We got an iTunes feed for this bad boy yet? getting it onto my iPhone is hellish without one.

One of my all-time favourites.

For those outside the UK (being a Brit just makes this film even awesomer - now we have our Bladerunner) everyone has stick shifts. They are not just common, they are by a very wide margin the default. I was even wondering it the DiF gang/US audiences would even be familiar with bump-starting like most of us are...

And of course dNeg rule. But we knew that

Just awesome. We're all wondering in the office what they use for the VFX... I'd like to think Maya & Nuke but I have The Fear that it's Lightwave or Cinema4D...

And lots and lots of splash footage to screen over everything

That said, we have all decided the VFX are AWESOME.

Love this commentary -- but then I'm a VFX artist that loves Starship Troopers & Phil Tippett

Listeing to the ST2 commentray now (late night in the office) -- it's really good, worth checking out. Very DiF, right dow to the discussions about the wine they are drinking

Setting up false expectations? Wha? The trailer *might*, maybe, at a push, but you can't blame the movie for doing that. So the setting is realistic so having a single fantastical element (a 'magic bean ' maybe?) is setting up false expectations? You're right, this story would be so much better with a casual disregard science & realism in the setting for this movie... please...

I'm gonna be really torn during the Salvation episode

Just. Marginally. I re-watch Salvation far more than 3 just to marvel at the art direction, cinematography (even if we are done professionally), ILMs work etc, etc. It's gorgeous to look at - the world building is the best Terminator has ever had. The action is superbly directed. There is no doubt in my mind the McG really really wanted to make a good film in tribute to the first two. But the script sucks far more than I think Three's does (which I've not see in a bit).

Three has tonal issues of course. And the Sarah Connor issue is handled poorly. But I think the overall story holds up much better than Salvation. John is believable, flawed and a bit crap. I like that. Bale is too self-confident - I think he's playing the John Connor his legend says he is rather than the John of 2 & 3 who is more of a right-place, right-time, chancer who by a million to one chance had the skills & experience to end up as the leader of the resistance.

And as I've said I like the Skynet network-not-supercomputer reveal, the death of John in the future timeline (which I really think takes balls in a franchise like that), and I really like the inevitability of the futurewar, that it can only be postponed, altered.

Salvation, truly outstanding visuals aside, is a ham-fisted mess of a narrative. Marcus Wright makes literally no sense in Terminatorworld. That he's completely perfect human replica at this point in the timeline, and that he doesn't just explode when John Connor is 3 feet away from him I'll never understand. And Helena Bonham Carter's 'character' too was a big mistake.

Prior to seeing it when I came across Wright's endoskeleton in an early Wired article (they originally had the model names under the images, but stripped those off after a few hours) I assumed that Wright was a more advanced Termie form the future, and that was at least an interesting, and a way to combine the La Jette/12 Monkeys narrative structure of the earlier films, even if I didn't know what they were gonna do with it.

So I watch Salvation much more coz I'm a sucker for pretty pictures, but deep down I know (read: IMHO) that 3 is a better contribution tot he Terminator Cannon.

Just listening to the 'cast now. The Cafe FX comment about it being next to an onion field so there's nothing to do but work or go back to your rented apartment had me in stitches -- I'm currently working on a show waaaay out of London in rural England, and I do find my myself hitting Maya well into he night rather than go home & sit in my box...

Look, I never thought that Pan's was a fairytale. I always took it for a a secret history - that the fawn & co are real, and those real creatures and their past interactions with man are the origin of similarly-themed fairytales. Like 13th Warrior to Beowulf, or Ridleycrowe's Robin Hood to Robin hood

So I don't think that any argument that it claims to be a fairytale but fails at being a fairytale holds up. That said, I dont' that that any argument that it never claims to be a fairytale and is therefore AWESOME stands up either.

Have no problem about killing Hicks & Newt. I never think of this film as sequel to Aliens, but rather the second sequel to Alien. It's a noble, flawed attempt at a follow up to Ridley Scott's classic.

Trey's point about 'why not lock the Alien out & wait for rescue' actually /misses/ the narrative drive he claimed was missing. Ripley's motivation is to destroy the Alien before the Company gets there, coz she knows they won't kill it but weaponise it. That's why she can't just wait it out. You can argue about its legitimacy, but it's front & centre as a proposed drive.

And being a Brit I could tell all the prisoners were straight off the bat

Yes Alien3 is flawed. Yes the almost-a-director's cut is much better. But I really like it. It's my third fave. The fourth film doesn't even chart...