Me and
Hulavuta have been watching all 6 terminator movies the past few weeks. Here's my thoughts
T1: imo, an ok horror film. Yeah it started the franchise but I'm really not that attached to it. The first act is my favorite and after the police station shootout it all seems downhill. I like the mythos around the film a lot more than the film itself (the future war, laser guns everywhere, etc)
T2: the obvious "best one" in the series. Robert Patrick is probably the best terminator, not because of his abilities but because of how he is used. The anticipation before he strikes is amazing, mostly because of the subtle theme that plays whenever he moves around. He's still very machine-like, which I'll contrast later. Unfortunately as good as the cgi is, I don't think it holds up today. There are several moments that the film very clearly says "heyyy, check out how good our cgi is!" They deserve their confidence, but watching the moments a few times they lose their magic. Unlike t1, I think the film properly builds tension throughout and I can't think of anything I really DON'T like about the film.
T3: legitimately in my top 5 worst films ever made. Every actor is either complete garbage or directed badly. Arnold's acting is the worst. "Talk to the hand", said completely seriously, is not funny unlike his lines from t2. The terminator is liquid metal with an endoskeleton, which it uses....to make its boobs bigger and nothing else. Unlike robert patrick who likes to act human and stab people, the t-x just saws them in half. Scary!!!!!!! The film is just awful. Awful awful awful. It all takes place within like, 3 hours, and manages to somehow not build ANY tension because it blows its terminator fight load in act 1.
T4: another extremely bad movie, but because it's too damn boring. I don't accept the "it's the apocalypse! " as justification for applying a grey filter on the whole movie. And uhh....motorcycle terminators. They must have actually had christian Bale act like batman on purpose. I don't really understand why the movie was made, because its contribution to the entire universe is actually almost nothing.
T5: I actually enjoyed this one a lot after the previous two. It's honestly a self aware parody of the entire franchise, where t3 was the same but played seriously. Almost all the actors do a great job, the action is good, it's funny, and I think the villain's plan (join skynet in a nanomachine-induced hivemind rather than just killing everybody) is a great twist on the formula.
T6: in my opinion either the strongest or second strongest film. An action fan's essential viewing of the year! I can't fathom why people can find reasons to hate on it. Something about sjws invading Hollywood...? Or the fact that they "ruined their childhood" by not having john connor in the movie? John connor has been a cursed character ever since 1991. There is zero "feminisms"in the movie unless you count having short hair as the sjw invasion. The new terminator is a contender for my favorite, because it actually fights like an animal, not like a robot at all. It's different to everything else, because it didn't come from the same future. Arnold's character is extremely excellent an a fantastic idea (what does a robot do when it finished its job, and it's not given any more orders?). Mackenzie davis is great. Linda Hamilton is great. The extra cast is great. There's nothing wrong with it! The entire third act is a constant build of tension, not because it is a constant chase per se but more that all the characters know they'll encounter the terminator multiple more times instead of being...surprised that it shows up like in previous films. It's a worthy successor and it's really sad that we'll probably never get another film, or worse, another reboot. See it!