What’s Happening with Terminator 5?

We’ve all be watching the trickle of information which is Terminator 5; as Annapurna Pictures and Skydance Productions give us a clue or two as to the progress of the next installment in the Terminator franchise, we’ve all been scratching our heads/beards/groins in confused but baited breath, awaiting the latest news and details to emerge. So far… Justin Lin has offered to direct, Arnold Schwarzenegger WILL be starring in it and as a Terminator, Patrick Lussier (possible Director for T5) and Laeta Kalogridis WILL be writing it and Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson is a possibility for playing a Terminator… oh, and it might be set in the 40s/50s… oh yeah, the story might be about Nana and Grandpa Connor… Do you know how this makes me feel? I feel like I just swallowed a fucking giant hot-boiled potato… whole.

I’m hoping that some of the information is prestidigitation, a shiny distraction whilst the real shit goes on but my fears double by the day, my stomach agitated when I let myself think of what T5 will become; a CGI-fest of explosions, bad dialogue, bad green screen, shitty acting and everyone focused on the leg-up. Heed this people: TERMINATOR 5 AIN’T NO LEG-UP.

My mood has greatly downturned since watching “Drive Angry” yesterday, a film by Terminator 5 writer Patrick Lussier. Here’s an abridged version of my review:

“Drive Angry” is a badly-written, badly acted and badly directed movie with cartoony 3D moments interspersed with pointless nudity and endlessly droning dialogue made for the disposable dollar… so it’s better if you’re really drunk.”

I’m seriously questioning the decisions being made at head-office- the résumés of both Lussier and Kalogridis are a little on the anaemic side and what they have actually done doesn’t exactly inspire hope or allay fears. At all. Lussier has directed around half of the movies he’s  so far made… oh god no… they’ll put him in the big chair and I’ll fucking implode.

Justin Lin… I Google this man often in the hopes of having missed some important information which could add depth to his directing… I find NOTHING. EVERYTIME. And, no. No-one should be counting F&F or that other F&F.

I’m not going into a tangent about the Rock possibly being a Terminator in T5, I can’t, I haven’t dealt with my feelings yet. I still feel rage…

1940s/50s Connors? What- greasers and flick-knives? I’m confused, so is Arnold going to become The Terminator Fonz? The 40s/50s setting seems like an excuse to me; an excuse to bring in a new cast all bar Arnold. Taking advantage of the possible multiple timelines created by James Cameron and others when they created loopholes through which to write another Terminator movie.
Rip rip rip- there goes the continuity and all we wanted was the perfect arc. Shit.

I first saw The Terminator (1984) at the age of seven,- it had credibility, it had style, it had edge. Over the years it’s lost those things which made it great and been turned into a sad parody put out every few years for quick cash. Thrust out into the world filled with a complacency and self-satisfaction which it rarely nowadays warrants. Do we keep hoping?

Is the horse dead; should we keep flogging it?