MovieChat Forums > Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) Discussion > In retrospect, the last 2 Terminator mov...

In retrospect, the last 2 Terminator movies were actually better off not going back to Arnold Schwarzenegger

posted 4 years ago by [deleted]
6 replies | jump to latest

Genisys and Dark Fate are complete utter failures. The story should have just continued with Christian Bale as John Connor in the fight against the machines in the future. Terminator Salvation was not even close to being on the same level as James Cameron's T1 or T2, but I'd say it's still the 3rd best in the series. I don't really like the idea of a Terminator movie being made without James Cameron at the helm, but McG actually directed a solid sci-fi action movie. Terminator Salvation is a way better movie than Genisys and Dark Fate. That said, the series really didn't need to go any further than T2.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Agreed. Schwarzenegger should have been discarded a long time ago.

[–] Boricanator (1365) 4 years ago

Dark Fate is superior to Salvation, by a lot.

Just the fact that it actually had terminators, makes it superior.

[–] ReelReviews14 (1029) 4 years ago

There are only two good Terminator movies, T1 and T2. That's it.

Yes, Salvation "did something original" compared to all the other post T2 sequels, but what it did was utterly boring and pointless and completely ruined the promised "future war" storyline.

And Bale sucked as the future leader of humanity.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Bale wasn't the best choice for the role, but watching him as John Connor is still better than trying to sit and watch old man Arnold still trying to be the Terminator, when he's clearly aged out of the role decades ago. Genisys and Dark Fate are an embarrassment to the franchise. Terminator Salvation is not an embarrassment. TS is not nearly as good as James Cameron's T1 and T2, bit it still stands as the 3rd best in the series. The future war storyline could've been better, but as it is, TS is still a good sci-fi action movie. If we'd known then what we know now, we would've preferred to see less of old man Arnold's Terminator and more of Bale's John Connor.

[–] ReelReviews14 (1029) 4 years ago

>> Terminator Salvation is not an embarrassment. <<

Disagree. At the time it came out in 2009, it landed with a complete thud. Everyone got done watching Salvation and went "Meh. That could have been better". Nobody cared about the characters or storyline in that movie. The fact it failed to produce any kind of excitement for its intended "trilogy" is WHY the whole series ended up being "rebooted", leading to the Genisys and Dark Fate abominations.

T3 is a bad film, but at least its FUN to watch. Salvation is not. Most of us have little desire to rewatch that one.

And FYI, Salvation DID go back to Arnold Schwarzenegger, because they KNEW there would be a backlash if they were known as the "only Terminator film without an appearance from Schwarzenegger", and audiences were expecting to see him even though he was Governor of California at the time and had no way to cameo in the movie. Thus we get the CGI T-800 with 1984 Arnold's face showing up for a few minutes, even though it makes NO sense in the context of the setting (the T-800 series shouldn't exist for another decade according to the Terminator timeline)

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

I didn't pay to see GeneSys theatrically when it came out based strictly on those godawful trailers and the terrible casting choices, and I won't go see Dark Fate except maybe on VOD based on what they did with the character of John Connor.

I'm going with hellofaplanet on this one... It had flaws but Salvation had the best chance of ensuring the long term success of the franchise.