Final Ruling: The Best Post-T2 Terminator Film

[FPAlpha]

Sometimes there are movies that are so epic they define the genre - Terminator and Terminator 2 are such movies so it's extremely hard to follow these, even with Schwarzenegger in them.

My vote also goes to T3 - Rise of the Machines. It's a little shame that Furlong couldn't reprise his role as John Connor but if i recall correctly he had (has?) major substance abuse problems at the time so wasn't a reliable and dependable actor.

Otherwise it's a solid movie if not as remarkable as the previous 2 but i really like the ending so it wins out over the other over CGI'd summer blockbuster movies (which were entertaining to me but otherwise not something i have revisited since i first saw them).

 

[F. King Daniel]

I loved Genisys. Dark Fate and T3 I really enjoyed too.

Terminator Sally was rubbish.

 

[Ovation]

T3. Claire Danes. Case closed. Fight me.

 

[JD]

Well, but that's a key problem with really showing the Future War, isn't it? (Apart from where does the Resistance get their food and water, that is). Nighttime battle scenes are far more atmospheric and cinematic, but don't make much sense, because infrared vision would give the machines a huge tactical advantage after dark. Defensive action is one thing, but humans should only attack in daylight. So, as much as fans might think they want a whole Future War movie, it's really a lose-lose situation.

And for those who missed the discussion last October in another tread, Salvation was originally meant to be far more bonkers and weird than it ended up being.

I remember hearing about that ending, and I kind of wish they had kept it, just to see the complete and total mental breakdown it would have given the fans.

 

[Vger23]

It was a close one between T3 and DF. I really liked how original DF felt, while T3 felt like a greatest hits remake of 1 and 2.

That said, T3 has smoother action scenes, a more compelling evil terminator, an awesome cast, and a great ending.

T3
T: DF

T: S




T: G

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Well, I guess I'm one of the weird ones that actually likes Genisys Sure some stuff about the plot doesn't make sense and some characters are miscast, but I did like the Back to the Future II storyline and enjoyed Pops. I was also probably one of the only people on Earth who liked the idea of John Connor becoming the bad guy, Harvey Dent-style.

I also really enjoyed Dark Fate. Gabriel Luna made a pretty menacing Terminator as the Rev-9 and I loved Carl (I wish we could have seen him at work at his drapery store ). Mackenzie Davis was badass as was Natalia Reyes. I liked that they took the focus off the Connors after the opening five minutes and showed us future leader of the Resistance against Legion Dani.

Terminator 3 is enjoyable, but little nitpicky things knock it down a couple pegs for me. The fact they screwed up Arnold's model number (he calls himself a T-101 when he's been a T-800 model for the past two movies). Getting John's age wrong. Some of the humor kind of makes me wince ("Talk to da hand!") but some of the humor works ("My database doesn't encompass the dynamics of human pair bonding"). I know these nitpicks sound really stupid coming from a guy who likes Genisys, but I don't care I liked they had the balls to have the movie end with Judgment Day and I thought Kristanna Loken was badass as the T-X.

I absolutely hated Salvation. Even Christian Bale and Anton Yelchin couldn't save that movie. I wish they would have stuck with the batshit crazy idea instead of what we got.

 

[DigificWriter]

Strictly speaking, Genysis isn't a sequel; it's a reboot.

Also, my favorite Terminator franchise sequel isn't a movie; it's the short-lived Terminator: The Sara Connor Chronicles television series.

 

[Ovation]

Strictly speaking, Genysis isn't a sequel; it's a reboot.

Also, my favorite Terminator franchise sequel isn't a movie; it's the short-lived Terminator: The Sara Connor Chronicles television series.

Technically, that was a specifically excluded option.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Strictly speaking, Genysis isn't a sequel; it's a reboot.

Also, my favorite Terminator franchise sequel isn't a movie; it's the short-lived Terminator: The Sara Connor Chronicles television series.

That was a good ass show and a damn shame it got cancelled. That cliffhanger they left it on still brings my piss to a boil to this day!

 

[Cyrus]

They were all bad. T3 less so than others so voted for that one.

 

[Tosk]

I wish we could magically combine the best parts of T3 and TDF to make one excellent film.

 

[Gaith]

T3. Claire Danes. Case closed. Fight me.

Aye, they're both genuinely good. And Stahl would basically reprise his role as the haunted savior of humanity for two seasons of Carnivàle. Come to think of it, his co-star Clea DuVall has a similar look and vibe to Claire Danes, too. They even share initials!

