I remember when Terminator was great; I remember watching the first two movies and feeling… engulfed. Engulfed by the story and the characters- they were like nothing I’d ever seen before. They made me a Terminator Fan. But that was T1 and T2, that was before the franchise became a joke. Now, after watching Terminator 3: ROTM and Terminator Salvation I’m not even sure how to describe the complete disappointment I feel about the direction the legendary franchise has taken over the last ten years. Actually even the word “direction” can’t truly be used in reference to the total and utter shit heap which has become the Terminator franchise since 2003 (yes, partly Arnold’s fault and we all know it). The Terminator (1984) was a perfect example of an unexpected success- no-one thought it would do anything big financially in regards to Box Office revenue and then suddenly… wham! Success, money and James Cameron’s ship came in,- it was strongly suggested he make another:
“Another?” he thought, frowning a little, his hooked nose curling down with concentration.
Across the room the big studio exec smiled gently at Jim; amusing himself with mental images of cigars and naked women as he nodded in response.
This made the blonde director frown even more “But there was only meant to be one… I don’t know what happens next… I… I wanted to make Spiderman… I- do I get more money?”
The big studio exec nodded again, the smile spreading across his wide face. Money buys everything, he thought happily. Sometimes even very big movies can be bought for a cup of coffee…
So along came Terminator 2: Judgment Day and I was totally on-board, I’d strapped myself in and was along for the ride, feeling the heady rush of sci-fi and action. It’s a very appealing movie on so many levels; it’s a buddy movie, a sci-fi movie, a road movie, an action movie and very very quotable. It has strong acting performances, a strong story and a young angst-riddled John Connor but he has a right to be a little pissed off – his foster-mother used to be greased-up Vasquez from Aliens. The visuals were swish and stylish,- clearly Mr. Cameron had learnt a thing or two since the abysmal second Piranha and he wasn’t afraid to throw some directorial strutting into the movie to show all those doubters what he could do with proper money in the kitty. But, with great power comes great responsibility… (spiderman joke number two)… and…
T2 sent the power straight to JC’s head -no, not Jesus Christ, James Cameron (they aren’t the same person) and this brought about the first few time inconsistencies,- the creator doomed his creation to fail in the hands of others. James Cameron was set the task of squeezing every red cent out of merchandizing for T2: Judgment Day… there are a lot of quotables in the movie; things which go great on mugs and shirts and hats and things… every other sentence almost seems designed for merchandizing… T2 is a shiny bauble which makes your fingers smell like pennies.
And it is with heavy heart that I move onto my most disliked movie of the franchise to date; T3 (I know. And that’s with taking Charlie’s Angels 3, ahem, I mean Terminator Salvation, into account). I didn’t watch T3 until I had absolutely no other option- I disliked it from trailers, news and a couple of behind the scenes pieces on E! Then after watching it… I disliked A LOT about the movie. I disagreed with the director, I disagreed with the T-X, I disagreed with John Connor and I HATED Kate Brewster. I’ll let my brief rage subside…
In the grand scheme of things T3 is almost so bad that it’s easily forgotten and with a little effort, though I’m not sure it would be a good idea to wipe it out when it comes to the mythos of the franchise as a whole. T3 had some interesting ideas but they were poorly executed and the complacency of everyone involved seeps through with every scene- not to mention the ridiculously calculated and cynical attempts of the studio to “sex up” the franchise with the T-X; a blonde in a tight red pantsuit and inflatable knockers. I don’t know what it was meant to achieve within the story but clearly it was aimed at half-assed titillation *gag* I’d rather watch Babylon 5… O.M.G
And now, ladies and gentlemen, this section is reserved for my rantings and ravings aimed at Salvation (damnation?); I paid good money to watch an overly long trailer for some music video type thing with cameos from people like Batman, a rapper and Richie Cunningham’s daughter when what I actually wanted was the fourth instalment of the Terminator franchise. I wanted all of my doubts squashed. I wanted salvation. I was disappointed. AGAIN.
It really gets to piss me off when actors can’t remember which accent they’re meant to be using and at points in Salvation Sam Worthington had a thick Australian accent i.e. during McG’s orgasm scene, er, I mean, the confrontational scene with Batman. Batman sounds like a Cornish pirate in that very same scene.
There was no infantry from SkyNet… that speaks for itself. Future war? Fuck off, that wasn’t a future war.
… I’ve eventually reached the subject of the much awaited Terminator 5… took me a while eh?
I don’t have high hopes for T5, I don’t have any hopes at all. Whatever T3 managed not to destroy T4 helped dismantle a little more and T5 already stinks. Megan Ellison and her brother David are running the show now with Annapurna and Skydance… it’s Halcyon all over again and can’t you just tell… ? Two rich kids padding out their resumes with movies that’ll get them noticed, but they’re buying and funding an awful lot of projects right now and that to me screams lack of attention. Like little kids with a new box of crayons filling out a whole wall with drawings in a rush to show off.
I’m worried and the inclusion of writers Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier makes it much worse. Avatar, Drive Angry, Pathfinder, Alexander, Dracula 2000, My Bloody Valentine 3D? If they make Terminator 5 anything like any of those movies I will violently vomit on myself.
My vision of Annapurna’s Terminator movie… ? Location? Present day Los Angeles, the day of SkyNet’s attack; the bombs hit the world and John Connor begins his true ascension to the legend he is meant to be. The action is at ground zero. The threat is SkyNet and not so much the Terminators.
Right now I worry that soon my love for this franchise will finally buy the farm, because all I see is Terminator dead in the water and we’re all just waiting for the shit to float back up… again.
