Given the number of comic book, movie, novel and TV series that I've followed over the decades, I'm used to having key questions, plot developments and character fates remaining unresolved. I don't like this--I much prefer to explore interesting ideas in further detail instead of forgetting them--but I suppose it comes with being a horror and sci-fi fan.
That said, Dark Horse has brushed the dust off of its Terminator license and is currently publishing Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle, a 12-issue miniseries that's written by J. Michael Straczynski and drawn by Pete Woods. The first issue arrived last month and the second issue is currently available at comic shops, newsstands, and other places that carry Dark Horse titles. The miniseries sets itself up to answer certain questions posed in the first four Terminator movies, questions that will probably not be addressed when the franchise is rebooted in 2015. So far, Final Battle looks to be the most ambitious Terminator comic book miniseries since Malibu Comics' two-part Cybernetic Dawn and Nuclear Twilight miniseries. Read on for my complete review, and why Final Battle is worth a look for any Terminator completist.
Terminator Salvation: The Final Battle takes place in two different time periods: in 2029 during the days before John Connor's final attack on Skynet, and in 2003 during the months before Skynet's nuclear assault on humanity (a.k.a. "Judgment Day"). Most of the action in 2029 centers on John Connor and his wife Kate, while the action in 2003 involves Dr. Serena Kogan, the enigmatic character that was introduced in Terminator Salvation. (Other characters that were introduced in Salvation--Marcus Wright, Blair Williams, Barnes, Star, and John and Kate's unborn child--haven't appeared in Final Battle yet and I don't know if they will at all.) Another character, Simon, appears in both 2029 and 2003; he's sent back to 2003 by John to prevent something related to Dr. Kogan's research that could secure Skynet's victory against the human resistance.
The Terminator franchise has a very haphazard history when it comes to who-owns-what within the franchise, so it's nice to see Dark Horse trying to put the pieces together before the 2015 reboot. I wasn't a fan of Straczynski's signature TV series, Babylon 5, and I'm not familiar with his extensive work in the area of comic books; regardless, his experience with complex, multilayered narratives shines through in the first two issues, and the ground work that he's laid so far is shaping up to be an engrossing conclusion to the first four Terminator movies--or at least a conclusion to the story threads from the Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation timeline. (Terminator fans who are looking for a conclusion to the Sarah Connor Chronicles will have to look elsewhere, unfortunately.) Adding to the story's quality is Pete Woods' artwork, which expertly captures the look and feel of the Terminator universe. In one panel, he even included a Skynet machine that bears a similar design to the T-1 tank in T3.
Terminator novels, comic books and video games and flirted with the idea of human sympathizers for Skynet, but Dr. Kogan is shaping up to be a sympathizer who is essential to Skynet's overarching plans. Just as Cyberdyne and Miles Dyson were crucial to the birth of Skynet, Dr. Kogan is proving to be essential to the development of T-800 units, Terminator hybrids, and other Skynet technology that uses organic components.
What I also find fascinating about Dr. Kogan is that she only appears in the T3 - Salvation timeline; her involvement with that timeline's Skynet would also explain why T-800s appear almost a decade earlier than they do in the timeline that the Kyle Reese from the first movie came from. The unexpected early appearance of the T-800 in 2018 is a muted but crucial plot point in Salvation, the plot point that leads John Connor say this: "I knew it. I knew it was coming. But this is not the future my mother warned me about. And in this future, I don't know if we can win this war." This summarizes his realization that all he and his mother Sarah knew about Skynet--its strengths, weaknesses, and stages of development--came from a different timeline and may wind up leading humanity to its doom. What exactly Straczynski has in mind to do with Dr. Kogan isn't completely clear yet, but I'm sure it will be an interesting addition to the Terminator saga.
Early conceptual art of Dr. Serena Kogan for Terminator Salvation.
Click here and here to read my reviews of other tie-in comics and novels for Terminator 3 and Terminator Salvation.
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took a novel approach by depicting a threat from beyond the stars that was neither an animal nor a plant but a mineral. The movie's titular menaces are crystal-like rocks from space that grow to gigantic heights when they're exposed to fresh water, which then shatter into fragments when they hit the ground after they become too large. This cycle repeats itself every time the rocks are exposed to water, until they threaten to crush a small town. Did I also happen to mention that the rocks' ability to absorb moisture allows them to drain the moisture from the bodies of nearby people, thus turning them into stone? With such a unique kind of horror, a remake of The Monolith Monsters would be an amazing science fiction disaster movie that leaves 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow looking very subdued by comparison.
