You may resent him for producing some of the stupidest TV shows known to man, and for daring to try to remake Spaced. You may have loathed We Are Marshall and regret the day you ever saw Cameron Diaz dance around in underoos in Charlie's Angels. But I guarantee you, no one hates McG more than McG.
The world's most insecure mogul was up-front and center at Saturday's Terminator: Salvation presentation, showing footage from a movie that no one really thought ought to be made, and really no one thought he should direct. Oh, and then there's this whole mess, which was clearly on the mind of everyone in the room, most of whom have probably had the remix stuck in their head all week. When McG's mic gave off feedback, some smartass in the audience shouted "That's fucking unprofessional!" McG gave a sly wink and said "I don't understand."
As for the footage he showed, a five-minute reel of scenes from the movie including those we've already seen in the trailers, it's hard to know what to say. Nothing we've seen so far gives any real idea of what the plot of the movie will be, other than that John Connor is trying to save humanity while Skynet works on the Terminator models that will become the T-800, rounding up humans and using them for research and development in the meantime. McG hinted that we might see a young, digitally enhanced version of Arnold Schwarzenegger among those unlucky humans, setting the stage for the final T-800 model that tells John Connor to come with him if he want to live.
The footage, which includes many effects shots that haven't made it past the modeling phase yet, was cut together so quickly, and seemingly at random, that it was hard at times to even tell who was who. Sam Worthington, playing a mysterious character who seems likely to be a Terminator himself, got a little extra screentime, but it's still impossible to catch on to his motives. And Bale seems to be reprising his gravelly Batman voice for many scenes, something I don't
But other than that, not much was revealed-- other than McG's obvious insecurity about the movie. During the Q&A session he pulled up three self-identified Terminator fans to sit onstage and help him answer questions-- then ignored them for the rest of the session. He explained how Cameron refused to give his blessing to the movie-- making up for his San Diego Comic Con gaffe-- while buttering up Cameron by praising Avatar, and even revisited how he was fired from Superman Returns due to his fear of flying. It all seemed a calculated move to make us think of him as a nerd like us, and maybe lower our expectations for Terminator: Salvation even further.
There's a difference between playing to the fans, as Joss Whedon did in the Dollhouse panel the next day, and goading them, as McG did. Every time he asked us to show our appreciation for Christian Bale/Linda Hamilton/Arnold Schwarzenegger/T-800s/James Cameron/whatever by clapping, it sounded like "Please like me! Please validate my ego!"
I'm not about to begrudge McG his insecurities or his need for an audience to prop him up; it must be terrifying to be out there promoting a hugely expensive movie and knowing that plenty of fans think you're a douchebag cashing in on an idea that peaked in the early 90s. But I can't figure out his desire to share it with the audience, and why he doesn't just go forward confident that his movie will speak for itself. If he's got so little faith in himself and his movie, why should we?
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