Ranking the Terminator Films

The biggest problem with the Terminator franchise overall is that of the six films, only two of the films were made by a notably talented director. They keep putting hacks in there and get a variety of the mediocre results. You can give this franchise credit for one thing: they keep making mistakes in brand new ways.

6. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines [2003]

The third Terminator film was the first that James Cameron did not direct and that did not star Linda Hamilton. And the film had no juice whatsoever. Arnold was back however, but this was easily his least impactful and memorable performance in the titular role.

The film itself has virtually nothing going for it. There was an admittedly ambitious car chase sequence that concluded the first act, but even that was missing a certain je ne sais quoi that makes a sequence like that pop. There is a moment about halfway through the film where you start to think that perhaps this film will just be one chase sequence after another which would at least be something to point to as being cool, but then the closing sequence is very ordinary and very much not that.

Rise of the Machines was the first boring Terminator film (but not the last). It does have a cool ending though with Judgement Day actually happening. I had *completely* forgotten about that. There is a certain visual competence to this film though that cannot help but age well given what has happened to cinema in the last quarter century.

 

5. Terminator: Genisys [2015]

This was the second attempt at soft-rebooting the Terminator franchise. They learned some lessons from the first failed reboot: they brought back Arnold, and they did not treat everything with grim seriousness. These are positive things. The film even does a mildly clever subversion of audience expectations by making this all seem like a remake with having Kyle being sent back in time only to have a Sarah that knows what is up and teaming an older Arnold – they are already fighting back.

On paper, this seems like a solid foundation to build upon. The first major cracks though are with the casting. It is really unreal how many of the actors in this film feel like 3rd of 4th choices for their roles. Jason Clarke and Emelia Clarke are fine and all, but then you need someone real instead of Jai Courtney.  Things get worse from there as this movie is once again just so goddamn convoluted!!!! JUST MAKE A FUCKING CHARISMATIC ROBOT CHASE SOME MILDLY LIKABLE BAND OF HEROES FUCK. The heroes weren’t even that likable in T2! This was yet another failure in a series of failed Terminator films in the 21st century.

 

4. Terminator: Dark Fate [2019]

This was the THIRD attempt at soft-rebooting the Terminator franchise. I go back and forth on rather I prefer this one to Genisys. Ultimately though, it does not really matter. The first half of the film is very boring. Then Arnold finally shows up in the second half, and he is just excellent. That nearly saves the movie all by itself. Nothing really interesting happens though. The film just has a really fun Arnold performance in what is hopefully the final outing for him.

 

3. Terminator: Salvation [2009]

This was first attempt at rebooting the Terminator franchise. With Arnold busy being a bad governor in California, the powers that be came up with an idea that the Terminator film franchise could go on without him (minus a horrific CGI “cameo”). They then decide that this film needs to be a deadly serious film with a convoluted story with lots going on instead of just the tried-and-true, “a metal robot from the future is hunting a human.” These decisions put the filmmakers so behind the eight-ball that there was virtually no way they could make a film that fully works.

To try to pull this all off, they attempt to cash-in on the newfound popularity of Christian Bale as he was two films in into his Dark Knight trilogy (and The Dark Knight was the biggest film of the decade). Bale plays the infamous John Connor – and he plays him the entire film like the Joker interrogation scene. It is an insane choice at least in terms of business. Bale is fine here in a thankless role, but in many ways he is secondary to Sam Worthington’s character who is revealed halfway through to be a robot – in a revelation even to himself). Much like in Avatar that year, Worthington was not quite ready for this role (though he would later grow into a fine actor). For the first half of the film, Bale also takes a backseat at times to Kyle Reese – inexplicably whom is being played by Anton Yelchin (RIP, a fine actor but a strange choice for this role). Several plot threads all come together at the end in an extremely unsatisfying conclusion.

This film works best when the money is visibly on the screen for big set pieces with the humans fighting for their lives. This probably should have mostly just been a chase film and much less convoluted. THAT BEING SAID – it is fine, and I have a soft spot for it. In fact, I have a soft spot for films for entrees 4-6 and all for different reasons. None of them fully connect though.

 

2. Terminator 2: Judgement Day [1991] 

Seven years after the initial film, James Cameron came back for the final Terminator film that he would direct. Cameron never being one to rest on his laurels, did what he was wont to do and went bigger with this film in every way. The advantage of that strategy is that the film feels completely unique and fresh compared to the first film, and there is no sense of feeling too repetitive. The downside of this strategy of going bigger is that Cameron’s instincts also call for going broader. And that removed all the grimy rawness of the first film. T2 is fun and ages well despite the outdated computer effects. However, the film is not the big thing that the first one was: T2 is not cool.

 

1. The Terminator [1984]

Watching a lower budget James Cameron film back after all these years was sincerely fascinating. Because while Cameron was always able to go bigger with his films in some way, here, he is restricted in what he **can** do but still is going for epic in some ways that makes his film feeling very raw in a way that none of his future films would ever be able to recreate. It makes me wonder if Cameron’s natural mass appeal instincts led him down a lesser path. While the concept of this film is a great combo of cool yet simple. His future films would rarely feel this cool again. There is a John Carpenter quality to this film if not in theme then in feel.  This movie just kicks ass and is all sorts of fun. Cameron films would only get bigger from here but they would never get better.