The most recent film in the Terminator franchise, Terminator: Dark Fate, recently opened to mixed reactions and a somewhat tepid box office performance. And honestly, that's not that surprising. The movie is undoubtedly a very entertaining action movie in its own right, and seeing Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger reunited on screen decades after the first film was epic. Honestly, even just seeing Linda Hamilton return as Sarah Connor was worth the admission price on its own.
However, aside from the movie's obvious bright spots, there were some elements of the film that were great changes and some that just fell flat. For better and for worse, Terminator: Dark Fate has basically rewritten the entire Terminator timeline after the conclusion of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Obviously that means there have been some pretty massive changes to the overall story, and here are 5 changes to the timeline that we liked, along with 5 that we didn't.
Like It: An Altered Future
Although changing the future inevitably causes some serious issues with plot continuity and can needlessly complicate things sometimes, it's nice to know that all of Sarah Connor's work and sacrifice actually had an effect on the future.
Since judgment day has already come and gone it kind of required any future films to address that the robot apocalypse didn't actually happen, at least not yet. And beyond that, John Connor has always been built up as the last, best hope for all of humanity, so it was definitely intriguing and pretty inspiring to realize that humanity would still find a way to fight back, with or without their messiah.
Don't: Legion
So while changing the future is something that really makes sense at this point in the Terminator franchise, the whole "Legion" thing feels like it's either a bridge too far or not far enough. Apparently the future has been altered enough that the machine threat is no longer Skynet, it's something called Legion.
Which appears to be functionally identical to Skynet in every sense but in name. If the future has changed, then it needs to actually be different. And ultimately it seems like a mistake for Terminator: Dark Fate to rework all of the original elements of the franchise by making the film essentially the exact same story but removing nearly all of the aspects of the franchise that people were invested in.
Like It: Human Machines
If only Kyle Reese had been outfitted with an insane amount of mechanical upgrades before being sent back in time to save Sarah Connor, maybe the entire human vs. robot conflict in the past could have been ended in The Terminator.
The human fighting contingent in the future is certainly lucky to have the kind of medical care that makes this possible, but Grace's entire setup seems like a brilliant way to fight back against the robots. Fighting fire with fire, so to speak. If the machines are going to constantly up their game, then people need to be doing the same.
Don't: Feeling Machines
In fairness, obviously the machines that exist in the future are supposed to be somewhat sentient beings. However, it doesn't appear that any of the terminators were designed with sentience in mind, and it doesn't make any sense that they would be either.
A terminator that can think for itself and experience any kind of emotion is likely going to be far less effective than a pure killing machine, and the fact that the terminator that terminated John Connor suddenly seemed to develop some kind of consciousness just doesn't make any logical sense. Plus, to be honest, it's just kind of lame.
Like It: Double Duty Terminators
One of the clear biggest struggles of the continuing installments into the Terminator franchise is that each film has to improve upon the previous terminators and make them more threatening and interesting in some way. And in some instances, the films have succeeded, but in others, they've failed.
And although the Rev-9 isn't much of a character in its own right, it is at least a really cool machine. The Rev-9 has incorporated the classic terminator design, the liquid metal terminator design, and given them both an edgier look. Oh, and they have made the liquid metal and metal base capable of operating independently of each other.
Don't: Octopus Terminators
So there are a lot of things that movie-goers need to overlook in order to suspend disbelief and enjoy a movie. And when it comes to the Terminator films, something that might not be the most effective in reality but is obviously visually more effective in the films is having terminators that resemble humans.
Of course there are probably more powerful mechanical designs for slaughtering people, but an evil looking humanoid robot is obviously a much more compelling visual image. And it seems like Terminator: Dark Fate wanted to bridge that gap with one of its more bizarre creations, a terminator that looks like Doc Ock, but the machine seems like the worst of both worlds instead of the best.
Like It: A Female Messiah
The Terminator series is iconic for a lot of reasons, but one of the most memorable and unique aspects of the franchise is that it established a female character as a true action hero. And so since the franchise has decided to kill off it's future messiah, John Connor, it seemed to make a lot of sense to make the new messiah into a female character as well.
Sarah Connor spent her life preparing herself and raising her son to be the hero of the human race, so it's pretty cool that Dani Ramos just decided to be the hero of humanity herself.
Don't: Sarah's Irrelevance
Sarah Connor is undoubtedly the most iconic character in The Terminator, and is arguably one of the most legendary characters in the history of science fiction and action films. John may have been destined to save humankind, but Sarah is the character that everyone loved.
So with John gone, it was understandable that she was no longer "the great Sarah Connor", but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense that she was pretty much nothing. Sarah wasn't the mother of the savior anymore, but she spent her entire life destroying terminators, which you'd think would catch the attention of the machines and humans of the future.
Like It: Sarah's Influence
It's hard to say this for sure, but the ending of Terminator: Dark Fate at least heavily implies that Sarah is going to train Dani in all of the skills that she's going to need to survive and thrive after the robot apocalypse.
And Sarah's quest has always been to protect her son and make the future a better world than it could be. If she couldn't do the former, at least she can do the latter. Not to mention, clearly there is no one better than the great Sarah Connor to teach Dani how to be the hero she needs to be, and that's a great reminder of the fact that simply being John's mother isn't what made Sarah great.
Don't: John's Death
To give credit where it's due, the writers and creators of Terminator: Dark Fate certainly started their film off with a bang. Killing young John Connor, the man who might save the world in the future, within the first ten minutes of the movie was absolutely a bold move.
But after the shock has worn off, it's just kind of a sad move that really undermines all of the previous films in the franchise. It actually would have been really interesting to see a Terminator: Dark Fate with an adult John Connor in it, and John didn't necessarily have to die for there to be a new future hero in the series.