Terminator 2: Judgement Day (Paul Hernandez)

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Terminator 2 Judgment Day (Paul Hernandez)

Terminator 2 Judgment Day is a sequel to The Terminator which was filmed in 1984, both movies were filmed by James Cameron and were both a huge success in the film industry. Terminator 2: Judgment day or T-2 is a film that hade huge success both with fans and in the box office. The film was released in 1991 and grossed close to $205,000,000 dollars with a budget of an estimated $94,000,000 dollars. The film is also considered a recommended film to watch on various types of movie lists.  James Cameron has various trademarks in his films, his very own style of directing which makes him standout from others.  I would also like to address a few attributes of using space as a technique in this film. These attributes help aid shots, scenery, and make the film dynamic.

The film has an interesting story structure that involves a boy John Connor who is targeted by a cyborg from the future. However another cyborg has been sent to be John’s protector. The film revolves around a constant struggle preventing John Conor’s death.  Along with the mission of preventing computer and mechanical technology from gaining control of nuclear weapons and destroying humanity in the future. It is an action packed filmed filled with car chases and explosions. The film uses various types of colors to make the scenes pop out at you and help structure the scenery.

The film uses color very well with the use of color variation in the film multiple scenes are brought to life. The use of warmer colors such as; reds, oranges, and yellows make objects and feel of movie stand out more .If used right the technique makes objects appear closer than cooler colors. The film has various types of colors that help set the scene as well as emotion. For example the opening credits of T-2 shows scenery of a playground being burned. In this scene you can see the playground engulfed in flames. The background is dark solid black allowing all the bright orange, red and yellow color to pop out. The use of red also has connotations as being a color of despair or anger.  Another use of color is blue in T-2 there are numerous scenes that heavily display blue. The future is set in blue as well as the nighttime in the film. The color blue is used to convey a dull, eerie feel to the scenes. Throughout the film a lot of action takes place at night. The color blue sets up the feeling that anything can happen at night. The color blue is also involved in car chases as well as the introduction on the terminators. A separate scene where Sarah Connors is in the Mental Hospital the use of colors is displayed reatly. In the hospital the hallways, uniforms and patient attire all have similar ranges from white, to gray, to beige. The hospital has no color what so ever other than Sarah Connor’s psychiatrist, the color white reinforces the idea of a mental hospital being neutral with no color, no sense of life anywhere as well stating the psychiatrist as the authority in the hospital because his jacket sticks out in the white scenery.

Another technique involved in T-2 that deals with space is linear perspective or the use of lines. The use of lines when filming a scene helps set up a scene in various way from the frame to eye level. For example in the opening credits once again the playground is engulfed in flames there is a shot with several horses on the playground burning. The angle that it was shot at shows a diagonal line allowing all individual horses to be seen for a moment as everything is burning. This type of use of line provides depth of the burning playground. The use of linear perspective is displayed largely in scenes of the movie dealing with chases whether on foot or in vehicles. The chase between John Conor and the terminator in the truck also display use of lines. The scene shows both the motorcycle and truck driving in the street and tunnels. The shots of the street and tunnels shows lines lead to a vanishing point. The walls in the tunnels act as lines which help to reinforce the scene and make the scene feel compact as the truck chases the motorcycle through the tunnels.  The final example is at the end of the film where the camera is focused on the line divider and follows the road until the credits role. This is another example of linear perspective in the scene there is no indication of where the road ends it is a never ending pattern. The scene also takes place at night where there the road smoothes over the frame creating a space out of the frames of the camera.

One trademark that I would like to focus on is James Cameron shots on feet and moving tires and wheels. In the film from beginning to end there are numerous shots of close-ups on feet and wheels. For example the scene when Arnold is on the bike after taking the bikers bike there is a close up on Arnold’s boot as he steps off the bike to confront the man with the shotgun. Another example would be after John, Sarah and Arnold get away from the terminator a piece of the metal returns to the terminator by entering his boot.  The same concept applies to wheels, there are many close ups of the wheel of motorcycles as well as trucks.  The wheel shots vary from closing or opening a scene. For instance in the film the shot of the motorcycle wheel pans out and shows Arnold and John on the move riding down the street. The use of a wheel is also displayed when the truck blows up in the tunnel and the false threat of a burning wheel appears. I believe the use of a wheel is simple when starting a shot because movement helps aid the eyes when watching a film and as it changes to a different scene.

