Review of 'TERMINATOR: THE SARAH CONNOR CHRONICLES'
The pilot episode of Fox's upcoming Terminator TV series shows great promise.
Simply put, "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" rocks. I was surprised to discover this, but, from the opening scene--which must have cost more than James Cameron's original 1984 film--to the suprising (and confusing) ending, Director David Nutter's pilot episode never slowed down.
There were some fairly blatant throw-backs to the first two features, including the first shots of Sarah (Lena Heady) rumbling along the iconic lonely highway in her jeep, but most of it works really well. Summer Glau, as cyborg Cameron, gives a casual, almost throwaway, delivery of the famous line "Come with me if you want to live," which was appropriate. Plus, this writer had always wondered about the fates of scientist Miles Dyson's family following his tragic death in T2, and we actually get to see them here.
The whole thing had a nice, epic, cinematic quality--styled by muscular, shaky camera work like only Fox can do--yet made sure to keep Sarah and John squarely at the center of it all. Heady and Thomas Dekker, as John, interact as if they've been doing so for years.
If anything bothers me, other than the ending (which I won't spoil), it's the big question mark over how long such a premise can run. The Terminator stories make excellent cinema, but a long-term weekly series? That remains to be seen.
But I thought the same thing of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air".