Aloha yall,
Tex Hula
Exciting news out of SDCC regarding TERMINATOR: DARK FATE.
First of all, Edward Furlong is back as John Connor. Second, the film will have an R rating.
Also a sizzle reel dropped:
"You metal motherfucker!"
Maybe I'm a sucker, after several failed sequels, and reboots, I'm willing to give this one the benefit of the doubt.
I also just found the entire 2019 COMIC CON Panel that VARIETY posted:
THE TERMINATOR blew me away as a kid seeing it for the first time on HBO. I recorded it on a VHS tape and wore that thing out. A science fiction movie that used elements of slasher films, an unstoppable killing machine relentlessly moving toward his prey letting nothing stand in his way.
TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY is an absolutely perfect movie in every way. Could possibly be the greatest science fiction sequel since THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. After watching it at a midnight screening my friends and I hung out in the mall parking lot excitedly talking about the amazing shit we had just witnessed. Then we started talking about what could possibly come next. How could they top the amazing liquid metal T-1000?
TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES wouldn't happen until twelve years later, and excitment had really died down. Also a few sore points going in:
Sarah Connor is dead, and Edward Furlong's John Connor was replaced by Nick Stahl making it seem disconnected from the previous films. The Terminatrix was a bad follow up to the amazing T-1000. She can turn her arm into a flamethrower, or a whirring skil-saw blade. Whoop-de-freakin-doo.
There were a couple of things I liked about it. I liked Arnie's T-800 trying to play matchmaker with John Connor and Claire Dane's Kate. "You are both the proper breeding age." I also thought the ending with John Connor in a bunker while the world was annihilated, and falling into his destiny as leader was perfect. I like TERMINATOR 3, it just never felt like the proper sequel.
TERMINATOR: SALVATION is a clusterfuck and the worst of the TERMINATOR films. They really should have made Anton Yelchin's Kyle Reese the focus of the film. Kyle Reese surviving Terminators and getting ready for his trip into the past.
TERMINATOR GENISYS: I was never opposed to the idea of making John Connor a Terminator, a clever screenwriter could have pulled this off. Terminators are ruthless killing machines that will stop at nothing to take down their target. This fucking John Connor Terminator takes Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese to an isolated parking lot and begins monolouging to them until Arnie's T-800 comes along to rescue them. You really suck at your Terminator job John Connor.
Also, Terminators building time machines that can go forward or backwards in time?
This movie feels like a movie written by committee. A committee that has only read Cliff notes on the original TERMINATOR films.
A couple of things I like about this one, I thought the T-800 working contract labor at Cyberdyne and getting layed off was a pretty funny bit. Also the quote, "old, but not obsolete," I use frequently.
If this movie fails I think THE TERMINATOR is going away for awhile. BUT, I have actually come around to rooting for this one. I've been burned way too many times in the past, I'm starting to feel like an abused wife who keeps taking her husband back because, "It's OK, things will be different this time I promise."
I talked to a friend today who's also well versed in TERMINATOR and although he's giddy about Edward Furlong returning, he hasn't seen anything storywise that's wowed him. Also he's not feeling the antagonist Terminator.
I get that. But every time they've showed their hand on this one, it looks like they're taking the right steps. I'm cautiously getting excited for this.
Mahalo pardners,
Tex Hula
