You know things are bad when the cast and crew of a failed blockbuster don’t just trash the movie after release, but they actively admit they’re glad it didn’t end up getting sequels. To be fair, that was about the legacy Terminator Genisys deserved.
Picking up right where Salvation left off by announcing itself as the first installment in a brand new trilogy right out of the gate, the fifth entry in the overdone sci-fi saga achieved exactly the same as its predecessor, by which we mean nothing. That being said, after being saved from box office disaster by a strong performance in China, a follow-up did at least get a release date before being abandoned.
Fortunately for Emilia Clarke, though, it didn’t happen. The replacement Sarah Connor revealed in the aftermath that she wished she’d never signed on in the first place, sentiments that were also echoed by co-star Jai Courtney, while director Alan Taylor said the experience had caused him to lose the will to live. If that isn’t a recommendation, then we don’t know what is.
The trio did ultimately get their wish and find themselves jettisoned in short order, only for Dark Fate to do the exact same thing all over again, except on an even grander scale. Maybe one day Terminator will rise from the ashes and find relevance again, but it’s best hot to cross any fingers or hold your breath.
Surprisingly, Genisys has conspired to escape from irrelevance and become one of the most-watched films on iTunes this week, hinting that the property is always going to have an audience somewhere, even if the majority would surely agree we’ve already had enough failed reinventions to last a lifetime.