looks like one of those movies that ran out of money for special effects in the middle of production--which is a shame, because it was one of the last movies that employed the talents of Willis O'Brien, the stop-motion animator who brought life to the titular ape in King Kong. To make the most of what little effects money it had, Scorpion reuses some of the same scorpion effects shots over and over again (much like how cheap cartoons save money by reusing the same footage). Nevertheless, the story about gargantuan scorpions that rise from a forgotten, subterranean world to tear apart victims with their mammoth claws and impale them on their giant stingers should be brought back as a remake with a better special effects budget.
is a fascinating B-movie that was directed by Albert Band. It depicts a man who may (or may not) have the power to kill people simply by rearranging the colored pins on a cemetery map. While this movie tells a very creepy tale, it avoids answering one of the questions that it raises: If someone had the power to kill others by manipulating a cemetery map, could that same person also raise the dead through the same process? I've heard quite a few rumors that scenes were written for this film that answer this question in the affirmative, but they were never shot; thus, I would love to see a remake of I Bury The Living that pushes the story into gruesome world of corpse reanimation.
is in a bizarre class of its own. Instead of ants that get bigger or more bloodthirsty due to some kind of atomic or natural disaster, the ants in Phase IV become smarter as the result of a mysterious cosmic event. With its minimalist, surreal script and astonishing insect cinematography make Phase IV a fascinating film, its maddeningly suggestive yet vague ending (which director Saul Bass has said was imposed by the studio) put this film on my remake list just so we can see this story told again with a more satisfying conclusion.
is one of the many Jaws rip offs that appeared during the late 70s, although it's one of the few that has nothing to do with water, fish and swimming. In spite of its derivative nature, ;">The Car is still a creepy little film about a possessed automobile that terrorizes a small desert town. With its pitch black windows, eerie sounds and animal-like behavior, the titular vehicle is a unique movie monster that deserves a tune-up for a second trip on the silver screen. With a bigger budget and a more nuanced screenplay, I could imagine a remake that has a driverless car isolating another small desert town by running down supply trucks and toppling power lines and cell phone towers, and then bumping off the remaining citizens who try to escape.
has a remarkable pedigree: It was directed by Irving Kersher, co-scripted by John Carpenter, and featured Faye Dunaway, Tommy Lee Jones, Raúl Juliá and Rene Auberjonois. Yet for a film about a photographer who receives psychic visions that allow her to see through the eyes of a serial killer as he brutally murders his victims, something just doesn't work. It could be because of the film's rushed "twist" ending, or that it fails to explore in greater detail the true nature of the visions (such as when they really started, not when the main character began to accept them as visions), or that the romance subplot doesn't feel as compatible with the rest of film (no matter how logical the relationship is within the context of the complete story). Regardless, I'd love to see a creepier and better-paced remake of this movie, just so this story can reach its full, frightful potential.
(which was produced by Charles Band, son of the aforementioned Albert Band). Tourist Trap is an uneven, hit-and-miss affair, a blend of House of Wax, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Twilight Zone. It's got enough mannequin-centric scares and shivers--particularly the final shot--to merit a second chance on the big screen, perhaps with less imitation of House of Wax and Chainsaw Massacre and more holy-crap-mannequins-are-out-to-kill-me shocks. With the current state of practical effects and CGI technology, I'm convinced that these murderous, on-the-move mannequins will generate a few weeks' worth of nightmares for movie viewers of all ages.
was the fifth film directed by bestselling sci-fi author Michael Crichton, who also wrote the film's script, it is not the best example of Crichton’s talents as either a director or a screenwriter. The finished film is an unmistakable mess, with a story that meanders through several different plot points (including some vague conspiracy involving subliminal messages in TV commercials) without ever adequately connecting them into a coherent, compelling whole. In spite of its shortcomings, Looker has an intriguing, eerie central concept: professional models who go through plastic surgery to correct very specific flaws--down to the millimeter--in order to achieve a specific standard of beauty and in turn gain employment, only to be systematically murdered as they are replaced by computer-generated duplicates who actually are "perfect". In the right hands, Looker could be brought back to the big screen as a high-tech, giallo-esque mash-up of The Stepford Wives, S1m0ne and Blood and Black Lace. 
has preposterous yet entertaining plot: To change the future to suit his nefarious agenda, a "psychic vampire" from the year 2247 travels back in time to 1985--with a police trooper from the same era hot on his trail. While its idea of a mind-controlling serial killer is handled better than most other films with a similar premise (such as God Told Me To), Trancers is too busy ripping off Blade Runner and The Terminator to explore this creepy concept in greater detail. Thus, a remake that goes into greater ghastly detail about what a "trancer" is and its ultimate purpose would be a fun, action-filled flick.