I suppose if you kept the focus on John and the sort of "what now?" question of what does this great leader do after the conflict is over, it could be interesting. That's one aspect of T4 that I thought was unique to it but executed terribly: that John maybe isn't the greatest strategist/leader, but is extremely empathetic and compassionate and because of what he already knows of the future, is best positioned to help humanity defeat Skynet. What happens after that when he's basically fulfilled his purpose and no longer has the other team's play book, yet people are still looking to him for answers, is an intriguing angle.
Unfortunately, I think any movie we get based on that premise would look and feel like "Generic Post-Apocalyptic Action Movie" and not necessarily like a Terminator film.
What else would you like to see from that post-war story?
I haven't seen it and probably wait for video before see it. The problem I have with everything they have done with Terminator is that they have the right idea but are poorly written.
The films need to movie forward not backwards. The idea after Terminator 2 is see one last ditch effort to kill John Conner right before Judgement day. We got this but the story line and acting was lame. Then they should have started the second half of the trilogy by setting it in the future and showing the rise of the resistance and the fall of Skynet and bring the story full circle with John sending Kyle back in time to save his mother. Again they started to do this with Terminator Salvation. Yet for whatever reason it didn't take very well. I think had movie been more focused on John and less on Sam Worthington character the film would been more successful.
The other problem I see is Arnold. I get Arnold back in the day made these movies what they are. Yet Arnold and it's really hard to buy in to an old Terminator. I for one don't really want to see Arnold in films any more films. I think the Terminator films can survive with out him and be very successful.
I Just don't see Terminator ever being what it once was. I think a lot if not all of it was due to James Cameron writing abilities then anything else. Time Travel is hard subject to write with out confusing the hell out of every one. This is main reason James Cameron kept the time travel simple and not complicated. I doubt there will be another one but I said that after Terminator 3. I was actually disappointed they didn't just build off of Salvation which wasn't a bad start and could have been improved upon in a sequel.
I thought it was better than TS, but probably not T3.
I too am among those baffled as to why they chose to remake the timeline. The first four films flowed storywise:
T1- Kyle Reese saves Sarah and she learns about JDay.
T2- Sarah stops JDay.
T3- John learns JDay was postponed, not prevented and JDay occurs.
TS- John starts to become the leader he always knew he'd become.
That's all such logical progression, but this blows it all to ****. Why? So unnecessary.
On the plus side, the acting was better than expected, except from Jai Courtney. He just doesn't fit. How could anyone see him as a replacement for the original? It's just not happening.
Oh wow. I hadn't heard that bit about the ending before. I wouldn't have liked it if the Connor/Marcus Terminator had killed everyone in the resistance.
For me the appeal is seeing a full on action film with humanity rising from the depths, led by John Connor. Seeing humanity come together and rebuild society could lead to some great stories and characters. You could see all kinds of different Terminators too. It would be sweet. I mean we got some of that in Salvation, and that's one reason why I don't hate Salvation. It's not a my favorite but at least it was a film set in the Future War.
The first 10-15 minutes I kind of went along with, ok they sort of rehashed everything from the first two films and just threw it all at the wall to see what would stick, but the future war parts were pretty well done and John Connors speech felt like it had something but then once we got back to 1984 it all goes sideways very quickly.
Everything felt like it was a set up for a pun, some may have been funny but many weren't. It may not have helped watching T2 the day before seeing this but seeing Sarah Connor crack jokes when Reese first shows just felt so out of place when being chased by a relentless killing machine. The tone is night and day away from T2, this Sarah Connor is written so badly its a completely different character (maybe this is sort of the point with all these multi-verses now but I know which one I like and respect more).
And would a Terminator with 17 years prep time fail its objective because it got stuck in traffic??? I mean really, REALLY??? but then we couldn't have had that zinger so its all good.
The script at times ranges from ok to "wholly cheeseball Batman get me a new agent", with some pearl's of wisdom uttered such as:
"It from a memory I shouldn't have......but do!" and
"Run in a straight line and dont look back"
and then when you try and get Arnie to explain away time travel as being simple just needing a nexus quantum algorithm.....
There's also my personal fave,
dodgy CGI helicopter sequence
which always looks good up on the big screen.
So yeah all in all it may sound like I am ragging on this a bit too much and that it has no redeeming features, but then maybe I remember a different timeline when this did have some redeeming features perhaps.
