Ranking The Terminator Franchise From Worst To Best

This summer, Terminator 2: Judgement Day is seeing a re-release across the globe in up-converted 3D. Widely regarded as the best instalment in the franchise, T2 was also the most financially successful and the only instalment of the series to gross over $500 million.

The inspiration for this re-release appears to be the 3D re-release of Titanic in 2012, which grossed an additional $343 million pulling it over the $2 billion mark. Titanic was not initially released in China and made a killing in the territory in 2012, so James Cameron who helms this effort as well, hopes to do the same in the People's Republic.

The success of the T2 re-release may also be a trial balloon to see if there is still a strong international marketplace for another Terminator film. Skydance Media, with James Cameron and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s involvement, are developing a new Terminator movie with Deadpool director Tim Miller looking to direct.

Due to the critical failure and middling financial success of Terminator Genisys (it was supposed to launch a new trilogy), Skydance is looking in other directions. Specifically, CEO David Ellison has gone on record in the last couple months about T6: “I think where it’s going will be the continuation of what the fans really wanted since T2.”

Whatever happens, one thing is clear - the better instalments of the franchise should be used as inspiration for T6 and whatever the franchise has in store for its future.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is the worst instalment of this franchise. A carbon-copy remake of T2, Terminator 3 is nothing more than a TV movie with a $200 million dollar budget and twist ending.

T3’s story is a basic copy cat of T2’s story, as John Connor, his soon-to-be wife and Arnie try to prevent judgment day once again in 2004. But in this case, they fail. The earth is nuked as the Skynet is activated and the film ends as John accepts his fate as the leader of humankind.

The film offers nothing largely original and suffers from a series of lame gags such as the T-800 arriving in a strip club to get clothes, and lame jokes like “Talk to the hand.”

Well, okay, there’s a little more than that.

Nick Stahl does a good job portraying a young John Connor dealing with his destiny and trying to escape from that destiny. Additionally, the action, effects, and stunt work are very well executed and plotted, but they all suffer from lazy cinematography and shot selection. There are none of the awe-inspiring shots from Terminator and Terminator 2, aside from some flashes of the Future War.

Overall, this film feels like a cynical attempt to cash in on the paycheck and round out the series in a safe way to not ruin anything.