Avatar Movie Analysis (Paul Hernandez)

                                                        Avatar (Paul Hernandez)

            Avatar is another film by James Cameron that has had huge amounts of success in the film industry. Avatar was released in 2009.and was the highest grossing movie of all time. It happened to also be the first movie to make 2 billion dollars at the box office. The film was mainly CGI but had a huge impact with the 3d platform of the film. The use of CGI is a large factor to the success of the film along with James Cameron use of various techniques to achieve his goal when making Avatar. Cameron also uses various techniques that help set up scenes in his film especially in action packed scenes. Another factor is Cameron’s style of directing he adds his very own trademarks in his films.  

            Avatar’s theme is a typical clashing between two different cultures. The film story displays conflict with an indigenous tribe of Pandora and the invading humans. Avatar is very hegemonic; the military forces try to force their culture to get a rare mineral which ends up being the Na vi’s sacred deity. Once the military realizes that the Na vi have refused, they force war on the tribe. Avatar also expresses differences in cultures when it comes to nature. I think the fact that the film storyline as being a science fiction film allows CGI to take advantage and create this new world for viewers. Cameron tends to have a re occurring theme in his films. The films usually deal with the focus or idea of war and machines. In Avatar the entire movie is filled mechanical machines from weapons to spacecrafts as well as in his previous films such as Aliens and Terminator. Cameron’s films mention or use machinery whether it is   against aliens or machines. 

The use of CGI brings people to this new world called Pandora, allowing digital creators to make Pandora appear how ever they want. The use of CGI brings the audience into a different mindset and scenery all around. The CGI involved allows for viewers to be stunned, a lot of work was put into the details in the film. The film uses CGI to help with every aspect of the animated film such as characters, creatures, weapons, and elements of nature. For example everything in Avatar is huge, the mountains, the trees, the animals and various other elements in the movie. The use of CGI allows a feeling that anything can happen or something new is always ready to be seen. The use of CGI really makes the film standout from characters, to color, to action packed scenes along with a few film techniques along the way.

A trademark that James Cameron seems to use in his films is the strong use of  a female characters. Majority of Cameron’s films have a clear focus on strong women having a role in the story. His past films featured strong independent women such as Linda Hamilton who played Sarah Connor in Terminator and Terminator 2. Hamilton’s character as Sarah Connor displays her role as being a rebel fighter. Connor is a woman who is very protective of her child and very courageous at the same time. Cameron has also used Sigourney Weaver to play a powerful woman role in his films as well. Sigourney Weaver had a strong part in the film Aliens where she is at constant struggle for survival and fights aliens to continue living while on the spacecraft.  Weaver’s role in Avatar is also a strong independent woman who has authority and is not afraid to show it. Her professional status as being a Professor on the Na vi culture makes her a women of authority, a person that people look up to as well as a person that people look for answers.

            James Cameron also incorporates a strong physicality to his performers in the film. By reinforcing his characters with training exercises this allows the film to be more real and natural when watching the film.  The military and the native tribe both underwent specific training exercises that help prepare the characters physically and mentally for their roles in the film. Exercises such as particular fighting styles, running and riding horses are just a few examples of the necessary performances that were need to acquire the look and feel of Avatar. Cameron has several techniques that he uses when filming that help make a scene more dynamic. Scenes that involve physicality allow Cameron to utilize certain techniques and make the scene pop out.  For example Cameron likes to use slow motion shots in various scenes slow motion shots add dynamism to scenes. I think scenes with slow motion had to be a factor because it made objects pop out when the film was released in theatres in 3d making the most out of the 3d experience.. There are numerous of scenes in the film such as the character Jake. Jake is running away from the creature in the jungle and as he jumps of the cliff in to a waterfall the slow motion scene occurs.  The moment between predator and prey is displayed the moment Jake jumps into the air, time is slowed down to show the audience how close Jake was to getting attacked. Another scene that utilizes slow motion is the big climatic battle at the end of the film. As the war between the Native tribes of Pandora fight the invading military forces slow motion scenes occur as people, creatures and ships are blowing up and dying. The slow motion techniques add yet more dynamic feel allowing the viewer to see the movie in hindsight.

Overall Avatar is a great film that has broadened the idea of 3 d projection as well as technological advances in visual effects that can make films more visually stunning as well as stretch the conventions of film in numerous ways. The use of CGI allows for ones imagination to become reality and allows future directors a chance to present new material in a new a creative way. Cameron’s style of directing is also noticed by many with the uses of stunning visuals and Cameron’s directing style only makes him one of the most sought after directors in the film industry.

