The Terminator Franchise

[Kalidor]

I don't know that there's much more than can be done with the Terminator franchise at this point. The movies have clearly run their course. I've never gotten into the comics media so I don't know anything about those, as I tend to stick to live action stories.

As of now I've watched all 6 movies and am in the process of watching the show "The Sarah Connor Chronicles". I do like the show and wish it got more episodes, but after I'm done with that I'm not sure how long it will be, if ever, that I revisit the franchise.

What have you guys seen and what do you like? Do you have any toys or props? (I don't).

 

[CoffeeHorse]

The first one was special because it was made for incredibly little money. It was way more cooler than audiences had any reason to expect. The second one was special because James Cameron is uniquely good at sequels.

It's just not special anymore and I don't think there's anything they can do about it. Action movies in general have this problem right now, but Terminator has the extra problem of being tied to one specific actor. We can see the franchise aging before our eyes.

 

[Kalidor]

Salvation would have been a good Fallout movie. But as a Terminator movie it was pretty shit.

 

[Caldwin]

Terminato 1&2 were great. 3 was bearable but was truly where I was thinking maybe they should just stop. Salvation was okay as a movie, but was where Terminator truly lost any charm it had left. I don't hate Genesys nearly as much as most people seem to, but it was definitely a "please just stop" type feeling. Dark Fate... I think I'm just done.

Sarah Conner Chronicles was good. I only watched the first season because it was at a time when I found it difficult to keep up with anything. Didn't feel like watching it later because I heard Fox just kinda stopped and left the story hanging.

I've read some comic, not nearly all. The NOW comics were meh. Dark Horse comics are pretty good. You should definitely check out Robocop Vs. Terminator.

Video game wise, T2 the Arcade game is absolute gold. Of course I love me some light-gun games. I played it in the actual Arcade and on SNES. I also have Robocop vs. Terminator for SNES and Genesis. As a SNES fanboy it pains me to say this, but the Genesis version actually is bette.

 

[Paladin]

Everything after T2 was a plot tumor. Cut it off and let the franchise end.

 

[Daith]

I'm pretty forgiving of Franchises going past their time, but even I can see the Terminator franchise has long since lost it's luster. Now that we got to the point to where it really didn't matter that T2 happened at all and it's always going to be killer robots vs the not so special chosen one, and who it is could change if killed anyways it's just not as cool anymore. I'd like to see more in the vein of Salvation showing more of the post apocalyptic timeline if anything rather than the tired chosen one formula that's been pretty well sabotaged now.

 

[Caldwin]

About the only new thing I'd want to see from Terminator at this point would be if they made an actual Robocop Vs. Terminator, whether it's an adaptation of the comic or a brand new thing. As for the movies as they are now, yeah, everything after 2 I can do without.

 

[Exatron]

Everything after T2 was a plot tumor. Cut it off and let the franchise end.

Of course the Governator traveled to the past to defend his record pre-emptively.

I've seen the first four movies. Never got around to watching the last two. I didn't necessarily hate the last two that I saw, but I definitely would have been more satisfied if T2 had been the last one.

 

[Kalidor]

Old lady Sarah Connor was pretty cool.

 

[Kup]

I love the tv show, and was incredibly sad when it ended. There were some things I didn't like about early Season 2, and I absolutely did not like the actor for Kyle Reese. I loved Derek, thought Summer Glau did an amazing job, and actually prefer Lena Hedley over Linda Hamilton. John wasn't bad, a big improvement over Edward Furlong. The red herring big bad for Season 2, the lead singer from Garbage, was excellent and I wanted to see more of her and where they were taking this split faction of robots. And the actor who played the disbelieving cop-turned ally? Excellent.

Hoped for a few years afterwards that they'd do a follow up, one shot movie to wrap up the story line. Considering its been over a decade, I know that's not gonna happen, but I'd really like to see the plot resolved somehow.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

We hit a point of diminishing returns with special effects. The first two were able to do things we hadn't seen a million times already. From 3 onward, there's just nothing they bring to the table that you can't get elsewhere, except for the specific lore of Terminator which is just not that deep.

 

[Daith]

Despite coming down on the series earlier it’s not like I don’t enjoy the movies for what they are. I think the two I really don’t care at all for are Rise of the Machines and Salvation. 3 just felt like they did a movie just to do another movie. It tried rehashing the plot from T2 but took out the creepy factor from the chasing Terminator (until the screaming harpy bot at the end was revealed) and lost Sarah.

Salvation despite being one of the things I did want from the franchise just did not do anything for me. It banked on Star power over anything and fell through over it.

At least with Genysis we had a bit of a nonsensical twist to the timeline. I see it as a What If? for the franchise. Dark Fate….. one I would accept as 3 more than what we did get.

 

[MadameVixen]

Love the franchise and the special effects used in terminator 2

 

[Maruten]

I think T2 is probably the only movie I've seen, but I liked the TV show a lot. I should rewatch it now that Evil-Lyn has made me love Lena Headey even more.

 

[Caldwin]

The first 2 movies are really the only ones worth watching.

 

[Kalidor]

T2 was the peak of the franchise and really Arnold's movie career.

 

[Caldwin]

Well, True Lies is still a fun flick.

 

[Exatron]

Actually, after reading a few more replies, I realized I was wrong earlier. I've seen the fifth movie too, and it's just the latest one I haven't seen. I just didn't remember enough about the plots of 4 and 5 off the top of my head to remember that they were two separate movies that I've seen. I still don't really remember much about either of them, just enough of the general conceits of each to be able to separate them.

 

[Alpha Omicron]

Mash up time. That's the beauty of time travel. You can go back and change anything.

 

[Alpha Omicron]

This diorama sits on one of my bedroom shelves.