EveryTerminatorfan has an idea or two about how they might repair the long-suffering franchise. Maybe it needs to go back to its horror roots. Maybe a new timeline would sort out all the old confusion. Maybe they should give up on movies and giveThe Sarah Connor Chroniclesa third season. None of these strategies quite fit the latest entry in the franchise,Terminator Zero. Instead, Netflix’s anime adaptation distances the franchise from almost every element that has become so old over the last 30 years.
Hollywood’slatest fascination is legacy sequels. A few years ago, they simply remade any project they believed they could still milk cash out of. Today, they reunite the surviving cast members and assemble a follow-up after several decades. This carries the dual benefit of providing a new story and using the aging performers to sell tickets. This gimmick has been stunningly profitable over the last few years, but some franchises are finding new ways to keep things interesting.
Why has theTerminatorfranchise been struggling?
With the notable exceptionofThe Sarah Connor Chronicles, everyTerminatorproject sinceT2has suffered several fatal issues.Terminator 3, Salvation, Genisys, andDark Fateall have their moments, but they consistently spin their wheels with a misunderstanding of what made the franchise work. The sad truth is that every project wants to recapture the glory ofTerminatorandT2through very straightforward means. The two most recent entries are the main offenders.Terminator 3andSalvationhad a few new ideas, butGenisysandDark Fateconsistently sacrifice their ideas to lean heavily on concepts, characters, and even scenes from the first two films.
This is very common among legacy sequels, butTerminatoris one of the worst offenders. The usage of time travel and the negative reactions toTerminator 3created a risk-aversestudio and the means to keep the old material prominent for as long as necessary. Ultimately, the only way forward is to try new things.Dark Fatedid a bit of that, but even that recent outing consistently coddles the audience with promises of familiarity. Bringing back Linda Hamilton was a fun idea in theory, but it fits neatly into a pile of similar callback decisions in practice. Novelty now comes at apremium for theTerminatorfranchise. Thankfully, the long-awaitedTerminatoranime series on Netflix finally delivered on that potential promise.
Streaming On
Netflix
Terminator Zerois not perfect. It’s a fun, fast-paced, clever anime series that plays with the central themes of theTerminatorfranchise in new and interesting ways. The show is a beneficiary of lowered expectations. Fans can say what they will aboutZero; at least they won’t leave it with the same weirdly hollow feeling that captured their experience withGenisysorDark Fate. It is, for all its faults, a compelling new horizon for a franchise that’s felt stuck in the past since the Bush administration. The show follows a scientist with prophetic nightmares as he tries to preempt the nightmarish Judgment Day he sees every night. A killer robot and a determined soldier arrive from the distant future and converge on his location. As always, innocent people struggle against the sudden influx of problems that should be decades away. Skynet tries to change the past while humans attempt to fix the future. It innovates by playing a new song with a familiar melody. This is what a sequel, spin-off, or newentry in a long-established franchiseshould feel like.
How canTerminatorlearn fromTerminator Zero?
Terminator Zerohas things to say about the ideas that the originalTerminatorfilms introduced. It’s a new spin on old material, but that injection of novelty was the key element it needed to succeed. The obvious step forward would be to keep taking fresh shots at the material. Let new and interesting creators experiment with the IP to find the things people like about them and continue innovating.Terminator Zeromoves so faraway from the original text that it picks up a new medium. That might be a great way to keep things interesting, but there are plenty of new horizons that theTerminatorfranchise can find and explore.
One of the big problems is that every live-actionTerminatorcosts a comical amount of money to make. This forces the studio to make the safest possible choices to ensure a return on investment.Making an anime is no easy task, but it allows the franchise to play with new concepts and deliver a new product. Ultimately, everyone knows that the only way to keep a franchise going beyond its glory days is to keep making good art. People will tolerate any number after a movie title if the resulting film is good.Terminatorcan live long enough to blow past its dark future again and again if they just keep bringing in interesting creators and making projects likeTerminator Zero.