            

Aliens 1986 (by Gregory Perez)

Movie Analysis:  Aliens (Gregory Perez)

                Director James Cameron has made his fame directing many sci-fi films with movies such as The Terminator, Aliens and Avatar.  Cameron’s box office success with these science fiction movies has paved way for his successful career as a director.  Cameron built his prowess as a sci-fi director during the 1980s, a time when science fiction blockbuster films such as E.T, Star Wars and Blade Runner were taking box offices by storm.  After the success of The Terminator in 1984, Cameron directed a sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien; Cameron was able to interpret the sequel and continue the series of Alien movies.  In James Cameron’s 1986 sequel Aliens, Cameron portrays feminist ideals, corporate greed’s danger to society, and criticism of the Vietnam War. 

Aliens has a feminist agenda with female characters in the movie as physically adept, mentally strong and critical figures in the storyline.  The lead character, Ellen Ripley, is shown as the most experienced space pilot, and a tough girl; she is shown as a mother figure, who has escaped the clutches of the parasitic alien race once before and now the protector of Newt.  As the main character she advises the team that goes to explore a planet that has lost contact with the Weyland Industries ship.  Even Newt, who survived the alien attacks, is seen as a strong girl as she was the lone survivor of the alien infestation out of the 77 families that were colonized there.  Private Vasquez is the toughest female that stands out amongst the space marines; she knows how to wield a large canon; her character has close up shots doing exercise more frequently than the men.  The importance of the females in the film is capitalized with the theme of a queen alien that hatches all of the alien eggs.  Once Ripley encounters the mother alien, Cameron uses a wide angle to display the queen’s massive size and amount of eggs in her chamber.  As Ripley threatens to destroy the alien eggs, the queen shows her authority by commanding approaching guard aliens to leave; the queen’s authority over the other aliens coincides with Cameron’s feminist appeal throughout the movie.  Ripley ultimately burns the queen’s eggs and runs off; the scene concludes as a fight between two mother figures, Ripley and the queen.  The queen returns to chase and attack Ripley on the rescue spacecraft but fails and is ejected from the Weyland spacecraft just as the Ripley did in Ridley Scott’s Alien.

Weyland Industries is introduced in the series as a private industrial space company. Through Weyland Industries agents, James Cameron criticizes corporate greed as dangerous to human health.  Bishop and Carter Burke are sent to the colonized planet to investigate and potentially gather alien species and bring back specimens to develop biological weapons.  Bishop, a cyborg created by Weyland Industries, finds two aliens organisms to study and he tells Ripley that he had specific instructions from the president of Weyland to bring back the organisms; he disregards the aliens attacking and puts the crew’s safety at risk.  Carter Burke constantly refuses to exterminate the aliens on the planet for the chance to study them.  Weyland Industries represents large corporations like Walmart, who do not care for their employees to provide benefits like health care.  Cameron’s criticism is that large corporations focus on what will bring profits to the company not the welfare of the employees.  In the case of Aliens, the large corporation, Weyland Industries, was trying to use the aliens for biological warfare.

Cameron provides a criticism of the Vietnam War in Aliens.  Before the journey to the space colony, Ripley tells Carter Burke that they are entering a war that they can not win.  Cameron expressed the feelings of many people before the United States entered the Vietnam War; they felt that it was a war in which they could not win; the United States was did not know the territory around Vietnam, yet they entered the war.  Many of the soldiers had died in the Vietnam War figuring out the terrain.  Cameron depicts an interpretation of a possible scenario of the Vietnam War with the swarm of aliens that surrounds the marines inside the colony.  Cameron draws another parallel with the Vietnam War by featuring the marines fighting off aliens with flamethrower rifles.  In the Vietnam War, flamethrowers were a weapon used by marines and mounted on tanks to try and invade territories in Vietnam. 

James Cameron uses a similar signature style of directing as in The Terminator; the films he directs begins by the audience discovering who the characters are, then heavy tension builds.  Although the aliens that once attacked Ripley’s space crew once before are mentioned, Cameron does not show the fully grown aliens until an hour into the film; the alien queen is the last alien to be shown.  The suspense to see what has happened to the people of colonized planet is built in several scenes with the musical score playing a key role in several scenes; when the aliens have the marines cornered in a room for the first time the string section intensifies the scene with high pitched notes.  As Newt and Ripley are being chased by a newly hatched alien parasite, the strings and French horns play sudden, frightening high notes.  During the final sequences of the battle between the queen and Ripley, the musical score behind the explosion sounds further accents the tense scene.

