The Synergy Project Magazine - August 2020

It has a fault storyline.
Right from the getgo,
the movie kills off fanfavorite
John Connor, played
by Edward Furlong from
Terminator 2: Judgement
Day, a decision in which
the audience doesn’t take
very well. After being
mercilessly executed, he was
quickly replaced by another
protagonist. The new hero,
Dani, has the potential to
become a compelling character,
but she doesn’t quite form that
special bond with the audience
the same way John Connor
did (Marcus, 2019). From an
interview, Tim Miller explains
his choice to remove Connor
from the story:
“You’d think it [killing
John off] was probably
a controversial decision,
but it really wasn’t.
There was a lot of talk
at the really early stages
of should this new
savior be someone who
was connected to the
Connors? Should it
be John’s daughter or
something like that?
Which I was always
against, because I’m just
not a fan of the Chosen
One sort of movie as
much as I am of a hero
sort of rising to meet
adversity, who could
be an everyman or an
everywoman. I identify
with those people much
more than I do with Neo
in The Matrix or King
Arthur or something like
that. So I was all for this
being some new person
that wasn’t connected
to the Connors and had
been chosen by the hand
Fans simply stop caring.
The rights to the
franchise have been sold to too
many studios and companies
(“Terminator (franchise)”,
2020). This decision resulted
in the creation of too many
films and universes within
the franchise. Due to this,
the Terminator fan base also
began to diminish over time.
(Lee, 2019). At this rate,
the universe has become
too confusing to attract
newcomers, but it’s not a
surprise. Previous films, such
as Terminator 3: Rise of the
Machines and Terminator
Genisys, were also rejected
by fans (Mendelson, 2019),
which is why the timeline
has to be constantly changed.
The producers are essentially
of fate.” (Miller, 2019)
Here, Miller explains his
choice for choosing the new
protagonist in Terminator:
Dark Fate but doesn’t really
go in-depth as to why he
believes Connor’s death wasn’t
considered as controversial.
Even if the producers chose to
keep Connor alive, the story
isn’t exactly original anymore.
The first two films, The
Terminator and Terminator 2:
Judgement Day, released back
in 1984 and 1991, respectively,
are still currently more
successful than their more
recent counterparts because
back then, the plots were seen
as original. Now that so many
films have been released, the
constantly rehashed idea has
now become a dead concept,
and this brings us to the next
point.
attempting to satisfy their
audience but are failing to
do so. However, it’s unlikely
there will be a new Terminator
movie that will impress the
audience because a formula
can only be used so many
times before it becomes old
and diluted.
It will always get compared to the
originals.
No new Terminator
movie will ever be able to
excite fans simply because it
can never beat the originals.
In fact, the whole concept
wasn’t necessarily flexible to
begin with. You can only go
so far with future killing robot
assassins before repeating the
same story over again with
time travel, which means that
Dark Fate was already doomed
to fail from the start. It’s also
not a surprise that the budget
for making a Terminator movie
costs more than $150 million
to produce (Mendelson,
2019). The highest-grossing
movie in the franchise is still in
fact Terminator 2, grossing at
$520 million worldwide, and
no new installation has ever
surpassed that since. Most fans
now agree that the franchise
ended at the second movie,
and maybe it’s best to keep it
that way.
ENTERTAINMENT 47