In all honesty though this is what happens when time travel movies go bad and the comedy shift of tone is clearly just not for me or what I want in a Terminator film, I shall stick to T1 and T2 and leave this to those that may well enjoy it, its not like it erases those from existence even if this film actually tried to do that in the actual film.
It would appear to be an unpopular opinion around here but Nick Stahl was my favourite John Connor. I loved him in the role, he portrayed the true weight of his knowledge, and felt very human to me. I would have liked him to have been more resourceful in the film, but I did believe he could become the man humanity ralies behind.
I fear no-one will ever write a truly captivating John Connor though. For some reason he's never been allowed to star in any of these stories.
It would appear to be an unpopular opinion around here but Nick Stahl was my favourite John Connor. I loved him in the role, he portrayed the true weight of his knowledge, and felt very human to me. I would have liked him to have been more resourceful in the film, but I did believe he could become the man humanity ralies behind.
I fear no-one will ever write a truly captivating John Connor though. For some reason he's never been allowed to star in any of these stories.
I am surprised people think the other timelines were wiped out. The film established a Many Worlds view of time travel, hence assimilated John's speech and the alternate reality Skynet. All of the timelines still exist, even the TV series, the Dark Horse comics and NOW comics. They were trying to establish a multiverse. Edit to add, almost forgot should of added SM Stirlings Infiltrator novel series as well. The new films were going to delve more in parallel universes,/alternate realities, etc.
I love Arnold but it's clear audiences don't really go to see him for movies anymore. He'd be better served taking smaller supporting roles and not have the weight of opening weekend fall on his shoulders.
I love Arnold but it's clear audiences don't really go to see him for movies anymore. He'd be better served taking smaller supporting roles and not have the weight of opening weekend fall on his shoulders.
The, kinda, funny thing to me is that the original 2 Terminators are R rated movies that I would have no problem with a 13 year old watching. Or even a 10 year old. Hell the first time I watched it was somewhere between the ages of 5 and 8
They really arent that bad to me, so maybe that's why I dont care about the rating that much as long as it captures the spirit of what the originals did.
The first one definitely earned its R rating. It's kinda gory and not to mention there's nudity. T2 on the other hand could easily be mistaken for a PG-13 film besides a few T-1000 kills. I think I first watched T2 when I was 11, and I didn't see the original until a few years later.
its cleararnolds time is over in hollywood and its not a bad thing. Action is superhero movies now and thats what drives ticket sales. When arnold last played a terminator it was 2003, completly different crowds now. Hell even magic mike xxl lost its crowd from 3 years ago.
The thing that has been bad about the past 3 Terminator movies is just mediocre directors and terrible writers. To me Terminator has always had so much potential. It still just pangs me that when Cameron said he would do T3 that Kassar and Vanja said that they only wanted him to direct because they paid for a (terrible) script already.
It just seems that for whatever reason the people that keep getting involved have no respect for what T1 and T2 did. Not even just from a story standpoint but one of tone and seriousness.
Originally when this was announced even when they had just announced Clarke I had really thought that this was going to be a full reboot. But then when Megan jumped ship, and it was clear Arnold was a huge part of this film that the reboot idea was not happening.
To me I still think Terminator deserves more. I would like to see the rights go back to Cameron. Sadly we know Cameron will never get to it since Avatar 2,3, and 4 will be coming out in 2050. That and I don't know if even Cameron has it in him to go back to his old style of film making.
But I would love to see him produce it and get someone like Rian Johnson, or Duncan Jones, to make a smaller budget reboot. Something that is hard hitting, and smaller in scope. And then work it up as it went along. Because you know people will want to do something with Terminator always, it just is what it is. No matter what it just won't die. So my hopes is when Cameron gets it back (which he will) that he gives it to actually some great film makers to give it a new breath of life, and maybe a revitalized vision.
Yeah, i think time has passed long enough since the main originals (T1 & T2) to warrant a reboot.
I think since Salvation wasn't really what the GA would call a Terminator movie, in it's basic sense, T3 was the last 'real' Terminator movie - 12 years is long enough.
But, i think it would have to vary in a big way, as the first two were so iconic, you don't really want to try and copy - total recall as an example, did it match expectations second time around?
Thing is, now it has declared a multiverse, i kind of thought to myself, so what if one universe flops and fails - another universe could defeat skynet.
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