Terminator 5: 10 Ways To Make The New Trilogy Work

5. Bring Back The Dark Humour

Terminator 2 The first two Terminator films were filled to the brim with dark humour ("He'll live..."), but the writers of the latter two seemed to lose the plot as far as tone was concerned. Terminator 3 was too silly - who can forget the Elton John glasses and "Talk to duh hand"? - yet Terminator Salvation went entirely the other way and was almost completely straight-faced, making it something of a depressing, self-serious dirge to sit through. Terminator isn't Terminator without some gallows humour, and that's what needs to return; Terminator 3 had a few good zingers ("Your levity is good. It relieves tension...and fear of death"), and if the goofiness were just toned down, then that sort of approach would have been a fine one to take. Even with its mass destruction and mayhem, these films need to remember never to get too serious, nor too funny either, mind.
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Contributor

Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.