Back in the tail-end of May of this year, I
looked at the latest instalment of the sand-encrusted cult series Mad Max with
Fury Road, a surprisingly amazing offering. Then, a little while ago, we had
Jurassic World, a mildly entertaining but ultimately pointless addition to the
already flagging franchise. Today, we conclude this look into how Hollywood
today deals with reviving older sci-fi series with a reboot of the Terminator
series. Terminator undoubtedly has the strongest footing of the three series
for a follow-up, regardless of how my opinion of Mad Max differs from the norm:
The first film is a seminal classic of neo-noir and sci-fi in general, and
Judgment Day is the epitome of the ‘perfect sequel’, along with being one of
the greatest films in any genre
without question. Then came Rise Of The Machines which, through a baffling
mixture of self-parody, re-hashing of the second film and just plain disrespect
for the series mythos as a whole, heavily contrasted what came before it by
being one of the worst sequels ever,
not to mention a pretty atrocious film in its own right. Salvation had its fair
share of issues, but it was nevertheless a fun watch. Yeah, lots of baggage
behind this one even without getting into its core theme of bending the
space-time continuum over every table. So, how does this work as a means to
reboot the series?
