With only the flight manifest from his girlfriend’s flight to aid him, he is in a race against time to reach the remaining human survivors before the diabolical machines terminate them…
Sometimes it is fun to check out the ripoffs of something you love.
I am a big fan of James Cameron’s original The Terminator, particularly the look and feel of the LA sequences. It is unlike anything else in Cameron’s filmography.
Annihilator is an unsold TV pilot that replicates some of the familiar aesthetics and iconography of The Terminator, and juggles them into a new configuration:
Some elements, like the chiaroscuro, the synth score (by Udi Harpaz and Sylvester Levay), and the LA locations, can be read as tasteful influences.
Others are clear signposts to the audience that they can replicate the thrills from the big screen on the Google box:
Characters wearing trench coats, stubble and shotguns; the glowing eyes and exposed metallic skulls of the robots; and even a familiar cast member (Earl Boen AKA the smug Dr Silberman from the first three Terminators).
Even the show’s pitch, of following a list of names, is an inversion of the Terminator hunting Sarah Connor through the phone book.
The cast (Mark Lindsay Chapman, Catherine Mary Stewart, Lisa Blount and Susan Blakely) are fine, although the only real standout is Boen as a put upon newspaper editor.
The big issue with the film is that it is a TV pilot, and leaves itself open for new adventures.
It has been padded out with repeated footage, and despite its premise, it goes in a few circles before adopting what I assume would be its format, as a man-on-the-run thriller in the mould of The Fugitive and its supernatural equivalent The Invaders.
The other issue, and this partly has to do with comparing it to its inspiration, is that the machines are a little undefined. They are both incredibly strong and weak as the plot requires, and their goal is too vague to feel threatening.
The film is intriguing: The robots are presented as different types (there are even evil robot children), and one machine (Susan Blakely) seems conflicted about their mission.
And the film’s use of computers - including hacking into and deleting information - is prescient, and could have helped the show build some (then) unique suspense.
I tried looking up more about the show, but it does not look like there is any material indicating the show’s broader direction.
It is no lost masterpiece, but Annihilator is fun in its own junky way.
Related
If you enjoy something I wrote, and want to support my writing, here’s a link for tips!
No comments:
Post a Comment