Terminator

Terminator Zero – Model 104

  • Title: Terminator Zero – Model 104
  • IMDb: link

Terminator Zero - Model 104

“Model 104” offers a brutal culling of the police station by our Terminator who wipes out a bunch of cops too stupid to live in a sequence which is obviously a callback to the first Terminator film. The sequence is also notable for Misaki (Sumalee Montano) stepping up to provide some cover for the boys’ escape and getting her arm (her robotic arm) torn off in the process revealing that the Lee’s housekeeper isn’t human (which comes to a surprise to everyone, even Misaki). 

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Terminator Zero – Model 103

  • Title: Terminator Zero – Model 103
  • IMDb: link

Terminator Zero - Model 103

In the closed catacombs the Terminator finally catches up with the kids. Luckily for them,  Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno) arrives soon after to buy them time to escape. Those segments in the closed down underground shop are pretty boilerplate Terminator while the thread of Malcolm Lee (André Holland) continuing to discuss humanity to his AI which he hopes will save humanity, but in Eiko’s timeline fails to do so, continues to feel like filler as nothing can advance in that subplot without either Ekio reaching Malcolm or Malcolm turning his AI loose.

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Terminator Zero – Model 102

  • Title: Terminator Zero – Model 102
  • IMDb: link

Terminator Zero - Model 102

While suggesting creating an unsympathetic artificial intelligence to stop the rise of a separate unsympathetic artificial intelligence may have not been the smartest move to save the human race, “Model 102” gets Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno) back to 1997 to track down Malcolm Lee (André Holland) and prevent him from helping create the hellscape of her reality in 2022. The twist in the early part of the series is the scientist’s big dreams of stopping Skynet with his own AI apparently only help bring about the disastrous future of the Terminators.

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Terminator Zero – Model 101

  • Title: Terminator Zero – Model 101
  • IMDb: link

Terminator Zero - Model 101

Despite showrunner Mattson Tomlin‘s assurance that the new Netflix anime set within the Terminator universe treats all the films as canon (a troubling proposition in its own right as the films don’t really fit together), the opening episode of Terminator Zero feels distinctly separate and different from what has come before. Jumping between 1997 and a cliched workaholic father’s science experiments and 2022 where the machines are hunting down the last of humanity, the most the show feels like the original Terminator is in a brave young woman (Toa Yukinari) running from, fighting, and escaping a Terminator after her. Although it appears both she and a Terminator will join the 1997 time fairly soon, in the opening episode it’s definitely the weaker of the two stories.

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Terminator: Genisys

  • Title: Terminator: Genisys
  • IMDb: link

Terminator: GenisysHe told you he’d be back. Given the crippling disappointment of Terminator Salvation, which if not for the existence of A Good Day to Die Hard would unquestionably be the worst action sequel ever made, it’s inconceivable that somebody thought making another Terminator movie was a good idea. No less shocking is the fact that Terminator: Genisys, despite several plot points and awful title, is actually fun.

Recognizing after four films and a TV-series how screwed-up the Terminator timeline has become screenwriters Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier deliver not so much a sequel as a reboot that jumbles the events of the first two Terminator films, heavily condensing them to occurring simultaneously in 1984 while introducing a face to SkyNet and new villain to hunt down Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) in 2017.

One of the (many) flaws of Terminator: Salvation was its headstrong determination for John Connor to run from who the previous films had molded the character into. Here John (Jason Clarke) is the once again the prophet general of the human resistance that defeats the machines in the opening scene but not before time travel can be introduced into the equation.

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