Late last week, it was announced that producer David Ellison was teaming with Terminator creator James Cameron and director Tim Miller (Deadpool) to do the next installment in the franchise. Ellison recently produced the latest entry, 2015’s Terminator: Genisys, which was meant to launch a new trilogy of sequels. Unfortunately for Ellison, the $155 million budgeted film only managed to scare up about $89.8 million domestic. The global take was a lot more respectable ($440 million), but ultimately not enough to convince distributor Paramount to finance two follow-ups. For the third time in a row, the franchise had be relaunched with a revival sequel, only to go nowhere.
The franchise has always been of the start and stop variety. The original 1984 film was a modest hit, but remained a standalone until director Cameron and star Arnold Schwarzenegger finally realized their dream of sequelizing it seven years later. 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day was a monster success, but seemed to end the franchise with a vague sense of finality. Money always ensures that franchises rarely die, however, so a third film followed twelve years later. 2003’s Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines was meant to be Arnold’s swan song as the series lead, as he was about to enter politics, with co-leads Nick Stahl and Claire Danes positioned to takeover in any future follow-ups. After some legal troubles involving the rights holders, those prospects quickly vanished.
Cut to 2009 and we end up with the Christian Bale-starring Terminator: Salvation. Once again, the intention was to launch a new trilogy of entries, this time focusing on the future war with Skynet. Problem is, while Terminator 3 more than doubled its budget at the worldwide box office, Salvation wasn’t so lucky. The rights once again went up for grabs, eventually landing at David Ellison’s door. As I laid out above, the aim to attempt a new trilogy was once again a bust, even with Arnold back in the lead again.
There was always a bit of a ticking clock with Ellison’s hold on the rights. James Cameron gave up his option on them back in the late ’90s, but they legally revert back to him in 2019. With Paramount no longer willing to float the dough for Genisys follow-ups, the series looked to be dead until at least then. Apparently not, now that Cameron is collaborating with Ellison on another one. While he has offered his enthusiastic public support for the last three films in the saga, this will mark the first time Cameron has been directly involved with a Terminator film since the second movie.
I should be excited right? After all, the creator of the original two is back, at least in a producing capacity! Problem is, I’m not excited. To be honest, the announcement elicited nothing but a shrug from me. Why is that? Because while I find things to enjoy in each of the more recent entries (as well as the short-lived “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” TV show), I haven’t loved a Terminator project since 1991. At this point, there’s more bad (or at least mediocre) than good in this on-going cinematic saga.
As far as I’m concerned, James Cameron’s original 1984 film is a science fiction masterpiece. The Terminator is a down and dirty Corman-style exploitation actioner with A-level talent behind it. It’s effectively an action-packed slasher movie where the unstoppable killer just happens to be a time-traveling robot. It even follows slasher movie tropes, with the meek female lead eventually finding the strength within herself to defeat her assailant. The ending is a harrowing one and the coda, which lays out the paradoxical nature of time travel in a rather haunting way, is an all-timer. It was also clearly meant to end the story right there. One and done.
Except not. Fans wanted another one, Arnold wanted another one, and eventually Cameron did too. Terminator 2: Judgment Day might be an unnecessary seuel, but it also happens to be one of the greatest action movies of all-time. An unnecessary sequel turned action classic. By sheer force of will, the film has made itself essential and it remains one of my favorite sequels to date. Once again, however, it ended perfectly, with no need for further outings.
As stated above, it still got them. Rise of the Machines is basically just a retread of the previous film, but it’s a mostly fun one that carries a strong ending. As far as “good but not great” sequels go, you could do a lot worse. Salvation wisely skewed into newer territory by finally being set in the future, but it’s ultimately weighed down by a underwritten characters and some bad plotting. There are sequences in it that I really like, but it’s not a good film.
The less said about Genisys, the better. Outside of a fun turn by Arnold, it’s an absolute mess from top to bottom. The directing is uninspired, which is saying something when the previous installment was directed by McG. The script is horrendous when doing its own thing and even worse when xeroxing scenes from the first two (infinitely better) Terminator films. The acting isn’t any better, particularly when it comes to leads Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney. It’s an utter butchery of the franchise from top to bottom.
So yes, after two bad sequels in a row, my excitement is deader than Kyle Reese’s sanity. It’s unclear at this time as to whether or not this proposed sixth film will be yet another follow-up or some sort of remake of the original. Mind you I’ll certainly give it a chance when it finally arrives in a few years, but I’m not looking forward to it. Bad sequels can’t truly taint their high quality originals, but they can absolutely destroy fan enthusiasm for more films. Sure, they could conjure a winner out of this, but the odds are against them at this point, no matter what they come up with.
This series has simply gotten too big for its britches. I don’t need time-hopping and gargantuan set pieces galore. All I want from Terminator is another down and dirty sci-fi/thriller chase film like the original. Since I’m unlikely to ever see it return to its roots in such a way again, I’d rather it just go away. Let Terminator rest in peace. With time, the disappointing ones will sink back into the ether and the original two will still stand tall. Let the saga regain its dignity by being left alone long enough for the bad memories to go away.
