Terminator 6 First Photo Reaction & Thoughts

There was a loud reaction by Terminator fans all around the internet at the first image of the next installment of the franchise.

It was a very loud one. Not necessarily a positive one, but it’s been awfully loud. Quite deafeningly negative.

Let’s put that aside and catch up to what is going on. We all know The Terminator movies. Well, most people know and love the first two by director James Cameron. After he bowed out of the series with Terminator 2 in 1991 the saga has spiraled out of control with no real direction ever since.

Subsequent sequels and even a television show have tried to keep the Terminator franchise chugging along. With the last movie Terminator: Genisys being overwhelmingly received as a complete bust on all fronts, it looked like we wouldn’t be seeing anymore Terminators for a long time.

Oh how wrong we were! Hollywood just can’t leave things alone and move onto something new. They are prepared to once again go back to that same Terminator well that the majority of fans have pissed and spit in after that 2015 Genisys debacle.

I guess they still think there’s money to made from more Terminator movies, despite the fact that general audiences have gotten used to ignoring them. Even A LOT of longtime fans haven’t been excited for a new installment in almost thirty years! For some reason they seem to be determined to jump start a new trilogy of Terminator movies. They’ve tried for the last two films to do that! Maybe the third one was meant to be the start of a trilogy too, I’m not sure. I had already checked out of the series at that point.

For now, we’re calling this one ‘Terminator 6’. I’m sure they’ll come up with some snazzy little subtitle for it and drop the number completely. It will probably be something like ‘Terminator: Resurgence’, ‘Terminator: Evolution’, ‘Terminator: Extinction’, ‘Terminator: Retribution’, ‘Terminator: The Awakening’ ‘Terminator: Annihilation’. Nowadays they seem to use the same kind of dramatic three or four syllable subtitles for sci-fi movies that sound interchangeable and have little significance to the story.

Or they could possibly take that simplified route, not get fancy and just call it ‘Terminator’ to give it more of a classic feeling. (Hello Halloween!) Anyone have predictions of what they’ll call this one?

It’s a True Follow-up to Number 2

So, the hook this time to lure Terminator fans (who should really be jaded at this point) back is the return of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Conner. This will be the first time she’s played the character since 1991. We all liked her in 1984 and 1991, so we should like her again in 2019 when this flick comes out. Are you excited fans? Wait there’s more!

Director James Cameron is also back. Whoa, hold your horses! He won’t be directing, but he will be producing this one. Somehow he’s managed to take time away from working on his thirty Avatar sequels to help out with this one.

The directing duties will fall on Deadpool’s Tim Miller, but Cameron’s presence is assured with him contributing to the story and doing the producing thing.

Oh, and all that stuff about how he said he loved Genisys and he considered it the true third Terminator film back in 2015, we’re supposed to ignore that. Just like we’re supposed to ignore all the movies since Terminator 2. You see, this new Terminator movie is meant to pick up the story after the second movie in the series, the last Terminator movie we all really liked. So, this is going to be a ‘true Terminator 3’! We’re doing that ‘Do-Over’ thing that Hollywood has recently grabbed onto for botched film series’.

You know a franchise film series has really gone off the rails when they have to tell audiences to ignore a bunch of its sequels for the latest one. They wanted us to pay to see these sequels at the time and promoted the hell out of them, but they screwed the story up so badly and they weren’t as successful as they wanted, so that now we’re just forgetting them altogether and doing a ‘Sequel Reboot’ kind of thing to the last installment that everyone loved. Howdy Halloween!

Unfortunately, for the poor saps who paid money to see these now ‘ignored entries’ they will not be reimbursed for a ticket to see this now officially ‘true sequel’. Hollywood will be keeping your money you spent on those movies, but they’re still asking you to forget you ever saw them.

Is your mouth salivating yet? Well, we also have Arnold Schwarzenegger back! That’s right – He’s back!

Although, no Terminator fan should be too surprised at that since he’s shown up in every one of these Terminator movies, other than Salvation. Actually he did show up in that one. They used his younger face, but wasn’t billed I don’t think.

He’s always willing to do these flicks unless he’s too busy governing or doing his version of The Apprentice. Anyway, good old Arnie is returning too. And I’m sure he’ll bring his promoting skills to assure audiences this is a movie they’ll love, like he does for everyone movie he’s in. He’s had decades of experience promoting movies and he’s really good at it!

