Terminator

[GameBoyFreak520]

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm a huge fan of terminator. I saw them about a year ago for the first time, and I have watched all of them like 50 times!! Does anyone have a favorite one, a least favorite one, a cool part, or something? I wanna see if anyone has anything to say about terminator. Have fun! Also, your feelings about the 5th one coming out, tell me that too.

 

[cIementine]

I saw them a year or two ago and I thought they were really cool! I've only seen the first three because the rest just look ridiculous imo. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the best anyway so.

 

[GameBoyFreak520]

I saw them a year or two ago and I thought they were really cool! I've only seen the first three because the rest just look ridiculous imo. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the best anyway so.

Yeah... Don't watch the 4th one... It's horrible lol.

 

[GameBoyFreak520]

I feel that the first one was a masterpiece. The second one was even better, which was rare for sequels in the 90's. The third one, however, contrary to popular belief, imho is quite good! Everyone else thinks it sucks, but it's just not as good as the first two. I mean, how could it be that good? The first two were freaking James Cameron!! I think the third one is also really good. But the fourth one... THE FOURTH ONE... is BAAAAAAAAAD. I'm a pretty forgiving guy, but there are ZERO redeeming qualities about it except for SPOILER ALERT: the end with the fight against the cg Arnold. That's how I feel. I am worried about the fifth one being bad, soooooo...

Yeah.

 

[n64king]

I use to be obsessed but fell out of it after the TV show was canceled. If you watch them all and the TV series it's really crazy if you try and piece it together and try and figure out what ACTUALLY happened thanks to a lot of going back and forth through time and screwing things up. It's debatable if T3 happened thanks to SCC.
They filmed part of T3 down the street from me, the part where the female machine crashes the industrial building and the building blows the hell up. It's some pretty awful computer work if you pay attention, the sky and the background don't match up for half the part where she took control of the fire truck and ambulance cause the film is moving so fast, it's just so bad like the worst of any film I've seen I wish I could show you. Anyway, they really blew up part of the building too, it use to be this United Tools & Equipment building that was falling apart and they also built the Animal Hospital there too in the building next to it on the same lot. They ripped it all down now and it's some mini strip mall, corner of Foothill Blvd & Mt Gleason Ave in Sunland, CA.

Tbh the only thing that'll bug me about this series is when they're inconsistent with locations. Movies always are but sheesh you set it in LA, can we freakin do LA right!?!? You can't switch from the valley to nearby downtown, then swing back to Sunland/Tujunga then suddenly appear in the Antelope Valley all in an hour like they tried in the movie. Whoopsies lol

Also unpopular opinion but T4 was still awesome. Looking forward to T5 but I have a feeling this will be the movie where it'll get really really just too weird or convoluted to the point where I just don't care. Just wait for that annoying scene where Arnold unnecessarily shows up just to say I'LL BE BACK or some other line from the first two.

- - - Post Merge - - -

I've probably forgotten a lot of stuff about it at this point. But lemme tell you, when I pass the Century City mall I always imagine it's a concentration camp run by the machines in the future because that's what Derek Reese said it was in 202X. I just imagine this huge tupperware store they have there being blown out and turned into slave labor, so sick.

 

[GameBoyFreak520]

I use to be obsessed but fell out of it after the TV show was canceled. If you watch them all and the TV series it's really crazy if you try and piece it together and try and figure out what ACTUALLY happened thanks to a lot of going back and forth through time and screwing things up. It's debatable if T3 happened thanks to SCC.
They filmed part of T3 down the street from me, the part where the female machine crashes the industrial building and the building blows the hell up. It's some pretty awful computer work if you pay attention, the sky and the background don't match up for half the part where she took control of the fire truck and ambulance cause the film is moving so fast, it's just so bad like the worst of any film I've seen I wish I could show you. Anyway, they really blew up part of the building too, it use to be this United Tools & Equipment building that was falling apart and they also built the Animal Hospital there too in the building next to it on the same lot. They ripped it all down now and it's some mini strip mall, corner of Foothill Blvd & Mt Gleason Ave in Sunland, CA.

