The Terminator Franchise

The main issue with 3 for me is that, aside from being more or less just a retread of T2, it’s badly miscast, very stilted and has really awkward use of humor. Not quite as bad as Genisys but at least that leaned into it. The action scenes are uniformly awful as well, with some truly atrocious CG physics, even for the time.

I think the 'SCC' started to get really good towards the end. Shirley Manson was in it for goodness sake!

I used to say this on the EG forum; I liked the first and last 10 minutes of T3 a lot. Connor's life without his Mum and his supposed glorious fate was empty and by the end, the idea MINOR SPOILERS of him being locked up in a bunker but in contact with the rest of the world's leaders made sense.He would be able to tell them what's going on and prepare them for the fight ahead. But yeah, lots of fluff in the middle, that I can't actually remember.

This might be the closest we'll get.

I don't know, I wouldn't call Arnie a great actor, but I think he and the T-800 are just made for each other. It's a perfect fit. Maybe it's because he's imprinted on our brains, but I just can't imagine anyone else nailing the Terminator like that. I think it worked very well in T2 too. Only after that it became a joke.

I do feel a bit bad for hating T4 as much as I do because, yes, its probably the only one that isnt 'The Terminator, but worse'.

I honestly like every one of them. T3 is probably the weakest with it's T-X or whatever it's called, and Stahl is fucking awful. However props go to the ending and the superb crane chase. Compared to it's peers (Alien / Predator / Robocop etc) I think Terminator has weathered the best and even the weaker films are still great fun. I like them all, but the first one is the bestest.

This thread is certainly making me want to rewatch the first 4. I remember liking T3 at the time, but I were a young'un then. And I thought Salvation was interesting too.

Of all four franchises I think Predator has the single worst film but as a series the collapse from Robocop to Robocop 3 is probably the most dramatic in terms of that film still being part of the original run. Most of the others only start to stink years after the classics.

No Alien/Prometheus film is as bad as The Predator

Theatrical Cut is the better version

Shirley Manson turns into a urinal, which goes a long way with elderly nerds

I'd rate them

T1 > T2 >> Sarah Connors Chronicles > Dark Fate > T3 >>> T4 >>>>>> Genisys(T5?)

As people have said, T1 & T2 are both really good. I slightly prefer T1 as it's just tighter and more focused and more shocking. T2 is a great action movie though.

Sarah Connor Chronicles has a few flaws, and takes a while to get going, but it also has some really great bits, and seemed to be going in a really interesting direction with


Dark Fate has flaws too, but it feels like the freshest that a terminator movie has felt in ages. It manages to capture a fair amount of the vibe of T2, without feeling too much like a direct knockoff. The 2 main characters were great, and it's a shame we won't get any follow up movies to flesh them out a bit.
They actually finally got the casting right! (see later)

I feel like the crap box-office performance of Dark Fate shows that they've basically run the series into the ground and burned up any possible good will or interest. Ironically, one of the problems the series has had is that they kept 'rebooting' it after each failure, meaning that the usual solution in such a situation is now kinda off the table.

I know I'm in a minority, but I actually didn't mind T3 too much. The casting is terrible, and that's been a problem with most of the sequels (T3, T4, T5). I feel like if they'd had a different main actor, it might actually have worked quite well. It suffered from a lack of budget and some iffy comedy moments, but I really liked the ending.

T4 should have been good. The casting seemed good on paper. I always dreamed of a 'future' terminator movie following John Connor and the resistance. Some of the future design like the flying carriers was kinda cool. But the whole thing just didn't really come together into anything satisfying, mainly because I didn't really care about the main characters very much.

Genisys was just terrible on every level. Bad story. Bad action scenes. Bad acting. Terrible casting. I think it probably killed off any chance Dark Fate had.

But I also think that the problem is that when your basic concept is time travel to change the past/future, there's a limit to how many times you can pull that trick before (a) it gets old, or (b) it gets too convoluted, or (c) it loses its impact, or (d) you have to try and think up fresh spins on it which get more and more desperate.

They also have the issue with Arnie being old now, but being kinda expected in a Terminator movie, even though he gets destroyed at the end of every Terminator movie, so they have to keep finding new ways to bring him back.
I thought his appearance in Dark Fate was probably the weak point of the movie, even though he himself was ok.

I have been quite tempted with it a few times. The devs are making a Robocop game next apparently. Like actual Robocop not the shit one.