This sounds like a real big deal in Terminator history! It’s sounding like the series is about to get a real jolt of nostalgic encouragement huh?

The First Photo Is Released

Which brings us to that first image of the movie that has been released and the cold reception it’s gotten. Yep, it looks quite bad. Forget all the ire of fans complaining it being only women featured on it or that it’s looking like another Ghostbusters/Ocean’s 8 Girl Power message move, the photo itself is extremely cheesy. It looks like a poor photoshop project from some kid. Nothing screams excitement or gets me geared up to see this flick.

In fact, it just reinforces my apprehension for a Terminator 6. A photo that was meant to ignite interest, only reminds me of how far this series has fallen since its glory days. This looks like yet another tired, lazy attempt to keep it going.

The fact they’re even declaring this to be the start of a new planned trilogy also has me rolling my eyes. They’ve tried this ‘new trilogy’ idea before and each time its failed. The only thing we’ve been left with are Terminator movies that have been a waste of time to watch and premises that were abandoned.

Maybe they should hold off with the big declaration of this being a start of ‘a new trilogy’ and just worry about making ONE halfway decent movie first!

Whoever approved this photo should be escorted out of the offices. They could have done something much more inspiring. Have Hamilton dramatically holding a Terminator head! Give it some moody blueish lightning to harken back to the original two films.That would have been simple and much more intriguing.

Instead we get this strange picture that looks like a publicity photo for some lame action series from out of the nether regions you’ve never heard of and would never watch.

Is anyone getting flashbacks to those first promotional images they released for Terminator: Genisys yet? That series of photos alone clued us in on what to expect from that flick and really signaled its doom. Then with a very lousy trailer that followed, it was no wonder that movie tanked and no one was interested in it.

This newest photo is making it look like a ‘true sequel’ to Genisys!

Is There Any Hope Left For More Terminators???

Terminator 6 was going to have an uphill battle as it was. From my perspective, this series has squandered any goodwill it had left with the last recent outings we had to endure. I think the series is so incredibly broken that there’s very little they can do to fix it. The general audience was already sighing, “who cares about more Terminator movies anymore?”. I don’t think the inclusion of Cameron and Hamilton will bring most of the audience back.

Then we have this latest ‘reboot/true sequel’ thing following only four years after the disaster of Terminator: Genisys. That’s not going to help. Theaters are still airing out the stink from that movie. It’s not like it’s been ten or fifteen years with no Terminator movies around. We haven’t even got a chance to forget about Genisys and begin hoping for a Terminator rebirth before they’re trying to pull the trigger on it again.

Add in the fact they released such an awful looking first photo to tease us with this next installment – I think we might be seeing a repeat of what happened with Genisys. Again, the first image just may have doomed this movie already! We could very well see a another Terminator fiasco unfolding before our disinterested eyes.

Now a lot is riding on that first trailer! If it goes over as poorly as the Genisys one than I think we’re looking at another ignored bomb and maybe….just maybe….killing off The Terminator series for good. Or at least until they just reboot the whole thing in ten or fifteen years. They’d probably get the Rock to play the new Terminator.

Sure, we’ve only seen this one photo and you might be thinking, ‘how can you judge a movie by just one photo’. But the thing is, it’s not just one photo, it’s the whole history of what these subpar Terminator sequels have given us. I’m not sure why we should expect anything different this time.

Oh, you got Hamilton and Cameron back. That’s not going to be enough to build optimism for a lot of people. Especially when already this is looking like the same results as what happened with Genisys.

Boy, they better cook up a killer trailer! Folks will now really be watching it with even more narrower eyes than before!

There should be a general rule of thumb for these franchises – when the bad flicks start to outnumber the good ones maybe it’s time to pack it away.

Honestly, I’m more interested in watching the reaction that Terminator 6 gets rather than seeing the movie or what they’re going to come up with for a story. How are they going to market it, how will that first trailer be received, how will the cast handle interviews and explain why they’re ignoring those other sequels and then finally what that opening weekend results will be? That all seems like it will be more entertaining than more time jumping and shooting at robots.

I could be completely wrong on this, and it would be nice to see another entertaining Terminator movie, but as of now I have little faith to zero in Terminator 6.

Lest you forgot, are feeling charitable and are one are willing to give Terminator 6 a chance, let’s just watch that Terminator: Genisys trailer again and remind ourselves what happened not too long ago. We were given a lot of promises about that film too.