Terminator Franchise, What Went Wrong?

It is very rare that a sequel to a movie turns out to be better than or as equally good as the first. “Terminator2”, is one of those movies. The movie introduced a new and improved terminator killing machine called the “T-1000.” This is a machine that is liquid metal that can mimic what it touches like another human or a sword..

The series of terminator movies started becoming stale when “Terminator3 Rise of the Machines” came out in 2003. The movie did not do as good as the first two. The reviews were mostly positive. It grossed a little over $430 million worldwide which is somewhere around 17% less than the second movie. This movie had a female terminator which was an upgrade and more dangerous than the T-1000.

There were a few main people that would have possibly made the movie better. One of those people was the original genius behind the first two named James Cameron. The second person was Linda Hamilton who played Sarah Connor. They could have somehow fit actor Michael Biehn in to this third movie who played Kyle Reese. None of these people were involved in this movie.

After this movie was made, another movie called “Terminator Salvation” which came out in 2009 continues the story of the terminator. This movie takes place in the future during the war with the machines. This movie did not receive a good reception except for the special effects. This time there was no T-800 terminator who is played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

A terminator movie is not a terminator movie without Schwarzenegger. There were T-800 skeletons in the movie. It just was not the same. It is very hard to have a successful sequel or movie series without the main players who gave the movie legs. In 2015, “Terminator Genisys came out. This movie was not directed by James Cameron.

Cameron did feel that this should have been the third terminator movie. This movie goes back into the first movie and kind of into the second movie with a t-1000 terminator who tries to intercept Kyle Reese after he first appears in 1984. It did receive negative reviews from critics. They felt it was too messy. They called it a retread of the past films.

A new Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese are played by Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney. One of the issues is that they are not the original actors who played those characters. The eyes of Clarke does make people think of Linda Hamilton. Their eyes seem to stand out. Courtney is much larger in muscularity compared to Michael Biehn. Clarke is much shorter than Hamilton. Some scenes were re-made that takes place in the original 1984 movie.

John Connor is attacked by a Skynet terminator which alters the original 1984 timeline and turns Connor into a terminator. An older terminator and a well aware Sarah Connor intercept the first terminator and kill it before he starts killing people. When you think of it, all the people who were killed in the first movie are now alive.

It is possible that this would have been as good as the first two if it would have been shot at the time T-3 came out with the original Sarah and Kyle. Terminator 5 or better known as “Terminator Dark Fate,” came out earlier this year. It did have James Cameron back to direct and Linda Hamilton back as Sarah Connor. Dark Fate was worse than Genisys.

The main issue that killed this movie was the killing of John Connor in the first ten minutes of the movie. John Connor was a computer generated actor who resembled Edward Furlong, the original John Connor from the second movie. The killing of John does not make any sense. The whole Terminator franchise started with the story line of protection John before he was born. With the terminator successfully accomplishing the original mission of killing John, it makes the story line of protecting John Connor a waste.

The movie does turn Sarah Connor into the hero. This was the main disappointment even though there were other problems. Franchise cannot be saved, it is over.