Tbh the only thing that'll bug me about this series is when they're inconsistent with locations. Movies always are but sheesh you set it in LA, can we freakin do LA right!?!? You can't switch from the valley to nearby downtown, then swing back to Sunland/Tujunga then suddenly appear in the Antelope Valley all in an hour like they tried in the movie. Whoopsies lol

Also unpopular opinion but T4 was still awesome. Looking forward to T5 but I have a feeling this will be the movie where it'll get really really just too weird or convoluted to the point where I just don't care. Just wait for that annoying scene where Arnold unnecessarily shows up just to say I'LL BE BACK or some other line from the first two.

- - - Post Merge - - -

I've probably forgotten a lot of stuff about it at this point. But lemme tell you, when I pass the Century City mall I always imagine it's a concentration camp run by the machines in the future because that's what Derek Reese said it was in 202X. I just imagine this huge tupperware store they have there being blown out and turned into slave labor, so sick.

WOAH WOAH WOAH NOW: You like T4??? Lol jk but what do you like about it, aside from the cg Arnold? Also that's awesome that you got to see part of T3 being filmed! I saw most of robocop 2014 being filmed in Detroit. I'm glad that there are other serious terminator fans!

About T5, I see a pattern. In the first movie, Arnold says: "F*** you, @$$hole." In the second one, he says really 90's esc things like "Chill out,
d!?kweed." In the third, he says a thing from the 2000's: "Talk to the hand." In T5, is he gonna say stuff like "Swag" and "Yolo?" I'm scared lol.

 

[Tao]

Did somebody say Schwarzenegger films!?

View attachment 84774




But yea, Terminator is a great movie/franchise.

The first and second films are both equally good movies to me. I struggle to pick a favorite between them though because they are too different yet still the same.

I liked the first as a bit more along the lines of a 'monster movie' or a horror, with the original T-800 just trying to hunt and kill Sarah, acting like the typical 'Jason' or 'Alien'. It managed to keep you on the edge of your seat without the aid of cheap jumpscares and managed to make the Terminator out to be a horrifying killer without really 'shouting it at out' like most of these types of film try to do, drilling it into your brain that you're supposed to find the Terminator 'scary'.

The second was just a fantastic action movie in pretty much all regards. The only thing I have bad to say about it is at the end when he says "I need a vacation"...NO! You're a robot! You don't need a vacation! (though it's only silly out of context because of a scene that was deleted)
It was more about the two terminators beating the crap out of each other with this one though. The T-1000 was still a 'monster', but it wasn't really done with the same feel that the original did. Especially with Arnie also being given more room to 'be Arnie' with this film, where as in the original he was pretty much a silent killer with very few lines of dialogue.


Something I always noticed with the first two Terminator films was the order in which the Terminator tries to kill Sarah and John.
Usually shows/movies try to kill their enemy first and THEN their parents. Even now, Terminator is one of the few things that has actually tried to do the more obvious solution first.



Third movie was okay. I don't hate it but it's nowhere near the quality of the first two. It had it's moments but with the first two films being fantastic in pretty much two different aspects of film, I kind of had my hopes up that this would again do something fantastic. It was pretty much Terminator 2-2 though, which isn't a bad thing. I feel that the success and brilliance of the first two hurt this one the most (especially since sequels rarely tend to be as good as the original...Which T2 was)

Salvation was just awful to me. I just don't know what it was specifically that made me hate it but I just couldn't watch it all the way through. I'm probably going to have to sit down at somepoint and give it another shot (even though it doesn't matter if I do since it's getting written out of continuity).

The TV show I had a hard time getting into but that's mostly because it was aired at irregular times here and it was often at a time where I couldn't watch it when it eventually did come on. This kind of resulted in me just ignoring it since I didn't want to watch episodes of it out of context. I plan on picking up the Boxset soon since I just wasn't able to give it a proper chance back when it first aired.



