Worst To First: Ranking the Terminator Movies

[tmc_6882]

http://lebeauleblog.com/2015/11/13/wors ... -movies/3/

3. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

Summary: The previous Terminator movie established Arnold Schwarzenegger as the biggest action movie star in the world. For a few years Schwarzenegger was riding high. There was talk of doing a third Terminator movie, but the actor was content to wait for James Cameron to become available. Following the massive success and Oscar wins of Titanic, it became obvious that Cameron was done with the Terminator series. But Schwarzenegger’s acting career was starting to lag. He needed another Terminator movie. So with Cameron’s blessing, Schwarzenegger returned to the series. The story is largely a retread of Terminator 2. A machine is sent back in time to kill John Connor and Arnold comes back to make sure that doesn’t happen. The big twist is that this time, the killer robot is a girl. That is, if killer robots can be assigned gender.

What’s Good: T3 isn’t especially good, but it isn’t especially bad either. If you want to see Schwarzenegger go through the paces of playing the Terminator one more time, that’s what happens. The cast includes the talented Claire Danes, not that she is given much to do. If you’re a fan of unhappy endings, I suppose you could praise Rise of the Machines for having the courage to end the movie on a down note. It’s there in the title. The machines have a major victory which was intended to set up additional sequels.

What’s Bad: The worst crime committed by Terminator 3 is a lack of originality. Replacing Robert Patrick with Kristanna Loken doesn’t distract from the fact that we have been down this road twice already. T3 brings nothing new to the party. And Linda Hamilton, who was such an integral part of T2, is sorely missed. Once again, we run into the issue of there being no story left to tell. So Rise of the Machines just tells the same story over again.

John Connor Curse: Nick Stahl played the future leader of humanity in this movie. And frankly, he is the reason people talk about the John Connor curse. Like Edward Furlong who originated the role, Stahl has struggled with substance abuse and gotten in trouble with the law. Originally, Stahl was intended to return for Terminator 4, but when the movie finally got made as Terminator Salvation, Stahl was unceremoniously dropped from the picture.

Verdict: You will often hear Terminator fans defend Rise of the Machines as being “watchable”. And if that’s where you set your expectations, you won’t be disappointed. It’s a perfectly mediocre retread of the precious movies. You could certainly do worse.

[dale coba]

Five movies and a t.v. series, and somehow picking 1st 2nd and 3rd constitutes ranking the five? I call Shenanigans on that.

- Dale Coba

[Saya]

I was actually rather impressed with the latest movie myself, dumb title not withstanding. It reminded me a lot of Jurassic World, as it was clearly written by fans who enjoyed the films and had a respect for them, as opposed to just a bunch of people looking to make a few quick dollars.

[spider_silk_skin]

1. The Terminator
2. Terminator 2: Judgment Day
3. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
4. Terminator Salvation
5. Terminator Genesys

The Terminator movies get worse with each new one that is released, and they get exponentially worse as well. Terminator 2, for instance is so good, that it is almost as good as the original. The third film is entertaining, but fails to live up to the first two, although it does have some merits (the female Terminator was sexy without be overly sexualized in my opinion, and the crane chase scene was very well done with a healthy helping of live action effects). Terminator 4 had some good ideas, but was a complete mess in terms of story. Terminator Genesys... if Salvation was a mess, this is a soup sandwich in a mess, in a junkyard. T:G isn't just an alternate universe, it's no less than THREE alternate universes, NONE of which are explained in reference to the original story arc. Now each Terminator film retcons the last, but as long as you ignore dates and just go with "time periods" you can swallow most of the "sliding timeline." T:G makes this impossible because it reboots us to an alternate 2029, then to an alternate 1984, then to an alternate 2015, all with a Terminator from a third timeline that is never explained where he came from. The two sequels that were promised have already been cancelled (similar to how McG was trying to get T4-5-6 trilogy, but after his first effort 5 and 6 were cancelled). The casting was way off target. The acting was horrible and the prop master went from spot on to the original (1984) to retconning everything (2029). How can you spend all this effort to get the original shoes of Kyle Reese and then have Jai Courtney play him, or have the future war uniforms and weapons totally wrong? I don't get it. Genesys also suffers from undo influence due to comic book movies. In the first Terminator, the Terminator gets hit by a truck, which breaks his ankle and severely damages his processor. In Terminator 2, the Terminator falls off a speeding truck, which breaks his knee. In Terminator Genesys - same model - jumps from one helicopter to another, no damage, and then falls from second said helicopter. This is after all the other impossible stunts that the Terminator performs. After seeing the likes of Thor and Hulk, a stock-Terminator doesn't seem that powerful in comparison, but in Terminator Genesys, the T-800 is functionally immortal. (And yes there is power creep in T-3 and T-Salvation as well, but not nearly to the degree of T:G).

So yeah. Wasn't a fan of T:G. Thought it paid no respects to the Cameron originals. The story was weak, made no sense and the casting was terrible. It was a cash grab. A desperate cash grab. Don't even get me started on the John Connor Terminator - spoiled in the trailers - that is little more than a T-1000 MK 2.