Terminator 4???

[darth_mcbain]

From IMDB



The next installment of the Terminator series will hit cinema screens in 2005 - but reportedly without Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger recently ditched acting for politics by becoming governor of California and, according to sources, his part in Terminator 4 will be reduced to a cameo role, while a new robot takes the limelight. A draft of the screenplay has just been completed by Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris. Sources say it is about what happens when the world's computer systems are infected by viruses.


Please no. The first three were enough (I wasn't even too big on the third one) - leave well enough alone and don't make this...

[Crystal]

You know it's getting bad when they plan on making the next one without the Terminator.

[Shawn]

I didn't care for T3 very much. They put the action ahead of the story. Not to mention that it completely contradicted the central themes of the past movies. If they did have another movie, it should be about the actual war between the humans and the machines. Maybe show how it finally ends.

[Christopher Munro]

I haven't even watched T3 yet...don't plan on it any time soon.

[darth_mcbain]

Ahh - you're not missing all that much (although the T-X is kinda zesty... :) )

[Mu Satach]

T3 was a train wreck, it felt like a poorly written fanboi script. It's so meaningless I can't even remember how it ended. I mean I remember the final shot with John and whiney Claire? God I can't even remember her name. But I can't remember how the Terminator died or anything about the final sequences between the gal Terminator and the Terminator. =\

If your a huge fan of the story line, message and themes that were contained neatly in the 1st two don't see it. (I truely wish I hadn't)

If however you just want to see a mindless action flick that just takes basicly every stunt from the 1st two and replays them only this time with MORE explosions, then find it on cable somewhere.

[Jedieb]

It's just another grab for cash. Hopefully it will perform so poorly that that will be the end of the series. If they tag it with a AvP PG-13 then you know it's nothing but an attempt to get as many teens in those first 2 weeks as possible.

[imported_Eve]

I liked T3. I own it.

I read somewhere that Nick Stahl signed on for two more Terminators which means there will be T5 too. This could have been false, but they obviously left three open for more.

[Dan the Man]

T3 was passable, but nowhere close to the other two.

[Shade Magus]

I agree with Eve about T3 being good, but to me it just didn't have the dark terminator mood that goes along with the other two. It didn't go along with them.

As for a T4....umm...no. That should just not be happening. Especially if Arnold wouldn't be playing a major role in it. I mean what more could they possibly say? We already know thaat humans will win that little war and John Conner leads them to vistory. What else is there?

[darth_mcbain]

If taken by itself, T3 was decent. But in the context of the other two Terminator movies, it just didn't hold up, and they should have just left it alone after 2 movies. The first and the second are just awesome, I felt that the series was really cheapened by the third.

IMHO, making a fourth movie is just a mistake, plain and simple...

[HFunk]

There is nothing more to contribute to the storyline, it's run the full gamut and back twice over. Another entry will be a mindless action film and nothing else. Huge mistake but some studio execs figure they have another breadwinner. Hope it doesn't happen.

[Figrin D'an]

T3 was a decent action flick, but it didn't really do much for the overriding story. T2 ended on a note that resonated well with a lot of people, and as such, is going to cause a lot of resistance to more Terminator films (as it did with T3).

And besides... a Terminator film without Arnie? It just wouldn't be the same.

[Dutchy]

Originally posted by Shawn
Not to mention that it completely contradicted the central themes of the past movies.

In what way?

I liked T3 and I LOVED T-X. :)

[imported_Eve]

They can do T4 without Schwartzenegger because his presence (with skin and looking human) was necessary to go back in time and prevent Judgement Day. Now that it is has come, his model would just be the robot-looking version, blasting human rebels to kingdom come. At some point, Schwartzenegger can do a cameo for the parts when they send him back in time. He'll have time for that. That could be a five minute scene at the end of T4. And really, they can probably do all that with computer animation if Schwartzenegger can't physically be there.

When I think about it, I don't see where his presence is needed in the remaining story except for what I said above. Now it's about John Conner and how he sets up the resistance and what they go through.

