This Means War and Wrath of the Titans

There’s a relatively tedious, though not unfounded at all, cliché about Hollywood making market-tested films that appeal to x demographic by including x types of characters embodied by beautiful stars and putting them in romantic/funny/exciting/all three situations and BOOM:  Instahit.  It’s generally a lot more complicated than that, as there’s bound to be someone along the creative line who has a whiff of the artist about them, or at the very least actors who know how to work a script in their favour, and a director or an editor who can nurture that into something vaguely entertaining.  I don’t know know anything at all about the development or the production of McG’s This Means War, but if there ever was a film that played right into that cliché about clueless moneymen suits at the studio putting an entire movie together and creating exactly what they think a “successful” (not “good”, mind) product would be, this is it. 

Terminator Salvation

Everyone gets everything he wants.  I wanted a war against the machines, and for my sins, they gave me one.  Ever since that metal foot crushed the human skull back in T2, and the flying Skynet ships fired lasers from overhead, the dream was to see this amazing future post-apocalyptic battle stretched to full length.  I wanted massive campaigns in hollowed out cities to metal machine music.  The previous Terminator films always hinted at this, but wound up comfortably settling into the more relatable (and cost-effective) present day, which to their credit worked, and I’m including Rise of the Machines in that statement.  They were effective action spectacles that wowed us with proper set pieces and, on occasion, provided the kind of two dimensional character moment that lifts such a venture that much higher.  But as the end of Rise confirmed, we’re done with the present.  Judgment Day has happened, and there’s no turning back.