Last week I had never seen a Terminator Movie. Today I've seen all of them. Here are my thoughts!

I felt like if I hadn't written down my thoughts this whole journey has been for nothing, so where better than here? I looked at my watch list I keep in a notebook, which quarantine has had me fuckin' rippin' through, and saw that T1 & 2 had been sitting there untouched for longer than most other things I've put to paper. I looked on Hulu and saw they had both of those and figured I'd take a break for looking longingly out the window with a whiskey and finally cross them off.​TLDR: T1&2 are great, T3 I love to hate, Salvation is the unseasoned beef patty of the series, Genysis makes me want to take a nap, Dark Fate is really enjoyable but probably because I watched it after 3-Genysis​The Terminator: Much like Back to the Future, I feel like there's nothing new to say about this movie. It's fun, it's fast, and it's a classic action sci-fi movie for a reason. 10/10, I plan on watching it multiple times before I dieTerminator 2: Judgement Day: The only thing I knew about T2 was that everyone liked it more than T1, and after watching T1 I didn't know how that was possible. Then I watched this and, yeah, that's how. Everything that made The Terminator a great movie was enhanced and done in a much more entertaining and exciting way. 11/10, No fate but what we make amirite guys?Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines: I'm not right, guys. No fate but what is dictated I guess. After riding the high of 1 & 2 I figured I should keep this train a-goin', but this was such a disappointing viewing experience. I had never heard this film referenced by anyone, I've never heard anyone talk about it, and I see why. The first half of this movie is so in love with T2, so much so that it feels like something I'd write as a fan fiction if I saw T2 when I was 12. I feel like I could talk about what I disliked about this movie for eons, but what's the point? I tried doing that with my friends but they kicked me from the discord for "talking about T-X making her boobs grow." But seriously, why'd that make it into the final cut? And why is she trying to kill Kate's dad if he's the one who activates Sky-net and is also in the blast radius of Judgment day? Dude's gonna die anyway, right? What's a bullet gonna do that a nuke won't? Also, what's the deal wi-Terminator Salvation: I liked that this wasn't a movie about sending a terminator back in time to protect a Conner family member, because I was almost positive that was what the plot was going to be. This is another movie I had heard nothing about, and I get it. This one was just really bland and forgettable. Nothing really stuck out as horrible, other than some of the performances, but I appreciate that they went out and did something kinda new. The biggest problem I had was the color grading. Everything seemed so flat and brown and dark. It really made this one tedious to get through. I will not be watching it again.Terminator Genysis: Whoof. The action in this movie was enjoyable for the most part, which I guess is the most important thing in an action movie... right? At some point I felt like I needed to just turn my brain off in order to start enjoying this. There's so much going on and the time travel is so convoluted and uninteresting that it makes me want to scream. For a complex idea like time travel I feel like Terminator made it very simple; Robot go back to kill Sarah, Man go back to protect her. Robot go back to kill John, Robot go back to protect him. If the bad guy wins, bad future. If the good guy wins, good future. This movie is like a pretzel made of liquid metal. On top of the tedious time travel, it also has that anti-technology subtext that every film in the mid-2010's had, which is just obnoxious at this point. I hated this and I wanted to turn it off at most of the slow points of exposition. I could talk at length about what I didn't like, but unlike T3 I really don't want to do that. I look forward to forgetting everything about this by the end of next week.Terminator: Dark Fate: In a franchise of 6 movie, having watched 5 so far and only really enjoying 2 of them I had no hope for this one... But I really liked it, guys. Is it as good as 1 & 2? No, but I don't think it really needed to be. Grace is a really cool character and I love that she can't be a superhero with no repercussions. Her needing meds in order to effectively do her job is a very cool trait that I definitely didn't expect. The first 20 minutes of this movie is so strong and enjoyable and I was having a real good time. It falls into the same "This is a Terminator movie" pitfalls all the other sequels after 2 do, but it does enough cool, fresh stuff to have kept me into it. Carl's plot is a little wonky(what happened to doesn't feel remorse, can't be reasoned with, yadda yadda yadda), I couldn't imagine Linda Hamilton doing half of the action without breaking a bone, and they doubled down on the 'judgment day can't be stopped' theme of 3 which I'm not a fan of. All of this included, I feel like this movie has the heart of the classic Terminator movies and hits all the same buttons those ones did. I liked the Rev-9, I liked Grace, and I liked the big booms. Solid 7/10, I don't see myself watching this an endless amount of times again, but I'll definitely do a triple feature of T1, 2, and DF at some point.​This was one of the most conflicting series of films I've watched. I went from immense love and respect to tedium and confusion then back to a good place of enjoyment. I could write a lot more about each of these but I doubt anyone is going to read this anyway. For those of you who did, though, how do you feel about each movie? I've missed out on a bunch of Terminator related conversations in my life so I need to catch up. via /r/movies https://ift.tt/3gI8KqN