Yes, the Terminator has officially died

I don't want to sound arrogant here, but given my history as chronicler of the collective works of Schwarzenegger, I consider myself to be something of an expert on the Terminator series. Perhaps only a Zulu Expert, depending on who else is around. Yet my extensive reviews of The Terminator, Terminator 2, and the back-and-forth I had with Brad on Terminator 4: Salvation give me at least some street cred here.

After viewing the truly offensive Terminator 4, helmed by McG, I declared the franchise dead. That there was no way to rescue it. Once John Connor can face hand-to-hand combat with several terminators and survive with only (considerably ugly) scratches, the entire point of the franchise is out the window. Yet this was allowed to happen.

At this point, one of the franchise's original writers, William Wisher, is working on chapters 5 and 6 with the hope of rescuing the storyline. I contend that the only way this can work is to pretend #4 never happened (the same thing I've been trying to do ever since I walked out of the theater). Best of luck, William, but I'm not holding out much hope for ya.

James Cameron is surely arrogant, but at the same time a man polite to his peers, even those glaringly beneath him on the pecking order (to make no mention of the "talent order"). In the below video, he claims that the Terminator "soup's been pissed in," by various other people. I take this as validation of my stance.

I am still heartbroken by what unfolded in Terminator 4. I suppose that's better than actually broke, like the Halcyon Company currently is. But hey, you piss your bed, you have to lie in it. Or something like that.

Here's Cameron tacitly agreeing with me:

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(HT - Mati)