Comicbook.com recently ran an article which detailed a viral video in which a picture of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 from The Terminator (1984), is stuck to the back of a car – with the tail-lights fitting into the Gargoyles of the image, to glow red.
Just increased my car value by 1 billion percent pic.twitter.com/YBV4j2dYNn
— Rudy Willingham (@RudyWillingham) July 30, 2020
Though the video in itself is great, and an instantly trending moment on social media for fans of Arnold and Terminator – what I found really interesting was a sentence in the article near the end, which stated:
“Stay tuned for details on the future of the Terminator series.”
comicbook.com
Now, you could take that statement at face value, due to the fact that comicbook.com covers all things pop-culture related – but the disclosure featured at the bottom of the article gives that statement a whole new spin…
The disclosure reads:
“ComicBook is owned by CBS Interactive, a division of ViacomCBS.”
comicbook.com
This line adds legitimacy to the above statement and suggests that comicbook.com have an inside track on the Terminator franchise, let me explain…
For anyone who doesn’t know; ViacomCBS also owns Paramount Pictures, and Paramount own a share of the Terminator franchise – with that studio being heavily involved with both Terminator Genisys and Terminator: Dark Fate.
Why is that interesting? Well, as someone who has visited comicbook.com a good number of times over the years; I can tell you that this disclosure is a fairly recent addition to the website.
It appears that, as of April 2018, ViacomCBS took ownership of comicbook.com, something which, strangely, seemed to go under the radar.
“This morning I noticed that CBS Interactive has taken ownership of many Comic Book related domain names that were owned by ComicBook.com, LLC d/b/a Pop Culture Media. CBS Interactive also took ownership of PopCulture.com, which was owned by Pop Culture Media.”
dotweekly.com
Whether the takeover had been in the works for a long period of time or not, by the time that Paramount Pictures’ Terminator: Dark Fate was released – the change of hands had definitely been finalized.
Meaning? That by the time comicbook.com wrote their glowing review of Terminator: Dark Fate… that website was under ownership of Viacom, and, by extension, by Paramount Pictures.
So, comicbook.com was writing reviews for movies that its parent company also owned…
ViacomCBS also owns Metacritic (formerly owned by CNET – and funnily enough, CNET was also acquired by ViacomCBS) – Metacritic is a website which claims to be a review aggregator, though the reviews for Terminator: Dark Fate seemed (at least in the first few months) to tip the balance of opinion in favour of positive, with middling or neutral reviews being added to the positive ratio for outcome – regardless of the actual content of the review – good, bad or indifferent.
As Fans (and customers), can we really trust websites which clearly have vested interests?
With ViacomCBS (and therefore Paramount) owning comicbook.com and Metacritic – are the reviews ever really going to be honest and unbiased?
Does this make you see comicbook.com and Metacritic differently?
Leave a comment…
6 Comments
MAYBE NOT ALL IS LOST, IF THE SONS OF JOHN CONNOR, CATHERINE BREWSTEER, ARE ALIVE IN THE FUTURE. AND SARAH CONNOR IN THE PRESENT, MAYBE THERE IS A FANTASTIC BATTLE MORE TO BE REVEALED.
I’d love to believe that these ‘details’ will be Viacom and Paramount admitting that they made a mistake with ‘Dark Fate’ and will instead give fans what they really want: a movie that ignores everything after T2, takes place entirely in the future war with Edward Furlong, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Linda Hamilton (drive a dump truck full of money to her doorstep and I’m pretty sure she’ll reconsider coming back) reprising their roles, and that the movie will end with Skynet’s defeat, the three walking into the sunset, and conclude the series on a high note. Heck, it doesn’t even need to be live action; just make it a high-quality CGI film and release it to Netflix. But considering Hollywood’s track record, I’m not holding my breath.
Remake the first Terminator film, with CGI version of Biehn, Hamilton ,Schwarzengger KEEP the exact same TONE, that horror vibe and that realistic vibe.
or
Go low budget 50 million.
The last two Terminator films had some okay moments and some really bad moments.
A whole new team that has nothing to do with the preexisting team is required to bring this franchise back from the dead.
Here’s an idea. Dark Fate shouldn’t have been made. They should have brought ALL the original characters back for one final showdown with Skynet. Arnold, Linda, Edward, and even Michael Bien to reprise their roles. The idea is to show the future war as intended with John Connor winning the war and sending Kyle Reece back in time. But they need the OG cast and some incredible writers/directors. Terminator 2 was one of the greatest action movies of all time let alone sequels. They need to quit treating it like a cash grab and actually make a good movie that makes sense to the original two that were worth a damn.
I know a sure way to save franchise . Terminator 7 opens up identically to terminator dark fates mexico beech scene. Just at the point Arnie is about to blast john Conor. Kyle reese from an alternative future sent back runs arnie over with a large truck and says to Sarah and john come with me if you want to live .. it could be a full cgi movie where john connor in Edward furlongs likeness kyle reese in terminator 1 likeness and Sarah all on the run.. you could have multiple terminators in movie.
And some narco Mexico cartel shit .
The movie would be kick ass and surely save the franchise
The only chance a good Terminator come to live and last for many years is by rebooting the entire franchise!
The biggest problem with the story at this point is that it can’t evolve in no way past the defeat of Skynet! And that’s because the movie/story happens due to 2 major plot holes:
First: Skynet sends the terminator! Action that gives Sarah and John all the future knowledge of dangers and battles that will come carrying the entire story up until the defeat of Skynet, putting the story in an endless time loop!
Second: and most annoying plot hole is John’s father, Kyle Resse! John Connor cannot exist to defeat Skynet! He can be conceived only after Skynet is defeated and he sends a terminator to kill his mother Sarah! And who becomes his father? Kyle Resse, the soldier sent from the future to save his mother!
How can skynet have a John as a threat if he comes to existence only after Kyle travels back in time to protect Sarah to make sure she gives birth to John??? This is a huge impossible paradox!
They need to reboot, with no parents that come from the future, maybe more targets in the past, not only one saviour (that’s just bull crap), maybe a story where the humans find skynets time machine and they use it first, to send either soldiers (yes, more than one soldier), and if it’s after skynet send those soldiers on dates with several months (even years) prior to the ones sent by skynet! That way they have time to analyse and prepare a good fight!
That should be part one, let’s say something like T1 and T2, first targets should be parents (T1) and then kids (T2) and in T2 they show glimpses of humans preparing some kind of task force (by governments and spying agencies)! It’s ridiculous how in most of the terminators there is panic and destruction, but no eye witness, no video recording, no faith in any survivors that try to tell a story… at the end of T2 we see all major generals that are a threat to Skynet being recruited by the said task force, they put their informations together and they cook a plan to stop the war that will come in T3, and in T4 maybe we can se a full counter by the humans in creating an AI with the main objectives to protect life, AI vs. AI+Humans……