Terminator: Dark Fate

[DeadlyWest]

So now both Cameron and Arnold himself have said the franchise needs to move beyond him. Didn't think we'd get to that point, honestly.

It flat out should've happened after Terminator 2 imo

The conventional story of Terminator, of a machine sent back to the past to kill an important person in the future and someone/thing sent by the Resistance to protect them? That was Cameron and Arnold's story. It was lightning in a bottle you only really see once a decade. They did it twice, the first time was like inventing the wheel and the second was like taking that wheel and using it to invent the rubber tyre. That aspect to this saga was told in the best way it possibly could, with Terminator 1 and 2. Trying to do it again, especially without Cameron, was always going to be a downgrade. If they're gonna do more movies, it has to be something radically different to the formula. The future's an obvious good starting point.

Otherwise? Let it be. Any attempts to recapture what Cameron and Arnold did is just going to devalue the franchise further than it already has.

Honestly, my idea for a sequel would actually be to go back even further than the 1980s. Skynet acquires records of John's ancestor around the first world war. This leads to the same premise as before, along with a resistance member, but with a fairly simple twist. That resistance member dies within the first few seconds of landing, because his sphere puts him right in No Man's Land. The Terminator is on the other side of the trench to this ancestor and it essentially becomes a slasher horror movie, set in WW1, of a Terminator trying to find his way across the other side of No Man's Land to kill said ancestor who doesn't have the prior context to what this thing (who can just tank sniper fire like it's nothing) is that Sarah Connor had in 1984 and who has to find some way to survive in one of the worst environments conceived by a war, with 1914-1918 technology.

It writes itself.

 

[Zantera]

Salvation is one of the better post T2 sequels because if anything it does try to do something else. It has its issues - it kinda looks like a bland action movie and doesn't pop visually, story wise and character wise there is room for improvement but overall it was fun for what it was.

I do agree the franchise is pretty much a well that's been run dry at this point. Either they go the Predator/Prey route of sending a T-800 back to an older era when weapons were more rare (or weaker) bringing the stakes up and making it different, OR they just scrap that format completely and do something different.

 

[Punisher_MAX]

Am I the only one that actually enjoys Salvation?

I didn't mind out that washed out Saving Private Ryan look OR the idea of having a movie set in the Future War. But they wasted the concept by not having more John Connor AND no memorable action set pieces of the Resistance vs the machines.

The first two movies already said, or at least alluded, that our modern weaponry (M16s and what not) weren't exactly cleaning out machines in battle, and that it was the Resistance getting Skynet's weapons that started leveling out the playing field, so the stakes in an early Future War would've been high as is.

The more I think of the wasted potential of Salvation the more annoyed I get lol

 

[Kane52630]

I saw Salvation again recently, I never thought it was outright bad especially now because Genisys exists.

 

[Gothamsknight]

Salvation is solid, honestly. I get why some dislike it, but it's got a lot of cool going for it. On rewatch, I found Dark Fate to be the most boring out of all the films post T2 even if it's objectively better than genisys. Which kind of shocked me because I thought Genisys was laughably awful on first watch. It's still not good, but it's also not boring.

 

[Broseph44]

Genisys is definitely my least favorite of the franchise. Has anyone ever watched The Sarah Connor Chronicles? I remember when that was on and I actually have never watched it. But have always wanted to check it out honestly.

 

[C. Lee]

Genisys is definitely my least favorite of the franchise. Has anyone ever watched The Sarah Connor Chronicles? I remember when that was on and I actually have never watched it. But have always wanted to check it out honestly.

I watched it first run and liked it. I bought the DVDs but haven't rewatched it yet. I'm going to pull them out and put in my watch list.

 

[Broseph44]

I watched it first run and liked it. I bought the DVDs but haven't rewatched it yet. I'm going to pull them out and put in my watch list.

It was just the two seasons and then cancelled right?

 

[C. Lee]

It was just the two seasons and then cancelled right?

Yeah, two seasons (and I think the first season was a short one because it was a mid season replacement)....I remember it had some good action and good storylines.

 

[C. Lee]

Just checked....9 episodes first season....22 episodes for the second.

 

[Broseph44]

Just checked....9 episodes first season....22 episodes for the second.

Thanks, gonna look into where I can maybe give this a watch sometime.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Salvation trying something new doesn't make it a good movie for me. It makes the movie all the more disappointing that they finally tried something new and botched it. I still can't believe they couldn't even get the T-600's right.

A 9 foot infiltration unit to get into small bunkers? McG everybody.

 

[samsnee]

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Spider-Fan]

I will wait for the RT score to be good before I care

 

[Teelie]

Literally my reaction.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

Cameron writing a new script is very unexpected and intriguing.

 

[Gothamsknight]

Listen, T2 is one of the greatest films ever made. period. BUT, if Cameron is writing a new film, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hyped for it. Let's see what happens. I don't think Cameron would do this unless he had a solid idea in mind. Would he possibly direct?

 

[Iceman]

I wish he’d done T3 or a couple more back then. Hopefully he still has the magic.

 

[Gothamsknight]

One one hand, I do feel like too many years have gone by, but perhaps that'll work in favor of what he's doing?

 

[DarkKnight88]

He kind of discussed his ideas a few months back that it wouldn’t be about bad robots chasing people, but the actual AI side of things.

 

[Iceman]

One one hand, I do feel like too many years have gone by, but perhaps that'll work in favor of what he's doing?

I don’t think the time gap would matter that much if he could bring his old quality from that era back. But with Avatar for eg, it seems he has the same cutting edge for film visuals and tech, but not sure he quite has it on the story/iconic characters front.

 

[Shinobi Shaw]

Wait. Cameron writing a new Terminator?!



Yet another thing not on my Bingo card for 2023. Let me find out we’re getting a REAL T3.

 

[DyeLorean]

Oh no here we go again...

 

[elgaz]

I'd normally be jumping for joy at what could effectively be Cameron's T3 ................ but he was executive producer on Dark Fate and worked very closely with the Director, Tim Miller. And there were definitely some huge missteps in that film, like having a Terminator kill a young John Connor on a random beach at the very start of the movie, rendering his entire T2 arc a waste of time.

So my confidence in Cameron isn't quite what it once was.