Terminator - A Tragedy in Franchising

By Ephraim Belnap

I just watched Terminator: Dark Fate for the first time, and I'm so fired up to review it! But before that I want a quick prologue about the franchise and how enigmatically flawed it is. 

I've now seen all the Terminator films, and let me tell ya, it is one of the most bafflingly arranged franchises ever. From sequel to threequel/start of a new trilogy with all-new actors to post-apocalyptic sequel with more all-new actors to attempted PG-13 reboot with ANOTHER set of all-new actors! The franchise's entries post-first sequel have repeatedly failed to succeed in hooking audiences, so they just try a different setting hoping it'll work this time, but it never does! And the thing is, there are two reasons for it:

1. They repeatedly fail to imitate the true roots of the first two, which was a strong rooting in existential horror and the slasher genre - with sci-fi thrown in! 
2. (And this is the real sticker) They keep trying to make each new one the launch point for a new series. 

There's a trend I've noticed in recent media where an installment will deliberately leave important-seeming plot points unresolved so that if the entry is successful, it can be explored in the sequel. The Fantastic Beasts films, the new God of War, Star Wars: Fallen Order. All of them play keep-away with compelling-sounding points and end up leaving them dangling, presumably for a sequel, which those examples will get. But the result of that dangling is that the franchise steals satisfaction from the product. That big, juicy plot point will be satisfied,  but ONLY if you buy the next one!1!! Better buy those tickets, nerds! 

It feels a little cynical and mean-spirited, and more importantly, stories should not have to string you along to make you watch them. They should make you watch them 'cause you love the characters and want to see what happens to them. What we've seen in Terminator is that each sequel deliberately tried to withhold satisfaction so that audiences would want the next one ... and not investing enough in the characters. All that ended up doing was making people like them less. Combine that with Point 1, and we get entries that nobody really likes, and continued dissatisfaction. And Dark Fate managed to avoid that, more than any other entry. But it still arguably failed because it missed some important points. .I'll get more into that in my review. But for now, that's all. I'll be back.