Overall, I thought The Terminator was a really well-done movie – it was compelling and action-packed, with a genuinely terrifying villain. One thing I could have seen more of is details on the futuristic universe and Skynet, because other than Reese’s brief summary, we don’t really know much about it. They give the audience just enough information to understand what’s going on, which works for the purposes of this movie, but I think it could have been really interesting if they’d fleshed it out more. Both time travel and takeover by artificial intelligence are sci-fi clichés (although maybe less so when this movie was released), and so it didn’t feel like there was anything particularly unique about the dystopian world of this movie. Also, the ending, where it is revealed that Reese is John Connor’s father, works only if you don’t think about it too much – the time travel logistics laid out here are too shaky to understand how exactly this makes sense.  

The other aspect that might have made this movie better is further development of Reese’s character and the love story between Reese and Sarah. He is one of the primary protagonists of the film, yet it didn’t seem to me that he had any personality traits other than wanting to protect Sarah. Giving his character some depth might have made the central romance more believable, because it felt slightly rushed.

In The Terminator, I felt like there was a lack of development of the antagonist that made it difficult for me to invest in him as a real villain. Obviously, the terminator was not meant to develop as a character being a cyborg sent to complete a mission. But, I missed guessing what the bad guy was thinking throughout the movie. When the bad guy is so predictable, I become less interested in him as a character. Bad guys with an interesting backstory make movies feel more complete. This leads to the heroism of Kyle Reese being downplayed because the good guy is only as interesting as the villain he is fighting. The terminator is evil but there is no depth to his evil making it less convincing. In addition to villain development, I would have liked to see a “magical helper” in the movie. I feel like Lieutenant Traxler would have been a good candidate given his reluctance to make fun of Kyle Reese’s interview with the psychiatrist. He also treats Sarah Conner well and seems to be the most developed character aside from the terminator, Sarah Connor, and Kyle Reese. He is also given a considerable amount of screen time in the beginning of the movie so it almost is expected that he will not just be killed during the police station attack like the other police officers. His anticlimactic death left me wanting more from his role in the story of Sarah Connor. I feel like having more characters involved in the movie would have developed the theme of robots fighting humans more so than Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese fighting a robot.

Although The Terminator is a film classic, I had never actually seen it until last Thursday. In my opinion, the movie definitely lives up to the praise. It’s no wonder I had always heard my dad saying “I’ll be back” and “come with me if you want to live” as I was growing up. I personally found the viewing experience to be really enjoyable. I didn’t think there was a single wasted minute, but I guess that’s necessary if you only have 108 minutes to work with. Having been released in the 80’s, produced with a low budget, and containing a plot dealing with the intricacies of time-travel, the movie is sure to have some flaws and plot-holes, but I would have to say James Cameron does pretty damn well for what he’s working with.

Although it didn’t affect my enjoyment of the film, I think other viewers may be upset about the lack of high-quality special effects within the movie. For example, when the Terminator removes his eye in the mirror, it’s very obvious that they’re using a prosthetic head. Also, the stop-motion animation of the Terminator near the end of the film is a little jerky. I personally feel that the use of practical effects to achieve these scenes on screen is pretty cool, but others may expect better effects after watching the beautiful CGI of modern movies.

Content-wise, I think many viewers would possibly want the romantic tension between Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese to be more fleshed-out, as it is only really given 5-10 minutes to develop. Viewers could also be left wanting a more in-depth explanation on the origins of Skynet and want to be given the answers to some of the time-travel-related questions. It is not explained at all in the film how Kyle Reese was alive during the war fighting alongside John Connor even though he’s John’s father, who apparently “died before the war started”. These issues take a backseat during the film while chase scenes, explosions, and cool fight sequences take the spotlight, and this could definitely pose a problem for viewers who are more used to the traditional structure of a Hollywood film.

For the final writing assignment, I plan to write an expository paper on the production history of Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel. This film tells the story of a young lobby boy, Zero, learning the rules and procedures of running the Grand Budapest Hotel from Gustave, the hotel’s concierge. When one of the hotel’s oldest customers dies mysteriously, Gustave receives a priceless painting as part of the customer’s last will and becomes the main suspect in her murder. Zero and Gustave put it upon themselves to discover the truth as they are chased through the fictional Republic of Zubrowka by those who want the painting for themselves.

I am going to be writing extensively about how Anderson’s decision to use handmade props and set pieces creates a different viewing experience from other modern movies, which tend to use CGI instead.

I am concerned that this may not be enough to fill the required amount of pages, especially since I cannot seem to find any information of scenes that were cut or rewritten in the movie. I was also wondering, if I were to choose to write about two films, which would be a good choice for a second film to write about.

The movie I am writing about is Call me By Your Name. The category for my paper is film criticism.

The movie Call me by Your Name is a love story between a seventeen-year-old young man Elio and his father’s academic assistance, who is a 24-year-old American professor, Oliver. They met in a summer in Italy, when Oliver came to Elio’s father’s house to help with research. During the six weeks, Elio eventually reveals his love for Oliver, who was also in love, and they spent the rest of the six weeks together before Oliver leaves Italy and goes back to his normal life. In the winter, Oliver calls back to Elio’s family, telling that he was getting married to a woman, and the movie ends with Elio crying alone before the fireplace.

The argument I want to make is that the Elio and Oliver are a modern example of the ancient Greek pederasty, and how the movie makes use of multiple symbols related to love between males. I am also going to give opinion on whether the symbolism helps improve audience’s experience with the movie.