Article by Endo Morgan (TTF Editor)
13 Comments
I agreed to most of what you’ve said,
with the exception of : Terminatrix…there’s nothing wrong with a blonde Terminator, Loken did her part with gusto 🙂
As with Annapurna buying the rights to Terminator franchise, I decided to look at it as a positive thing, Annapurna has been supporting edgy films up to this point , films that has its own voices that don’t necessarily make their pennies back ( The master, Zero Dark 30, Lawless amongst some of them)
As an ardent supporter of The Terminator franchise.. here’s to looking at the brighter side of the future 🙂
Loken was a highlight of T3.
I agree it was sexing the movie up, but it paid off. There was no doubt in my mind when watching that Loken’s TX was deadly.
That’s exactly what I meant ! while she is sexy she is still deadly, the ongoing theme of violence is at least consistent in T3 , you feel that she is a threat to human life.
T4 had none of that.
disagree the TX was retarded. It was in no way more deadly than the T-1000, that could have turned into a sexy woman as well if it wanted, but wouldnt be hurt like the TX from big impacts. The thing that most annoyed me about the TX was the stupid emotions, for example when she licks the bandage and finds that its connors blood, she has an orgasm… she is a terminator FFS shy would she have any emotions, unless of course she was using body language to manipulate a person and in this case she is by herself.
I personally had the idea that not everything in a terminator like the T-X is purely and the same as for instance a t-600. If Skynet can program in automatic reactions to certain conditions which are met in her software, why not show pleasure in the same way that a human would. Not all of her reactions need to be from her upper memory, I suggest that some of it is non-conscious in the same way that our body feels pleasure when confronted by someone sexy doing something sexy. Rather like a daemon or non-conscious reaction in a human.
Did you know a woman can even be turned on by some things that other women do without even realising it? I have actually seen it on screen recently. (I wish I could remember what it was but the woman actress had to do something and as she did it, her bra-less shirt showed a change which us guys might recognise).
Agree with everything about T3, what POS movie. However i think T4 wasn’t as bad as everybody says. Yes connors batman voice is annoying and the ending is terrible. The storyline until the end was not bad and the acting was 1st class.
I agree, T4 is not as bad as everyone thinks.
However, I would’ve loved to have seen the original script on film. As when Bale took over the role of John Connor things had to be changed so Bale would have more screen time.
Am I the only one who gives more credit to T3 than T4 ? T3 got some serious ghastly shit going on , wer all can agree to that, especially that deleted sgt John Candy scene, Fuckin hell… thats some blasphemous shit there.
But T4 for all its gritty posturing and pseudo edginess never really show any oomph… there’s never a real sense of threat here, all the violence is bloodless, a guy get shot by t-600 mini gun and he whimpers and die without a single rip, and the Terminators.. I don’t know who programmed them, but they weren’t programmed to kill.. they were programmed to throw human around into Duplex walls..
(trust me I want to love this movie, I think Sam W and Yelchin did a fine job, and Moon Bloodgood is fine as hell)
T:S was pitiful. We clearly see huge amounts of carnage and debris in the future war sequences in the early movies ~ Salvation looked WAY too clean. No skulls littering the floor nor Nuclear blasted debris…. …And don’t get me started on that pristine fashion show! The WD made the Resistance look like a bunch of Goddamned Nazis….
While I may disagree with you on T3 and T4, I too don’t have high hopes for T5.
There was only one thing I prayed for: to have it set in the future again. Any problems with the future in T4 could be solved in a sequel. But to step back and go to the present just makes me facepalm.
All points are valid on the last two installments. Yet for as bad as Salvation was, there was some good in it. one, the bleak future we wanted, we got. John Conner isn’t a leader but is trying to live up to the role he was forced into. Stopping him are current military leaders with heads up their behinds. Truth be told, JC as a valued resource was not explored. Bale was not the right actor, as an unknown or up and coming would have been better. Making JC focus, at the request of Bale was a wrong decision. Another point, where was this army of terminators the future was fighting? Yes I wasted more than a T-600 here and there. I firmly believe the movie missed the mark here. We did get the evolution of the T-800. Things that the franchise needs to explore: Skynet! Show humans working in labs for the computer brain, show terrifing conditions in which they live amongst soulless machines, hybrids being raised as infiltrators, the development of time travel, other infiltrators sent back to ensure Skynets creation (thank you T:TSCC), other used or failed Skynet tech. I mean come on already, this is a different future than the one JC learned of. Then the other side of the fence, the Resistance: what about reprogramed terminators, the use of Skynet tech, underground installations, look out posts, the struggle for humanity to survive, and battles. Yes weaponry is scarce, but it exist, and humanity begins to turn the corner. Do other countries exist? Central America, South America? Canada?!? What Salvation left us with was the belief that a group of less than 500 people are all that remains, we might as well fight machines with rocks, and open heart surgery is preformed in an airplane hangar. Time to start getting it right. Terminator fans have all but given up hope.
i still hold out hope for T5 but after having read this i feel like it’s gonna be even worse than T:S. in fact i think it will be worse than T3 and T:S combined.
I’m happy to give Megan Ellison the chance to show us what she can do. I think it is unfair to pass too much judgment in there.
Working my way down the above thoughts, I’m not so sure I agree that it was all bad in the least.
The crane smashing through the buildings was great, even if the self-driving vehicles was explainable and still remains that way.
I liked having Claire Danes on the scene, in the back of the truck yelling etc. She seemed to him my mark. The same way that Bryce Dallas Howard did it for me in T4. If you watch her performance, I think she had an intelligent part in T4.
No infantry from Skynet. Is it possible this future was not the same?
Yes, a lot of projects. The same thing went through my mind, (but I still live in hope).
I tweeted Megan, telling her that I have 4 files which contain every date and principal event in all films. She never got back to me. I wonder if the new writers are as genned up as the fans here and other Terminator (even TSCC) sites?
This is a nice website by the way, great pictures and names.