T3/Salvation= good ideas poorly executed. Genisys and DF= crap

T3 was not a great film but it was a logical way to move the series forward, instead of doing prequels. Showing that Judgement day was inevitable makes sense because it eventually has to lead to the time loop of Kyle being John's father. So I was satisfied with that. The female terminator was surprising imposing and creepy. And seemed to pose a real threat to them. The end of T3 is basically perfect. Arnold still delivered despite some badly placed humor. The faults come in the form of the 'plot' being a rehash of T2; Nick Stahl being a terrible choice for John Connor plus him having no real character development; the middle of the film is pretty boring (forgettable action sequences). the T-800 'starting' over again and not really having the deep character arc it has in T2 left something to be desired. And overall it felt 'cheaply' made in terms of props and settings (and special effects).

Salvation was a perfect way to try to do both a prequel and sequel and start to close the loop. Exploring the nightmare 'future war' would have been pretty cool. Showing how John meet Kyle and to see the interesting dynamic between them with John being the hero Kyle looks up to but at the same time John knowing Kyle is his father. That would have been an interesting thing to explore. The problem is we got none of that, no nightmare future world (what happened to not going out in the day?), John and Kyle have not one scene together, Christian Bale ended up being a bland John Connor, Too much reliance on it being a start of a trilogy so it feels long and not stand alone, Way Way too much time and focus on the 'Marcus' character. Sam Worthington is a shit actor and giving him the lead of Christian Bale was ridiculous. The story that was supposed to be about John, Kyle and the future war ended being more about Marcus whom few to no one cared about.

Now with Genisys, it was a lazy attempt at rehashing/rebooting the entire franchise while exploiting nostalgia of the first too films. Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney are both shit in this and do not compare in the slightest to Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn. Having Arnold do a majority of the exposition dialogue was a dumb choice. the 'pops' terminator concept was clunky. the depiction of Kyle Reese was all wrong, he should have been basically the same character as he was in the original, a PTSD, mal nourished, scappy fighter. Jai Courtney just comes across as, well Jai Courtney.

Now Dark Fate is basically a film that takes a big old turd on the Original series and then tries to completely rehash it even worse then Genisys does. They literally tell the same story again but just change the characters' names, gender, and motivations. Instead of John Connor you have Dani Ramos who is basically the same idea of a savior character but adds nothing; so why not just stick with John Connor? (Diversity quota? Identity politics?) What is added by the switch from John to Dani? Grace is basically a blend of Kyle Reese and the T-800 but with none of the charm. Skynet is the same as Legion. the Rev-9 is just a slight variation of the T-1000. The inclusion of Arnold and Linda was just a pathetic attempt to get 'butts in the seats' both these actors were far past their prime and had no place in the story. It would have been better if both Sarah and John died in the beginning and the T-800 was doing what Sarah was doing in the film instead. what would have been changed by that? There was all kinds of virtue signaling going on too; the 'warriors' all being female, the 'new' savior being female and latino (replacing the white man), the border patrol center scene, even the line Sarah says about only Dani's 'womb' being important. It was like a slap in the face reminding you it is 2019, Trump is president and America is sexist and Racist; just in case you forgot. I got no real sense of the 'modern' political and cultural concerns being so exposed in any other Terminator film (even Genisys didn't lay it on this thick), the only indication you got of the 'year' the film was made was the setting.