2. Focus on the Love
This is an argument many geeks have had and have been having for many years: Which is better, Terminator 1 or Terminator 2? I generally, and not purposely side with the least popular answer. I prefer Terminator 1 to Terminator 2, I prefer Aliens to Alien, and I prefer A New Hope to Empire Strikes Back. The reason I think Terminator 1 is just about the better film is because of the romantic element between Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese. In a sense this romance made it feel like there was a lot more at stake between the two. That said, though it wasn't romance, there was a lot of love in Terminator 2 between Sarah Connor and John, which also played a huge part in making that film considered one of the greatest films of all time. There was some love in Terminator 3, but it didn't really delve into that much passion like it did in the first movie, and in Terminator: Salvation there was barely any interesting romantic element to speak of, though the film tried to staple on several romance stories we were supposed to be interested in. Like Terminator 1, have most of the story (like said previously) focused on two young humans in a very human setting (the 60's). To up the stakes somewhat, it would be better if the two couples who would be Sarah Connor's parents weren't yet in love, and like in previous films, the fact that they both have to come together in order to save themselves and the future forces them to fall in love and in turn, though I wouldn't show it in the film like the first one does... have them make Sarah Connor. This could be seen as somewhat obvious, though I have the solution to this at number 1. Likewise, having John Conner in the future struggling to find a working time machine in able to go back in time to save his mothers parents from being killed would be shown to be all out of love for his mother. This way, both storylines would have a huge love element focus, and this was really the main thing lacking in the last two movies that didn't make them even close to as good as the first.