I guess for me the movie has switched premises, so I can accept the sequels, so long as I don't hold them to T1 and T2. What isn't interesting about a movie where most of mankind has died in a nuclear attack, launched by robots, and only a small band of humans are left to save the world? The odds are hopeless, and it's a human's spirit story. I'd like to see it.

[HFunk]

*coughTheMatrixSagacough*

Well when it comes to the sci-fi action genre, we expect little originality. But I wouldn't bother seeing a fourth installment because I only have to see the first three and thus I would have already seen the fourth. Which I did. ;)

[Brian]

A wise man once said: never presume to know the content of a story until you have read it.

T3 wasn't bad. It certainly wasn't as dark, and it didn't draw me in as much as T2 did. They really did a bang-up job on T2, and to be honest, it would've been hard to top that.

Still, I see some promise for the series. As Eve said, it's always been a human spirit story. Before T3, the story focused on the determination of humankind to struggle against a seemingly unavoidable future.

Lo and behold, the future is now and the uncertainty component is removed. There is no more leeway to exploit, no more time that could still be used to change things. John Connor is in the thick of it and we know he's destined to win the war for humanity at the sacrifice of his own life. Can that be avoided somehow? The past has already been altered three times, once in favor of the machines, once in favor of humanity, and once in favor of both sides.

The journey is the most exciting part of the story.

[darth_mcbain]

Another reason I'm not too excited about another one is that the timeline is all screwy in the Terminator saga - what with the time travel and all. It just seems like every time they want to make another movie, they can just play the time-travel card so that yet another machine comes back through time to try to kill John Connor. It's like the story never moves beyond that premise.

[Brian]

Why would it? Of all the people on the planet, John Connor is the only one with a good idea of what the machines are going to do. Killing him is like severing humanity's link with its future. The remaining humans are cut off, they have no guidance at that point.

John Connor is pretty much humanity's best sentinel against the machines. He knows what they will do and how they think.

[HFunk]

If T4 ever hit production, it would require a very, very slick script by a very talented writer to preserve it from plummeting into a mindless sci-fi yarn about a future human-machine all out war. What more can be added to the storyline??? Even if they found some new elements say like John Connor clones or John Connor children, would it rise above just being an ordinary dull action film?

[Mitch]

As far as a aequel that is missing the main star of the previous movie(s), look at Predator 2. Now, I know lot of you might not like that one too much, but I thought that it was a great way to carry off a sequel that doesn't have to be DIRECTLY related to the first one.

Of course, then there are disasters like Speed 2: Cruise Control, but we won't ttalk about that, now will we?

[HFunk]

All I am suggesting is the next sequel has to have some real meat on it's bones.

I longer buy into large scale pyrotechnics, explosions, and grandiose shoot-outs (unless we're speaking Quintin Tarantino!).

[Marcus Telcontar]

Originally posted by HFunk
If T4 ever hit production, it would require a very, very slick script by a very talented writer to preserve it from plummeting into a mindless sci-fi yarn about a future human-machine all out war. What more can be added to the storyline??? Even if they found some new elements say like John Connor clones or John Connor children, would it rise above just being an ordinary dull action film?

This is the correct answer. T4 would have to ahve some very good people in charge, because it has far too much potential to suck incredibly hard.

[imported_Eve]

They've already changed some things since T2. Conner's resistance team were all killed in T3, so that's a minus for Conner to start with. And we know that Conner dies before his wife by the T1 model - will this be prevented now? We also have yet to see how Conner and his future wife (Daines) fall in love. There is a lot that can happen.

I think Stahl and Daines can hold the movie.

And the T3 DVD has a Terminator timeline if anyone is interested.

[Pierce Tondry]

I'd like to see that. Could you post it, either here or at Meras?

[HFunk]

The backstory is not bad for the Terminator films, but viewers are besieged by an theme of endless pursuit between cyborg with big guns chasing humans with big guns. And T2 had bigger guns and the bad cyborg received a sinister quasi-cool facelift. Yet T3 completely failed to ante up IMO.

This theme too tiresome and I will not see a fourth one. I don't even love these films like I once did back in the day. My love affair has been severed for some time now. But that's just me.