Aurel's laurels

I just went to see the new Terminator film with William. The kids have kind of grown up on Terminator movies, so I thought William, 20, would have a good time. I did, but he thought it was pretty "cheesy". On the bus rolling down Islington, he thought for a bit and then said, "No, I thought it was a bad film. I was bored. They did all that running around, but you knew they weren't going to die." Maybe he is too adult now to sit back and enjoy all the stunts, special effects and simplistic philosophy about what it is to be human, as I did. The actors were concentrated and very good, the music by Danny Elfman was stirring and suitably inflated, the photography, sets, models and editing without reproach. After William said that, I thought for a bit and said, "When they are at their planning stage, these movies should bring in one writer, whose expertise is in creating characters we care about, people we, who like to cry in movies, can cry over." "I don't know what you mean", William said. Defensively, I said, "Well, in Terminator Two, I really cared about his mother", and, if we had not been on a bus, I might actually have teared up just thinking about some of the scenes in the mental hospital. Serious film buffs scoff at my passion for purely entertaining action films, but these are the films that drive, (and reflect), the public psychology of our nations. To me, they are more important than, say, the stock market or even politics.