One of the worst things a franchise can do is keep going when people are either fed up or are getting desperate to see something worth their time. I get the feeling a lot of people won’t agree with me, but the Terminator franchise was a train wreck, but it was a recognizable train wreck that was continuing to roll forward without a big middle finger to the fan base. As Joey Paur of GeekTyrant puts in his article concerning the matter of the “I’ll be back” line however, it wasn’t the director that wanted to put the words in there. The powers that be wanted to hear the line again, almost as a way to appease the fans. In truth all it did was force a line that people have heard over and over and over and…well, you get it. This line has been heard in so much of pop culture since Arnold first uttered the line that it’s become more of a joke than anything, and trying to fit into this movie, which like it or not didn’t perform the way that a lot of people expected, was a less than wise move. At this point it was more of a throwaway line, something that the studio could just toss out there and leave in the dust since it’s been overused so much. Thankfully there was no need to revisit the ‘hasta la vista baby’ line again, since that was pretty unique to T2 and still managed to get overused just a bit.
But a lot about this movie feels forced, no matter that the movie was supposed to revive the franchise and make it into something that fans would want. So the future is female at this point in the franchise, we get it, but at the same time just tossing away the idea of John Connor was another middle finger to the fans in the name of feminism, or at least that’s what it felt like. Phil Owen of The Wrap has more to say on this matter. Bringing back Linda Hamilton was great, empowering women as fighters was great, but forcing so much into this movie instead of letting it flow as the others that are now non-canon were allowed, even to disastrous results, was a huge mistake. In a way the Terminator franchise feels like it’s been treated like a misbehaving dog that’s just been introduced to a choke chain and is now expected to fall in line and do as is expected. As for the fans, we’re expected to believe that it’s one of the best things that’s ever happened in the history of cinema and to be honest, it’s another load of garbage that Hollywood is unloading in the theaters to say ‘this is what you want’, when in truth the only ones buying that are those that are so slavishly dedicated to pop culture that they won’t ever say anything to disagree.
I can’t say that I’m much better than anyone since as a Star Wars fan I defended The Last Jedi, but I still called out faults that could have been done better in my own opinion, just like anyone else. But stating that the rest of the Terminator movies were hard to get into isn’t too inaccurate, it’s simply dismissive of the good points that came along and were able to do something to push the story along. Honestly, there are times when this franchise seems like a wounded and slightly malfunctioning T-800, it’s still on its feet more or less and moving forward, but in a very herky-jerky way that implies that it will be there eventually, but it’s still easy to walk away from if you should so choose. When you consider how the whole franchise has been ripped up and pieced back together with different continuity issues in each movie, it’s amazing that it’s still rolling along like it is. The main point of the story though seems to be that Skynet, Legion, whoever, is still going to be there since the hubris of humanity is just too much to contain and eventually we’ll lead to our own demise. Plus, the men seemed to have had their chance, so now it would appear that it’s up to the women to save the world, even though Kyle Reese famously admitted that the women in his time were fighters, as they would kind of have to be since the limited number of human beings would necessitate the training and service of any able-bodied individual that could hold a weapon or help out in some way with the war. Christian Toto from Hollywood In Toto has more to say on this subject.
But again, this movie just seems to want to force that idea that women are now the tough ones, the warriors, and the leaders, down the throat of the audience, and some are willing to accept it and say ‘thank you ma’am may I have another’ while others are about ready to admit that the franchise has yet to find the rails.
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