When James Cameron directed and co-wrote The Terminator he ended up not only putting his name on the Hollywood map in a major way, but kickstarting a franchise, as well. However, like with most long-running film sagas, some installments are far more highly regarded than others. Unlike many other film sagas, however, it’s not a case where the first film is necessarily the best. It’s been difficult to take the ingenious core concept of time travelling to prevent a humanity-ending war and turn it into a saga. One might think that naturally leads to increasingly bombastic sequels, but Terminator has always been at its best when it’s functioned as a survival narrative.
Ever since Cameron moved away from directing the franchise after the second film, what has come after has been a mixed bag at best. But that’s not to say there hasn’t been anything of merit.
6) Terminator Genisys
Emilia Clarke has said she’s glad there was never a sequel to Terminator Genisys. In her words, “No one had a good time” making it. This includes director Alan Taylor who, between this and Thor: The Dark World, said he had “lost the will to live as a director.”
Is Terminator Genisys the worst blockbuster ever made? No, but it was another watered down, bland installment of the franchise that was far from the course correction it needed after the equally divisive Terminator Salvation. At least it tried to go back to what made Cameron’s two movies work, but as time has gone on Salvation looks a little better for trying to do something new with the IP, whereas Genisys just plays like a typical action-packed blockbuster with disinterested performances and a lackluster villain in John Connor (whose identity as the villain was unfortunately revealed in the film’s later stages marketing materials).
Stream Terminator Genisys on Paramount+.
5) Terminator Salvation
As mentioned in the previous entry, there’s not a huge difference in quality between Terminator Genisys and Terminator Salvation. But, as also mentioned, it gets some credit for trying something new with the franchise. Before Salvation the actual war between humanity and the machines was only briefly alluded to in the first three movies. McG’s Salvation dropped viewers right into the middle of that war. Unfortunately, it also just feels like the beginning of a movie, not a complete movie.
Never once does Salvation function as a single cohesive narrative, seeming far more content to set up two sequels that would never come than anything else. It occasionally has some decent little ideas for the franchise, e.g. the Terminator bikes and where it was going with Sam Worthington’s character, but most of the flesh and blood individuals at play are all plywood. Worthington, Christian Bale, Moon Bloodgood, and the late Anton Yelchin all do their best, but this was one of the most disappointing mega-budget movies of 2009.
4) Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines showed a franchise that had a general sense of what worked, but didn’t know how to proceed without the two people who made the best elements work. Specifically, Cameron and producer Gale Ann Hurd.
What we’re left with is an average script and what amounts to a greatest hits compilation of Terminator 2: Judgment Day‘s action sequences and further hints of the first two film’s clips of the future war. It’s trying to feel like it has higher stakes, but that never really plays as it should. And then there’s the moment where Schwarzenegger says “Talk to the hand,” which is worse than anything from Genisys or Salvation. But, as a whole, Rise of the Machines is more enjoyable and well put together than those two subsequent entries.
3) Terminator: Dark Fate
After three tries, the Terminator franchise finally got about as close as one can get to capturing the magic of Cameron’s two movies with Terminator: Dark Fate. Unfortunately, it was a case of audience having been fooled one too many times already. Dark Fate may not be The Godfather Part II, but it does have that Cameron Terminator spirit. The human characters are a little more fleshed out than in the previous three movies, the stakes feel high for them, the action sequences pack a bit more punch, the returns of the R-rating and Linda Hamilton are welcome ones, and the aged T-800 with a family thing works better than one might imagine. It’s not perfect, but this is the real Terminator 3.
Stream Terminator: Dark Fate on Paramount+.
[RELATED: 6 Years Later, Terminator Fans Are Realizing How Judgment Day Set Up Dark Fate in a Big Way]
2) The Terminator
On top of the inventiveness of its narrative and the aces pacing, that’s what works about Cameron’s original The Terminator. We’re following two flesh and blood humans. One of them has a good idea of what they’re facing but also knows that the tools at his disposal are quite likely not going to be enough. The other has no idea what they’re facing, and at first doesn’t even believe her flesh and blood counterpart.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day may be one of the best sequels ever made, with its organic expansion of what was established in the 1984 film, but there really is just as strong an argument for the first film being the best as the second film being the best. It’s very much similar to the task of comparing Alien and Aliens. They’re two movies that exist within the same world, feature at least one shared character between them, but simultaneously exist within different genres. The first Terminator film (and xenomorph film for that matter) is a sci-fi horror movie at its core, with a light peppering of action. The second is sci-fi action with a light peppering of horror. Both are such exemplary examples of their respective genre blending that it really comes down to what you as the individual viewer prefer.
Stream The Terminator on Max.
1) Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Once more, The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day are essentially comparably effective movies. They’re masterpieces. But the argument we’re going with here is that Terminator 2 is better because of how many The Empire Strikes Back-sized big swings it took and how they all paid off. We just saw a movie where the antagonist was utterly soulless. That was his point. He (or, rather, it) would knock on a door in the middle of a sundrenched suburban street, wait for that door to be opened, get a name confirmation from the resident of the home, and shoot her in the head point blank as the sounds of playing children are heard in the background.
To take a character like that and spin it (or, rather, him) into a friendly stepfather type of presence is nothing short of impressive. In the film’s closing moments, the T-800 is lowered down into a vat of molten steel and instead of feeling relief because the protagonist is safe, we feel heartbreak because we just lost one of the protagonists. In fact, some people shed a tear at that scene. That’s like taking Jason Voorhees, having him get immolated, and making the audience feel for him.
A big part of how that impact is achieved in Terminator 2 comes down to the character of John Connor, as well. Edward Furlong was a great choice for the role. We believe him as a parentless child who yearns for a relationship with his mother. Speaking of which, the returning Linda Hamilton is put to great use here. Like with the change in the character of Ellen Ripley between Alien and Aliens, the growth from distressed (but resilient) young woman to gun-toting badass is fully organic. Then there’s Robert Patrick as the T-1000, who manages to separate his death machine from the original film’s by injecting just enough personality into the liquid metal monstrosity. The liquid metal element, too, is an asset in Terminator 2‘s corner. At the time it was as revolutionary as the t. rex in Jurassic Park (released two years later) and, to this day, it’s a neat effect that is used well.
Stream Terminator 2: Judgment Day on Paramount+.
What is your favorite Terminator movie? Sound off in the comments.
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