Concern: I do not know what exactly counts as mythical elements in the movie, and I don’t know how to incorporate a second movie into this film criticism.

• For my paper I will be discussing the movie Good Will Hunting (1997), directed by Gus Van Sant. Good Will Hunting is a film about a janitor, Will Hunting (played by Matt Damon), who works for Harvard and is an unrecognized math genius, until he is discovered one day by one of Harvard’s top professors. Through his therapy sessions with his therapist (played by Robin Williams), Will Hunting realizes the course of the life he wants to live and eventually turns his life around from the repetitive cycle he has grown comfortable with. The movie originally began as a script for a playwriting class Matt Damon was taking at Harvard, and was finished by Ben Affleck. Good Will Hunting utilized a $10 million dollar budget to gross $225.9 million in the box office.
• The movie can be viewed as the nationalistic myth of the rise of an American working class member embedded in the tale of a talented individual whose growth is hindered by his stubborn nature. In the paper I plan on discussing the screenwriters Matt Damon and Ben Affleck and how their life experiences are expressed in every element of the film, from its setting in Harvard to the plot, and particularly, the production. My argument is that the story behind the production is why Good Will Hunting prevails as a national archetype and to compare the raw background of the screenwriting and production to certain elements in the movie.
• Concerns: Is this enough material for me to write about and how will I further extend and elaborate my argument? If I can’t find any scholarly articles on production, can I use a new website article?

I will be writing about Psycho (1960) directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The movie psychological horror film follows the encounter of a secretary Marion Crane who winds up at a motel after stealing $40,000 from her employer and the motel’s owner Norman Bates.

For this paper, I will compare the production history (1959 novel by Robert Bloch) and the 1998 remake of the movie directed by Gus Van Sant to what ended up on screen in 1960. I will look into how he was able to make a low budget, filmed by a television show into a successful production. Additionally, I will argue about several topics around mental illness depicted in the movie: Was the movie a good depiction of Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID)? Is the name a good/representative title for the movie? Did the movie paint mental illness in a bad light/play a role in the stigma about mental illness today?

I have multiple concerns for this paper:

1. I am worried about focusing too much on the issues of mental illnesses exhibited in the movie rather than the elements of the movie.
2. I do not know how to tie myth into my analysis/how much myth should be in it.
3. Selecting which specific scenes or concepts to focus on.

In my expository piece I will discuss the movies Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 1 and 2. The premises of these movies involve an unlikely band of heroes motivated to save the world by a central antagonist. The movies focus of character development and employ a humorous overtone to complement serious developments. The movie also incorporates a mixtape of older songs to enhance the emotional and action-based aspects of the scenes in the movie.

My argument will first address the impact the director James Gunn had on the development of the movie in the context of his background in smaller budget films and comedic dispositions. This part will also discuss how Gunn’s work as both the writer script and director of the movie leads to the a cohesive and convincing final product. The pressures of the building of the MCU and his relationship with Marvel also had an impact on what made it to the screen in Gunn’s films. Mythic elements in the plot will be evaluated as well.

Concerns:

Unsure how much of the piece should focus on the myth, because the prompt doesn’t address it and also on how much we are able to delve into the world building and character development (I guess I could incorporate it as a vision of the director/writer so that it is tied to the production)

I feel like the “so what” part is difficult generate because the piece will be about a specific set of movies, so I was wondering how heavily is this considered for a prompt like this.

I will be taking a critical approach to the Terrence Malick films The Tree of Life and The Thin Red Line. First, The Tree of Life tells the story of Jack’s struggle between two ways of life: the way of nature and the way of grace. We see the different stages of his ever-evolving philosophy throughout his childhood and adolescence, as well as adulthood, a philosophy constantly shaped by his own experiences and the people around him. The Thin Red Line is a film centered around the conflict at Gaudalcanal during WWII. We see many of the same themes in this film as we do in the Tree of Life, as characters within the film face the questions of existence with each other as well as within themselves. My argument will center around both films telling an archetypal story about people’s struggles with morality. My concern is how to narrow this broad topic down to a “so what”. I’m not sure whether this paper should be more like an analysis of the films or whether we should give an opinion as well.

Movie: The King’s Speech

Synopsis: The King’s Speech tells the story of King George VI, formerly known as Albert or “Bertie,” and how he and his speech therapist, Lionel Logue, work together to overcome his speech disability in order to lead the nation when they are on the brink of WWII.

Paper type: expository

For my paper, I will be comparing the actual historical events that are depicted in The King’s Speech with the events as seen in the movie. There are certain aspects, such as the creation of the sets, that are designed to add historical accuracy to the movie. On the other hand, there are also inconsistencies between the historical drama and the actual history of the events surrounding King George VI. My argument is that these different facets of the film are used to emphasize and dramatize the story of Lionel Logue and King George VI as first priority and then maintain historical accuracy second. I also want to consider the way that King George VI is portrayed as a cultural hero in the movie. I currently only have one source about cultural heroes in Great Britain that details the legends of King Arthur and of Robin Hood as setting the standard. Thus, I aim to compare the three and the literal versus figurative ways they represent cultural heroes of Great Britain.

Concerns/Questions: I’m not too certain how I am going to tie the production history into my movie (aside from just the information about the sets because that was all I could really find). I’m not even sure if that part qualifies as tying in the production history with what ended up on screen. I’m also a little worried about how to do a good formal analysis without going too much into the nitty gritty of every single scene in the movie. A less alarming concern of mine is how to find sources about the legends of King Arthur/Robin Hood/other heroes that are lengths that I can actually read (the one source I have right now is a book preview on Google Books lol)