It felt more like a Transformers movie than a Terminator movie.

@DRDMovieMusings said:

http://www.chud.com/19577/exclusive-what-went-wrong-with-terminator-salvation/

I didn't write this insightful analysis, but I certainly enjoyed reading it. Thoughts?

Interesting read. Looks to me like the film was dead on the runway. The original script concepts were pretty terrible, and there just wasn't much of a story to tell. By focusing on the future of the Terminator mythology, you're basically stuck telling a Human Experience/Character-driven Drama type film, but instead of going in that obvious direction, the script writers decided to try to go for a left hook plot twist, instead. The mythology just doesn't have room for something like that. We know how the future of that world is, and folks wanted to see it. Nobody had been clamoring for some trite film about how Skynet was trying to save humanity, or some cyborg devoid of personality. There was an opportunity to show who Kyle Reese was, what his relationship to John Connor may have been like, what those poor folks in the future may have had to endure, etc. etc. etc. and instead we get board-plank Worthington and Christian Bale.

Another interesting direction they could have gone, would've been to explore the alternate ending of T2. If they had postponed Judgment Day long enough for John to get married, have a daughter, become a U.S. senator, and for Sarah to grow old as a grandmother, then Skynet coming around again for a much-belated Judgment Day would pose the perfect opportunity for writers to pass the baton from John Connor over to a new protagonist, as he'd be too old to fight a war at that point. Classic Hollywood setup for the old, worn-out hero to pass the hat on to the next generation. Setting the movie in the future also allows for some creative leeway with continuity.

Moot point, though. T: Dark Fate is going to tank, and the franchise will eventually just die.

The moment a decision is made to make a film primarily for money by tapping into nostalgia, everything has gone wrong.