. Back in 1972 when director Francis Ford Coppola was putting together his cast for arguably one of the most famous films of all time, “The Godfather,” he originally approached Jack Nicholson about playing the role of Michael Corleone. Nicholson turned down the role and instead Coppola gave the role to a virtual unknown called Al Pacino who used the role to become a screen legend himself.
Matt Damon – Matt Damon may be one of the biggest stars on the planet so it’s a little weird to find out that the actor turned down two roles that could have helped him become an even bigger star. It seems Damon may have something against franchises because both film roles he turned down were roles in two of the biggest franchises of modern times. Firstly, Damon turned the lead role in James Cameron’s “Avatar,” which was feverishly snapped up by Australian Sam Worthington, and then went on to turn down the role of Harvey Dent in Christopher Nolan’s Batman epic “The Dark Knight.” Both films went on to become mega blockbusters at the box office; however, people should cut Damon a little slack as he turned down “Avatar” to do “The Bourne Ultimatum” and turned down “The Dark Knight” to do “Invictus,” so both his choices still kind of worked anyway.
Johnny Depp – “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” has become one of the most iconic films of all time and even back in 1986 you would have thought any actor would have jumped at the opportunity to work with director John Hughes. Hughes may have delivered great films like “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Pretty In Pink” but that wasn’t enough to win over Johnny Depp who decided to pass when he was offered the role of Ferris Bueller in the comedy. True Depp seems to have landed on his feet since then so it ultimately wasn’t a bad decision, but it can still make film goers wonder what could have been. For the record, the role of Bueller ended up becoming a career defining role for Matthew Broderick.
As you can see actors say ‘no’ to a role normally because they have a good reason and thankfully not many live to regret it, although it is still a fairly funny daydream to wonder what Tom Selleck would have looked like playing Indy.
In an exclusive for Entertainment 360 Subculture’s Dave Griffiths takes a look at the actors who have said no to blockbuster roles over the years. You can view the Actors Who Said No To Blockbuster Roles Entertainment 360 article here.
Dave Griffiths from Subculture Media has recently put together a list of best under-rated sci-fi television shows. Make sure you check out his list on Entertainment Scene 360.