I can't wait for Genysis. As it may be evident, I'm a sucker for Arnie films, even in his old age (he still kicks arse).

I'm just hoping that they don't screw things up too much or make it too convoluted. With them trying to reboot the series but not reboot the series by rebooting it with the reboot (because, whatever) I can imagine that if it fails, it's going to fail horribly rather than just being a bit of a bad movie.
I think if they're going for this reboot thing though, they should have gotten rid of Arnie and rebooted it entirely rather than using the Governator to get weak willed morons like myself to watch it just because he's in it.

I'll wait to see the finished product though.

 

[GameBoyFreak520]

Did somebody say Schwarzenegger films!?

View attachment 84774




But yea, Terminator is a great movie/franchise.

The first and second films are both equally good movies to me. I struggle to pick a favorite between them though because they are too different yet still the same.

I liked the first as a bit more along the lines of a 'monster movie' or a horror, with the original T-800 just trying to hunt and kill Sarah, acting like the typical 'Jason' or 'Alien'. It managed to keep you on the edge of your seat without the aid of cheap jumpscares and managed to make the Terminator out to be a horrifying killer without really 'shouting it at out' like most of these types of film try to do, drilling it into your brain that you're supposed to find the Terminator 'scary'.

The second was just a fantastic action movie in pretty much all regards. The only thing I have bad to say about it is at the end when he says "I need a vacation"...NO! You're a robot! You don't need a vacation! (though it's only silly out of context because of a scene that was deleted)
It was more about the two terminators beating the crap out of each other with this one though. The T-1000 was still a 'monster', but it wasn't really done with the same feel that the original did. Especially with Arnie also being given more room to 'be Arnie' with this film, where as in the original he was pretty much a silent killer with very few lines of dialogue.


Something I always noticed with the first two Terminator films was the order in which the Terminator tries to kill Sarah and John.
Usually shows/movies try to kill their enemy first and THEN their parents. Even now, Terminator is one of the few things that has actually tried to do the more obvious solution first.



Third movie was okay. I don't hate it but it's nowhere near the quality of the first two. It had it's moments but with the first two films being fantastic in pretty much two different aspects of film, I kind of had my hopes up that this would again do something fantastic. It was pretty much Terminator 2-2 though, which isn't a bad thing. I feel that the success and brilliance of the first two hurt this one the most (especially since sequels rarely tend to be as good as the original...Which T2 was)

Salvation was just awful to me. I just don't know what it was specifically that made me hate it but I just couldn't watch it all the way through. I'm probably going to have to sit down at somepoint and give it another shot (even though it doesn't matter if I do since it's getting written out of continuity).

The TV show I had a hard time getting into but that's mostly because it was aired at irregular times here and it was often at a time where I couldn't watch it when it eventually did come on. This kind of resulted in me just ignoring it since I didn't want to watch episodes of it out of context. I plan on picking up the Boxset soon since I just wasn't able to give it a proper chance back when it first aired.



I can't wait for Genysis. As it may be evident, I'm a sucker for Arnie films, even in his old age (he still kicks arse).

I'm just hoping that they don't screw things up too much or make it too convoluted. With them trying to reboot the series but not reboot the series by rebooting it with the reboot (because, whatever) I can imagine that if it fails, it's going to fail horribly rather than just being a bit of a bad movie.
I think if they're going for this reboot thing though, they should have gotten rid of Arnie and rebooted it entirely rather than using the Governator to get weak willed morons like myself to watch it just because he's in it.

I'll wait to see the finished product though.

I entirely agree. That's exactly how I feel, lol

 

[n64king]

WOAH WOAH WOAH NOW: You like T4??? Lol jk but what do you like about it, aside from the cg Arnold? Also that's awesome that you got to see part of T3 being filmed! I saw most of robocop 2014 being filmed in Detroit. I'm glad that there are other serious terminator fans!

