Screw this; I'm going home. On the first day of production, the people footing the bill for Terminator Salvation: The Future Begins have announced that the future is actually ending prematurely, as the violent, perennially R-rated franchise is going PG-13 for its fourth installment. The reason? I'll bet you can guess. In addition to "broadening the audience base," the producers are hoping for (or have already signed; it's not really clear) a merchandising deal with Playmates Toys. Dear God. Clearly, they're trying to bring about a fanboy mass suicide. Maybe it's not yet time to panic. After all, I still managed to have a blast with last year's PG-13 Live Free or Die Hard, and that franchise, what with John McClane's penchant for the f-bomb, was arguably even more dependent on the freedom of the R than Terminator. And with a few exceptions (that unforgettable shot of the T-1000 disguised as John Connor's mom impaling Xander Berkeley on its pointy metal arm comes to mind), the reasons the Terminator films -- Judgment Day in particular -- are so disturbing have little to do with heavy violence; Robert Patrick rising out of the linoleum floor is scarier than any amount of gore could be. The MPAA is surely tone-deaf enough to censor the blood but let the really scary stuff through. And anyway, as the producers point out in the article, the PG-13 ain't what it used to be.
But still: DO NOT WANT. Partly because I have serious doubts about whether McG has the chops to make an unsettling PG-13 film, but mostly because the tenor of this announcement just screams "give up" to anyone who was hoping for a fourth film that's worthy of the series. One of the producers pays lip service to our kind: "We are carrying on in the tradition of the mythology, with an exciting approach to the action," he insists. Yeah, okay. I hope he remembers that it helps to have a good movie to sell a lot of toys.
Do you think this helps or hurts the franchise?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-05-2008 @ 10:23AM
RP said...
I think you'll find absolutely no difference in content between T3 and T4. T3 was an R, yes, but in the UK it was only a 12A without any cuts, just as i expect T4 will be.
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5-05-2008 @ 10:27AM
YouFaceTheTick said...
T3 sure didn't seem like an R - it was as milquetoast as a spider-man movie.
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5-05-2008 @ 12:06PM
eugene said...
Woohoo, good to know that when nuclear armageddon comes, it will be free of excesive violence and nudity.
Snarkyness aside, I can't say I care either way. T4 has so many negatives that even Bale's involvment hasn't done anything to win me over.
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5-06-2008 @ 12:07AM
Travis Tidmore said...
Maybe we'll at least get the unrated version. Cause while I enjoyed the pg-13 Die Hard, it was even better on dvd where John McClane could let the F word fly as always.
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5-06-2008 @ 10:11AM
Prhime said...
iron man -pg13
i think this is a trend as studios try to capture more of the audience since fewer ppl sneak into movies these days. with that whole world wide interweb thing
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