Board 8 > Terminator Series Discussion Topic (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Terminator 3: John dies in the future, his wife sends a terminator back in time to protect him
Terminator 4: John was going to die, but the studio said no, so he just awkwardly survives
Terminator 5: John turns evil, then dies
Terminator 6: John dies in the first sixty seconds, is replaced by a new savior of humanity

I get that John is less interesting than his mother, but so important that if he's in the movie, the movie becomes about him, but holy crap, is any other series more determined to ruin the first two movies than this one?
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Should I rewatch 1 and 2 before seeing dark fate
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ninkendo posted...

Should I rewatch 1 and 2 before seeing dark fate

You should rewatch 1 and 2 and not see Dark Fate.

Real talk: Dark Fate is not the worst thing ever, but if you watch it as like a legitimate followup to the two good movies, you're going to be furious at it.
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ninkendo posted...

Should I rewatch 1 and 2 before seeing dark fate

Should decide soon since Dark Fate is doing so terribly at the box office it's making Genesys look successful by comparison.

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What if I liked 3 and thought genesys was goofy

Never saw the one with Christian Bale
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It seems like Terminator should be the easiest series to get right

like why don't they just abandon the time travel aspect and just have post apocalyptic robot fighting.

I get that this is kind of what "salvation" was, but I don't know, do it better than that?

I've personally never even seen any of them since 2 actually! I just mean, Dark Fate will likely suffer a dark fate in terms of box office staying power, so go watch it soon if you want to see it on the big screen at all

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ninkendo posted...

What if I liked 3 and thought genesys was goofy

Never saw the one with Christian Bale

It's not unwatchable, it's just a really bad way to continue after 2 (it ignores 3, 4, and 5).

colliding posted...

It seems like Terminator should be the easiest series to get right

like why don't they just abandon the time travel aspect and just have post apocalyptic robot fighting.

I get that this is kind of what "salvation" was, but I don't know, do it better than that?

I get why it's hard to continue. You have like the following elements associated with the series:
- John Connor, the savior
- Sarah Connor, the crazy survivalist mother of the savior
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, the robot who varies between good and evil
- A succession of evil future robots with wacky superpowers
- Time travel
You have to include all of these in each movie (except 4, which tried to be different), and I can see why it's hard to do that, because John isn't an interesting character, so you need to kill him or reduce his goal, but he's too important, and the plot of "I must defend this person" requires someone in his role anyway.
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69% on RT that seems pretty nice to me
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don't be a <B>FOOL</B>

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I like how Dark Fate is supposed to be the "true" follow up to 1 and 2 and shunts the other movies into an alternate timeline, and yet it has the most "alternate timeline" style plot in the franchise. If they called it "Terminator: What If?" maybe people would be okay with it.

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ninkendo posted...

69% on RT that seems pretty nice to me

No one's gonna stop you from seeing it, you have the warnings already.
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Grand Kirby posted...

I like how Dark Fate is supposed to be the "true" follow up to 1 and 2 and shunts the other movies into an alternate timeline, and yet it has the most "alternate timeline" style plot in the franchise. If they called it "Terminator: What If?" maybe people would be okay with it.

I mean, it is called "Dark Fate," i.e. the worst timeline.

Sounds like the movie bombed.
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colliding posted...

It seems like Terminator should be the easiest series to get right

like why don't they just abandon the time travel aspect and just have post apocalyptic robot fighting.

I get that this is kind of what "salvation" was, but I don't know, do it better than that?

I completely agree. You can do so much world-building in the "robot apocalypse actually happened" timeline, knowing that the climax will be sending Arnold back in time to save John Connor in T2. Sure the final final drama is a bit lost, but at least you don't render the first two movies irrelevant in the process.
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Anagram posted...
but holy crap, is any other series more determined to ruin the first two movies than this one?

Alien and Predator definitely give it a run for its money.

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Star Wars.
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It still baffles me that they feel the need to hang onto the plot of the first two movies. Just let it go, there's no way to live up to them, ever. It's not gonna happen. Reboot the damn series completely, get rid of John and all that shit and just make a movie about fighting robots with brand new characters and a brand new story.

Granted they have to be creative for that to work so I can see the issue there
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None of the movies really bring much new to the table (other than 4, which was bad). It's just the same story again and again. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but still.

Saw 6 yesterday, and it was a solid 7/10 movie. Had quite a few fun action scenes and the story was alright. But there wasn't anything particularly interesting about it. Arnold's role was the most creative part I think. That was neat.

The TV show was probably the most creative and interesting of the bunch.

CassandraCain posted...

It still baffles me that they feel the need to hang onto the plot of the first two movies. Just let it go, there's no way to live up to them, ever. It's not gonna happen. Reboot the damn series completely, get rid of John and all that shit and just make a movie about fighting robots with brand new characters and a brand new story.

That's a fine idea. I feel like the rebooted ones might just be the exact same thing again, though.
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Which series got it the worst in terms of not letting good things end? Terminator, Predator, Alien, or Robocop? Because I think it's Terminator.
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rewatched 1 yesterday

rewatching 2 right now

will watch 6 tomorrow
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I want a timeline diagram like people do for Primer
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