About T5, I see a pattern. In the first movie, Arnold says: "F*** you, @$$hole." In the second one, he says really 90's esc things like "Chill out,
d!€kweed." In the third, he says a thing from the 2000's: "Talk to the hand." In T5, is he gonna say stuff like "Swag" and "Yolo?" I'm scared lol.

LOL The CG Arnold was stupid and pointless. They should have just done the movie without any mention of him or that persona. Um I liked T4 because the action was decent, it looked better than T3 in the special effects aspect, and they finally did a movie solely in the future. I thought they wouldn't. It explored more aspects of future that they had only spoken of before, and showed more of what the wasteland is like. They never showed LA destroyed as good as they did that time. (although the T2 nuke scene = classic and can't be overthrown) Plus I liked the few times we get to see how people are living out there, the group in the 7Eleven, I always gotta wonder about that old woman who got scooped up and killed. Who the hell was she?! Like some kind of den mother figure, because they respected her but we only got a glimpse.
"Talk to the Hand" was mildly amusing at the time, it worked cause it was relevant, but please do not do that again.

HA yeah everyone was standing around watching them burn things when they filmed T3, then they exploded the one spot and naturally we got hit with a heat wave and everyone went "oooooohhh"

OMMMGGG HAVE ANY OF YOU PEOPLE EVER BEEN TO UNIVERSAL STUDIOS HERE IN CALIFORNIA (maybe they did it in the Florida one too) when they had the Terminator live & 3D show? Ugh soooo wish that was still there. That was like the best experience at the whole park. That lady use to be like "SUPER!" at the end of every sentence and had that ditsy 80's + 90's secretary attitude with huge blonde hair then she gets attacked and blown away when she actually goes up on stage by a T-800 that comes from the future. Then they'd ride through the aisles of the theater in a motorcycle making plasma pistol and chainsaw noises

- - - Post Merge - - -

When you look at T1, it's amazing this series took off. It was a little corny, and totally set up to be a cult classic. I was always shocked and happy when they said they were gonna do T3, I thought the series was dead. Guess it never really died, it just takes ages to get new installments.

 

[Tao]

and they finally did a movie solely in the future.

I think this might have been what initially left a bad taste in my mouth.

It's not that I didn't want a movie set in the future, the opposite is true. It's that when you look at the 'future' as seen from T1, it's quite different to what we saw in Salvation in a lot of ways. We didn't see much of the future in the first 3 films but it was enough to put some expectations in my mind, not to mention the years I had after seeing the first film to let my imagination run wild.

Again though, I probably need to sit down with Salvation again and try to go into it with a totally blank slate of expectations. It's a film set in the future of a film that was released years before with intent on being a one of movie, it can't exactly live up to my overbearing expectations.

Though there were 2 PS2 games, one set entirely in the future and one where you played as the T-800 set about 50% in the future. I remember those being okay representations, though my memory is quite fuzzy on that since I've not played them in years.

When you look at T1, it's amazing this series took off. It was a little corny, and totally set up to be a cult classic. I was always shocked and happy when they said they were gonna do T3, I thought the series was dead. Guess it never really died, it just takes ages to get new installments.

I think Arnie is the biggest reason why the film took off the way it did.

The concept was pretty good on its own and the Terminator is a pretty awesome 'thing' by itself, but Arnold just made the film what it was. He's the only man I can think of that could have pulled off an emotionless robot the same way he did...Though I think that speaks for itself when years later people still call him 'The Terminator' rather than any of his other roles.

When you take into account that OJ Simpson was originally intended to be the Terminator, things could have gone horribly wrong...Though Arnie was still supposed to play John Connor at this point, which I don't think would have worked. Can't exactly have John Connor being more monstrous than the actual Terminator trying to kill him xD

 

[n64king]

I think this might have been what initially left a bad taste in my mouth.

