Ahoy, squirts! Quint here. I'm a little pissed off at this. So, we've wanted a future war movie for a long time. That movie in the TERMINATOR franchise is akin to us seeing the Alien homeworld in an ALIEN film. It's something we didn't think we'd ever see.

Word came out today that TERMINATOR: SALVATION is shooting for a PG-13 rating, producers citing DIE HARD 4. Sorry, I know DIE HARD 4 has its defenders. I think it's mediocre as an action movie, but it's fucking awful as a Die Hard movie. John McClane wasn't John McClane. He was a cartoon character.

This doesn't bode well for TERMINATOR. Why go PG-13 now? The series has grossed over a billion dollars as R-rated films. When Die Hard was PG-13ed it ceased feeling like a Die Hard movie. You can defend the film and that's fine, but I've not spoken to one person yet who has said it was a better film for being PG-13. They might have accepted it and moved on, enjoyed it for what it is, but no one can explain to me how it benefited the series being PG-13.

I feel the same way about TERMINATOR. Finally we see a future war movie where people are going to die off-screen, Terminators are going to look creepy and fire lasers that don't hit anything...

Variety cites the ability for merchandising with a PG-13 movie... Listen... aside from merchandising being a shitty way to think about what's best for this film, I was 10 when Terminator 2 came out. I saw it twice theatrically. There were toys and trading cards. I bought those, too. I dragged my parents and my friends to see it. I bought it on video when it came out (for the bargain basement price of $40, unheard of at the time for new release videos). They merchandised the fuck out of T2, so I don't buy that excuse.

I like the cast for the new movie and I don't hate McG behind the camera, but I really, really hate this decision. Bad call. Bad call. Bad call. Bad call. You know they're going to shoot a couple of scenes to put out an R-rated DVD that'll be as lame as the R-rated cut of DIE HARD 4 on DVD was.

I hope they come to their senses and not make a wussified sci-fi battle flick, one we've been waiting for for 24 years.