James Cameron managed to create a unique sci-fi film in Aliens while featuring his ideas of feminism, corporate greed, and criticism of the Vietnam War.  Cameron emphasized feminism with his strong-willed female characters in Ripley, Private Vasquez and the queen alien.  Characters Bishop and Carter Burke were identified as agents of a selfish corporation as the representatives of Weyland Industries.  Their interest for research for biological warfare surpassed the safety of their human passengers.  Lastly, Cameron features his commentary on the Vietnam War with the flamethrowers and dialogue from Ripley mentioning that they will not win a war on the planet. 

The Terminator (by Gregory Perez)

Movie Analysis:  The Terminator (Gregory Perez)

During the 1980s the high popularity of the Sci-fi film moved Hollywood to produce several films to attempt to gain profit from moviegoers.  The Terminator was a 1984 Sci-fi film and an early film of James Cameron’s successful productions.  The film was notable for bringing Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Mr. Olympia, huge stardom and lifting his career as the robotic assassin.  As a director developing fame in the 1980s, James Cameron was able to begin a legacy by directing The Terminator; the success of the film eventually led to him directing other sci-fi films and extending a long career.  The Terminator features references to the Holocaust, criticisms of police in society, male roles in society, a fear of technological advancement, and also themes of a parallel universe; Cameron uses innovative camera techniques like the stop-animation terminator as well as close up shots to capture each character’s role in the movie.

                Throughout the movie, The Terminator features themes of the Holocaust in World War Two.  The film begins with soldiers being shot from above by the robots, similar to the beach attacks on Normandy in World War Two when the allied forces were being shot from above by the Germans.  Cameron uses a low angle on the soldiers to show that they are in hiding from the new artificial intelligence that has overthrown humans.  After Kyle Reese is transported to the 1980s and finds Sarah Connor, he mentions that the reason for the aliens rising was a nuclear war that broke out in the world in 2029.  The humans end up in prison camps and some people are killed off by the ruling robotic race.  Cameron uses the extermination of the humans by robots to relate to the prison camps of Nazi Germany against the Jews.  The genocide of humans by robots reflects the attempted genocide of Jews by Nazi Germany in World War Two.

Cameron criticizes the police force in the 1980s as lazy, unorganized and incompetent with identifying the danger of many criminals.  The lieutenant chief, Traxler, is shown as very passive once he is told that there is a killer hunting down women named Sarah Connor in the phone book.  The Lieutenant directs his investigators to let the news media bring the surviving Sarah Connor to them.  When the investigators do finally catch Connor and Reese they dismiss Reese a mentally ill person because he says he is from the future; the team fails to realize that there is still a killer hunting down Sarah Connor.  Another example of police incompetence the film presents is when the Terminator walks into the police station, the officer behind the reception window passively ignores the request to see Sarah Connor even though there have been two prior killings of women named Sarah Connor all over the news.  Irritated by the officer’s unhelpfulness The Terminator drives a police car through the front of the station and crushes through the reception window and the office behind it.  

The advancement of technology as a negative influence on the human race and concepts of alternate realities are shown through the Terminator.  The artificial intelligence created in the future would pose a threat to human society; the artificial life decides that humans are too dangerous because of nuclear weapons; they decide humans must be exterminated for global safety.  The theme of alternate realities is mentioned as Reese tells Sarah Connor about her son, John Connor.  Reese explains that her son will lead the human rebellion against the future artificial intelligence, yet they both do not know that it is the child that Connor conceives from Reese that is John Connor.  Cameron puts into question that maybe in an alternate universe John Connor is never born and the robots rule Earth.

Rather than relying on Schwarzenegger’s acting, Cameron relies on close up shots of the Terminator’s facial expressions and his violent actions to convey his character.  Schwarzenegger has few lines to communicate the role of the Terminator.  Schwarzenegger’s initial appearance begins with “where is Sarah Connor?” and “give me your clothes” and he stares blankly at the men with knives.  Without hesitation, Terminator tosses the men like rag dolls and punches through one of the men, violently killing him; the scene closes in on the Terminator’s eyes and Cameron uses this technique to communicates the Terminator’s mission is to find Sarah Connor and let no human stop him; the blank facial expressions express the fearlessness, and unsympathetic character of the Terminator.