It's not that I didn't want a movie set in the future, the opposite is true. It's that when you look at the 'future' as seen from T1, it's quite different to what we saw in Salvation in a lot of ways. We didn't see much of the future in the first 3 films but it was enough to put some expectations in my mind, not to mention the years I had after seeing the first film to let my imagination run wild.

Again though, I probably need to sit down with Salvation again and try to go into it with a totally blank slate of expectations. It's a film set in the future of a film that was released years before with intent on being a one of movie, it can't exactly live up to my overbearing expectations.

Though there were 2 PS2 games, one set entirely in the future and one where you played as the T-800 set about 50% in the future. I remember those being okay representations, though my memory is quite fuzzy on that since I've not played them in years.






I think Arnie is the biggest reason why the film took off the way it did.

The concept was pretty good on its own and the Terminator is a pretty awesome 'thing' by itself, but Arnold just made the film what it was. He's the only man I can think of that could have pulled off an emotionless robot the same way he did...Though I think that speaks for itself when years later people still call him 'The Terminator' rather than any of his other roles.

When you take into account that OJ Simpson was originally intended to be the Terminator, things could have gone horribly wrong...Though Arnie was still supposed to play John Connor at this point, which I don't think would have worked. Can't exactly have John Connor being more monstrous than the actual Terminator trying to kill him xD

Well they did technically change the future a bunch of times in there, so I guess that can be one explanation. They sort of go over that in Sarah Conner Chronicles when Derek's future isn't the same as what Jesse had experienced because they were changing things in 2007.
They don't really mention anything in the future in T1 & 2 that can be landmarked or was really important other than automated factories which they showed those in T4.
UGH YES THOSE PS2 GAMES. I had Dawn of Fate, and the other my friend had whatever it was called. They were pretty good games, tbh maybe the only good Terminator games. Although I shamefully liked Rise of the Machines for GBA but I was a kid so w/e.

You're probably right about Arnold making it a lasting series though. If they had someone forgettable or someone who got in trouble (OJ) then we'd have to can that series most likely haha. LOL And Arnold being John wouldn't have made sense unless Arnold had a Kindergarden Cop mentality in these movies. Why have a Terminator sent back in time to protect him when he coulda done it on his own!


Too many of the filming locations I know where they are when I think about it ~_~

 

[Tao]

Yea, you're right about them changing the future constantly so it wouldn't be the same. I guess I just wanted to see that 'cool' looking future from the first film where it was all just decrepit machinery and buildings and the floor was made of skulls. Obviously Salvation didn't have the sea of skulls I had been waiting for -.-




There was a 3rd Terminator game on PS2/Xbox if I remember correctly that was pretty much the game of the 3rd film. I never played it but with it being a film tie in, I was probably wrong as a kid thinking it looked good xD




The OJ Simpson thing got canned because he apparently was 'too nice' to be seen as the Terminator...Which is pretty funny when you look at what happened with him pretty much becoming a Terminator later on anyway *cough*.
I've always been interested in exactly how long he was planned to be the Terminator though since it always gets mentioned as though it was a decision they had finalized for a long time, though "he was too nice" kind of makes it seem like it was a joke suggestion that they discarded immediately. It just makes me wonder what would have happened if the OJ Simpson Terminator actually happened.

Kindergarten Cop Arnie was pretty badass if you take out the middle of the movie where he's actually a lame teacher...Twins or Junior type Arnie though...Could have even worked in a cameo from Danny Devito.

 

[n64king]

Well we saw the HD redux version of that sorta, but yeah they totally did away with the mountain of skulls. We got less twisted metal building frames in exchange for more realism imo. Mountain of skulls is really unrealistic LOL Where'd the rest of the body go? Why did you need a mountain of skulls? It's not likely those people were fried in the nuclear fire, because why was there like 1000 people standing next to each other during the explosion, omg and still where are the rest of the bones!??! ahhhh

Licensed games are usually trash, especially back in those PS2/Xbox/GCN times, they just managed to squeeze out a couple that were decent for some reason. They didn't even do a Salvation game except for that iOS/Android game. Right? I swear there wasn't a 360/PS3 game.

