5. Linda Hamilton And Edward Furlong Returned For Terminator 3
I'm somewhat conflicted about this next one. One one hand, I think the Terminator saga should have ended with the thoroughly awesome Terminator 2: Judgement Day. On the other hand, had they done it right, a follow up could have been great. Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines is entertaining enough. Claire Danes and Nick Stahl gave it their all as Kate Brewster and John Connor and the ending was unexpectedly good. (Was anyone actually expecting it to end with Judgement Day itself?) At the same time it was no where in the same league as the first two films and served to undo the heroic ending of the second film. There were a few reasons why. Arnold Schwarzenegger was looking old as the Terminator and became a pale imitation of the T2 version. Kristanna Loken was perfectly serviceable as the T-X, but was ultimately a weaker version of Robert Patrick's excellent icy soldier, the T-1000. And most importantly, it didn't have Sarah Connor. Linda Hamilton's presence was sorely missed in the third film. Her death prior to the film was poor rather than tragic (Leukemia) and the film couldn't create a central character as iconic as her. While Kate and John were fine, they didn't deliver anything truly special, such as Sarah's escape from the facility in T2. They were...much more standard action heroes.The story drove them, whereas Sarah Connor drove the story. It would have been interested to see Edward Furlong reprising his role too (one of the reasons where both this and Terminator Salvation feel so disjointed from the franchise is the constant recasting of the character) though knowing the actor's personal troubles, it is understandable why they felt the need to recast. I think seeing Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor watching a nightmare future she thought she had saved unravel before her eyes would have been far more interesting. Perhaps dying in the nuclear holocaust? Or even more tragically watching the destruction unfold from within the bunker alongside Kate and John and then blowing her brains out, knowing that all her efforts had failed. That would have been the way for her character to go. But no, instead of that, we got this? (Please feel free to comment below but I think this image speaks for itself)