I wish we could magically combine the best parts of T3 and TDF to make one excellent film.

So... T2.

... I'm pleasantly surprised to see T3 not only leading all competitors several times over, but winning an outright majority! It seemed that, when Dark Fate came out, all the prominent critics and YouTubers were calling it the obvious best post-T2 flick. Here's to T3 getting the moderate quantity of respect it deserves.

 

[JD]

Also, my favorite Terminator franchise sequel isn't a movie; it's the short-lived Terminator: The Sara Connor Chronicles television series.

That was a good ass show and a damn shame it got cancelled. That cliffhanger they left it on still brings my piss to a boil to this day!

I was pretty shocked at just how awesome Sarah Connor Chronicles ended up being. When it was first announced I was afraid it was just going to be repetitive Terminator of the week show, but it actually ended up having a really good arc to it.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

Dark Fate was by far the best Terminator movie since T2, despite some unpopular and controversial decissions like killing John Connor as a child.

The acting of Linda Hamilton was top notch and the new Terminator was interesting and scary.

I actually don't count the other ones, especially T3, as true sequels and canon.

T3 was a bad comedy, masquerating as a Terminator movie while Salvation looked and felt too different to the future war shown in T1 and T2.

Genesys actually had a few interesting ideas, the war against the machines was in line with what was shown in the first two movies and i liked the actor who played John Connor in this movie, but the rest of the movie didn't reach the awesomeness of James Cameron's original and Judgment Day. And there were also too many comedical elements again.

 

[Owain Taggart]

My vote goes to Salvation and I stand firm on it, for several reasons.

Unlike most of the bunch, it dared to show us something different from the franchise, moving us into the franchise's future. Oh, it may have its flaws, but what then is perfect? They all have various flaws. The others seem so intent on going back to the same events to try to fix them, in the end making them worse. They're like a broken record, the needle stuck in its groove. It needs to find a way to move beyond that! The future may not be as shown in T2, but... are we suddenly dealing in absolutes now, in a time-travel movie? Being that they do keep coming back to those pivotal moments of T2, I would think their meddling would have subtly changed things. The future would not be the same as they've gone back so many times.

 

[Unimatrix Q]

My vote goes to Salvatiion and I stand firm on it, for several reasons.

Unlike most of the bunch, it dared to show us something different from the franchise, moving us into the franchise's future. While the others seem so intent on going back to the same events to try to fix them, in the end, they make them worse. Oh, it may have its flaws, but what then is perfect? They all have various flaws. The others seem so intent on going back to the same events to try to fix them, in the end making them worse. They're like a broken record, the needle stuck in its groove. It needs to find a way to move beyond that! The future may not be as shown in T2, but... are we suddenly dealing in absolutes now, in a time-travel movie? Being that they do keep coming back to those pivotal moments of T2, I would think their meddling would have subtly changed things. The future is would not be the same as they've gone back so many times.

A future war movie is something, most of us Terminator fans wanted to see for a long time. So why change it into something that doesn't resemble the scenes in T1 and 2? If they had made it aesthetically similar to the original movies, i guess the movie would have been more successful. Not talking about the plot.

 

[Owain Taggart]

A future war movie is something, most of us Terminator fans wanted to see for a long time. So why change it into something that doesn't resemble the scenes in T1 and 2?

Dunno, but I suspect they weren't thinking so much along those lines. It likely never occurred to them that it could be a disappointment. In-universe, I see things as having diverged and maybe that was their intent.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Nighttime battle scenes are far more atmospheric and cinematic, but don't make much sense, because infrared vision would give the machines a huge tactical advantage after dark.

In the original, Reese says that the resistance stayed hidden during the day and only came out at night. And also that most terminators weren't very bright. So the infrared must not be as much of an advantage as it might seem.

 

[Gaith]

^ Yes:

You stay down by day, but at night you can move around. The H-K's use infrared so you still have to watch out. But they're not too bright. John taught us ways to dust them. That's when the infiltrators started to appear. The Terminators were the newest, the worst...​

Don't think it made any sense at the time, tough.

 

[USS Firefly]

A future war movie is something, most of us Terminator fans wanted to see for a long time. So why change it into something that doesn't resemble the scenes in T1 and 2? If they had made it aesthetically similar to the original movies, i guess the movie would have been more successful. Not talking about the plot.

Isn't Salvation set 10 years before T1 future scènes? Maybe they would have gone further in the future in the possible sequels.