Yuck @ Arnold as anything but scifi action guy imo. Love me some Total Recall, I just watched that yesterday actually. The 6th Day is another one of my favs. He's a little old now. Age wise lol.

If the OJ Terminator happened, then the OJ Trial still happened, there would have probably been a whole new type of Terminator culture, or we would have forgotten it like anything else he's been in.

 

[Caius]

I had the worst phobia of the terminator because I remember watching my dad do mechanicals and stuff for the animatronic when restoring it for Hollywood Studios in Orlando. Watched them all last year at some point. Love them, but still don't like that endoskeleton.

 

[bmcinvaille]

Love the first 2

 

[Tao]

Yuck @ Arnold as anything but scifi action guy imo. Love me some Total Recall, I just watched that yesterday actually. The 6th Day is another one of my favs. He's a little old now. Age wise lol.

I like him in most things (I just find him enjoyable to watch even if the film is awful) but yea, his sci-fi movies are definitely his better ones. Total Recall is easily one of his best.




I actually picked up Salvation on DVD and watched it today, all the way through this time and with a more open mind. It's not as bad as I remembered but I'm still not a fan of it. I guess it doesn't help that I simply don't like Christian Bale, so a film has to be REALLY good to make up for that.

But there were still some parts that I was just like "nope, I'm out" with and obviously, the absence of the all important floor of skulls. Like seriously, I would probably be happy if the next attempt at 'future Terminator' was just a 2 hour helicopter view of the land covered in skulls and the presence of a T-800 just so you can't argue it's not a Terminator movie.

There were also a lot of 'continuity' issues to me. Not to mention the old time travel/prequel problem movies have of "Well, this scene tries to make me think Kyle/John is going to die...But he obviously doesn't, otherwise Terminator 1 won't happen...Which means this tense scene isn't actually even happening". Yano, Paradox.

The actor who played Kyle Reese though was just the perfect choice, and CGI Arnold wasn't as bad as people said it was. I can't complain about those two things at all.




And found Sarah Connor Chronicles season 1 for like ?3...I watched the first episode and it seems okay. I'm just wondering how time travel and more terminators trying to kill John is overall going to play out since it seems like it won't make sense since none of these events were mentioned in Terminator 3, or that in T3 John says the T-800 was the closest thing he had to a farther despite the first episode has that guy which John says he really likes (and even helped pick the wedding ring for him to propose).
Episode 1 isn't really far enough to jump to conclusions though. I still have another 8 episodes and a second season to watch yet.

Summer Glau though <3



I think continuity is a large part of what makes me like the earlier films more. With the series having time travel and the Movies/show jumping forwards and backwards in the time period its set it brings up a lot of room for error with things that are sometimes really easy to spot (like that small 'thing' about John's farther figure).
Obviously, the first two films have a lot less continuity issues, especially since they were written/released a lot closer together.

I guess it can be chalked up to "well...Time travel" but it probably depends on how you view the way time travel is working in a specific series, and Terminator (as far as I know) never gives a specific answer. To me, the events of the first 3 films and the series have to happen for this apocalyptic future the Terminators keep mentioning in those films to exist in the first place and that time travel really doesn't change anything in that respect. The T-800 was never going to kill Sarah Connor and the T-1000 was never going to kill John.
Kind of like what John said at the end of T3 that the T-800/Kyle Reese were never really trying to stop judgement day from happening at all, they were just trying to make sure the events happened that lead to John Connor and Cathrine Brewster ending up in that fallout shelter together.
Again, it's kind of a paradox, at least how I see it.

As opposed to say, Back to the Future where the movie shows you that you can actually change the future by messing with the past and that nothing is 'written', though that is helped with the setting going back and fourth throughout the trilogy, where Terminator only really goes 'back'.