Masculinity and male roles in society are also emphasized with the physical structure, bravery and fearlessness of the Terminator and Kyle Reese.  Schwarzenegger as the Terminator showed that a physically adept male cyborg built by robots was ideal for hunting and eliminating threats.  Through the car chase crashes and explosions the Terminator always rises up.  The constant rising up of Schwarzenegger also helped make the tagline “I’ll be back” famous.  Kyle Reese is shown as a similarly tough soldier as he comes back in time.  Although he gets shot by Terminator he hesitates getting treated by Connor.  Reese is shown as heroic and brave as he sacrifices himself to save Connor from the Terminator.

Cameron’s themes and camera techniques enhanced his film and accredited his career with a Saturn Award for best writing and best science fiction film in 1985 for The Terminator.  The concepts Cameron presented evidently captured the attention of the Science Fiction community.  The new action hero with little dialogue and a lot of action serves as a template films like The Transporter or Faster, with stars like Jason Statham and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson who have mostly action scenes and little dialogue in their movies.  Additionally, the film’s positive reception gave opportunities to James Cameronto direct a sequel, Terminator 2: Judgement Day and other science fiction films like Aliens and Avatar.

Biography of James Cameron

Who is James Cameron?

James Francis Cameron is a Canadian-born and iconic director in Science Fiction films.  Born August 16, 1954 at the age of 58 he is a hailed director for movies like The Terminator, Aliens and Avatar.  In his lengthy career, spanning over 37 years, he has accomplished many feats as a director, producer and writer winning multiple Oscars and Golden Globe Awards for his directing.  His critically acclaimed film Titanic, made history by becoming the first film to gross globally one billion dollars.

Before accomplishing many feats as a producer, writer and director, Cameron majored in Physics at California State University Fullerton.  He later dropped out and became a truck driver; while on the road he wrote ideas for films.  After producing his first film Xenogenesis in 1978, he was hired to work for New World Pictures. While at New World Pictures Cameron was assigned art director on Battle Beyond the Stars in 1980, and director on Piranha II: The Spawning in 1981. In 1990, Cameron formed Lightstorm Entertainment and with the company he was able to write and direct Titanic in 1997.

 

Impact on Film History

Cameron’s has given a template of storytelling for other films to follow.  Schwarzenegger’s success in The Terminator showed that actors can become famous for their roles without being a speaker of dialogue.  If certain characters do more action and less talking there can be an appeal.  An example of a film that has followed the template of not talking much but having much action was Javier Bardem’s character in No Country For Old Men.  The assassin bares similar characteristics of the Terminator in the film.  They are hunt for a certain item, they kill anyone in their way of stopping them and they are both villains.  A different example is seen in the protagonist of The Transporter film series, Jason Statham drives around in a car and beats up people without speaking very much.  Recently he has developed stardom and has been in feature films such as The Expendables and The Mechanic in which he plays similar roles involved with a lot of action in the story and short dialogue.

Life Outside of Directing/Producing/Writing

Cameron has been married five times.  One of his marriages was to actress Linda Hamilton, who starred in his 1986 film Aliens.  He has four children, one from Linda Hamilton and three others from Suzy Amis, his first wife.  He was married to producer Gale Anne Hurd, who produced several of his films. In 2000, he married actress Suzy Amis, who appeared in Titanic, and they have three children.

Aside from being a director, producer and a writer, James Cameron is also an explorer; in 2012 Cameron led his eighth deep ocean expedition into the Marianas Trench, the deepest part of the ocean.  He privately funded the construction of his personal submarine he named Deepsea Challenger to explore the ocean floor.  Together with National Geographic, Cameron was able to document his journey into the far depths of the ocean for television.  Cameron made history with the dive going

What is he up to? (As of 2013)

                James Cameron is planning sequels for Avatar and Terminator.  Cameron has confirmed that he will be involved in the production of Terminator Five.  Also two more films of Avatar are scheduled.  Avatar Two is scheduled to be released in 2015 and Cameron has also confirmed that he will be producing Avatar 3 in the future.

References:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000116/bio

http://www.biography.com/people/james-cameron-546570

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/explorers/bios/james-cameron/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/03/120325-james-cameron-mariana-trench-challenger-deepest-returns-science-sub/