2. The Terminator
The reboot of the Terminator franchise has gone through a lot and has been passed on from studio to studio in the short time since the abysmal Terminator Salvation was released in 2009. Salvation was initially intended to spawn a new trilogy, but since The Halcyon Company filed for bankruptcy, they announced that they were going to sell the franchise in a bid to rescue their fate. They were said to have been looking for $60-70 million, but - brilliantly - the only bid that they received was $10,000 from none other than Joss Whedon. If such a move proved successful then I would have been excited for any future installations. Saying that, it wouldn't have surprised me if Whedon simply sat on it so that nobody could harm the legendary franchise anymore. However, they unsurprisingly declined Whedon's modest offer and instead held an auction and managed to make almost $30 million from the franchise. Since then it has continued to change hands and at one point even threatened to be rebooted as an animated series. But finally, in February of 2011, Universal announced that they were considering asking Arnold Schwarzenegger to return to the titular role (who said he would only agree providing the script was good... as if that's ever mattered to him), and Justin Lin would be on hand to direct a fifth movie. Finally, at the beginning of this year, Arnie announced on his website that he would be returning to the role of the T-8000, but this wasn't confirmed by Universal. Poor Arnie getting ahead of himself now that all of the governmental power has gone to his head? Soon after, Justin Lin opted out to direct the 6th Fast and Furious movie instead, and then reports emerged that The Rock was instead being considered to be the star in the film over Arnie. Soon enough, Ain't It Cool News were reporting that Arnie might not return as the T-8000, and would instead play a human hero who had close connections to Connor family. God only knows how that would fit into the grand scheme of things. Then, almost 3 months ago, it was announced that Alan Taylor would be directing a new trilogy of movies, with the first simply being titled Terminator, and would in no way be connected to any of the previous films. And we still don't know how Arnie fits in. The moral of the long and tedious story is this: is it really worth it? No. The first two are classics, with Judgment Day still standing out as one of the greatest action movies ever made. And though Rise of the Machines may have its many faults, it is still amusing to watch. Salvation, which has very few redeeming qualities, should serve as a reminder of what's bound to happen with this one. If a story is really so difficult to get going again, surely that's enough to prove that, ultimately, it's not going to work. Call it a day, guys.