The Terminator Franchise Should Go Back To Basics

gamerant.com:

The awful truth of franchise filmmaking is that not every great idea can support an endless series of profitable yearly cinematic outings. Just because something worked once, or even twice, doesn't mean studios can use its iconography to sure up their earnings for the next decade or two. Sometimes pushing a story beyond its bounds ruins what was once good about it.

The Terminator and T2: Judgement Day are great films that could lead an uninformed observer to believe that there's infinite possibility in those concepts. Repeated messy attempts to capitalize on their success have proven that claim false. The latest troublesome sequel came with some contentious thoughts from the director.

The Terminator Franchise Should've Ended After T2

Terminator: Dark Fate is the latest entry in the long-running franchise, and it may be a wound that takes a long time to heal. Its sequel was canceled almost immediately, it fell short of its predecessor at the box office, and it received mixed-to-negative reviews. It's fair to say that it fails to live up to the quality of the first couple of films, but it's better than the films it followed. Director Tim Miller, late of Deadpool, has come out to discuss the film's disappointing outcome and has set much of the blame at his own feet. Studios taking the wrong lesson from box office failures is a time-honored tradition at this point, but as a filmmaker, Miller sees its failure as a lesson. Those who hold the rights to the franchise would do well to do the same.

While there was unquestionably some hate directed specifically at Dark Fate before its release, the film was starting the race with a limp thanks to the back-to-back disasters of its franchise. The film received plenty of pushback for