Special to L. Neil Smith’s The Libertarian Enterprise

Recently, Hollywood released another Terminator reboot, this time with a cast that features mostly females in the main roles, while the men are either relegated to villainous characters or as in the case of Arnold Schwarzenegger to secondary roles. This is a prime example of how Hollywood seems to have a hard time learning from its mistakes. One of them being the idea of trying to use this mostly female cast to push a feminist agenda, which failed miserably with both the Ghostbusters and Ocean’s Eleven franchises. Then there is the very fact that Hollywood can’t seem let go of a franchise, even after it had been declared dead on two different occasions.

I want to point out that I have been a Terminator fan since I was ten, before any of the kids in my age group knew what it was. The first movie at that point was already six years-old, so most of the kids I knew, even the ones who were allowed to watch ultra-violent movies like me, hadn’t even heard of it. It wasn’t until Terminator 2: Judgment Day came out that everybody knew the awesomeness of one of Arnold’s most iconic characters. Like Ghostbusters I had many fond memories of playing with the action figures and reading the Terminator comic books created by Dark Horse. There was even a Halloween where I dressed up like the battle-damaged Terminator from the end of the second movie, which actually scared my cousin during his first stint at Trick or Treating. I can honestly say that the first two Terminators with the mixture of cutting-edge effects, the awesomeness of Arnold Schwarzenegger and the thought-provoking storytelling of James Cameron, still hold up to this day. Unfortunately, Cameron never intended to have the Terminator saga become a long-lasting franchise that would have endless sequels attached to it. He even filmed an alternate ending to the second movie where Sarah Conner is living in a future where she is a grandma and her son, John is pursuing a career as a congressman.

Twelve years after the second movie, we got Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, though not a bad movie by any stretch of the imagination, it was still far inferior to the first two. Sure, it was entertaining when it came to action and special effects, but the plot was nothing more than a rehash of the first two movies. It was also heavily carried by Schwarzenegger, who was still fun to watch, but he still couldn’t distract from the fact that James Cameron’s brilliant storytelling was missing from this movie. I also wasn’t particularly fond of the way it contradicted the message of the second movie about how there is no fate, but what we make of it for ourselves.

I actually thought the fourth installment, Terminator: Salvation was a much better sequel than its Rise of the Machines predecessor. The very fact that the plot was far different from the previous movies, made it more intriguing and engaging for me than the typical plot about machines traveling through time to either bring about the salvation or the destruction to the human race. I also thought the whole concept of being able to turn a man into a machine without being able to take away his humanity was so thought-provoking that it was actually on par with James Cameron’s writing. Unfortunately, due to either the absence of Schwarzenegger or to the leaked tape of Christian Bale cursing a member of the lighting crew for botching a take, the movie just didn’t resonate with movie goers.

Then of course there was Terminator: Genisys, the first official reboot of the franchise. I will admit that while I was one of the few people who enjoyed the movie, most of the movie goers didn’t quite feel the same way. Some say it was due to the new twist that was added to the saga, which many believed made the story more convoluted.

It pains me to say this, but as much as I love the Terminator saga, I think it’s time to let it go. I am reminded of something Joss Whedon once said about his futile efforts to save Firefly. “I have tried to resurrect Firefly so many times that it now feels like Necrophilia.” As blunt and disgusting as this sentiment is, it actually describes the current situation with the Terminator franchise. On top of that the whole idea of an all-female trio for the main cast makes even less sense for a Terminator movie than it did for Ghostbusters. It’s not to say that Sarah Conner isn’t a beloved character in the franchise. Afterall she was given a short-lived tv series, Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles. The problem is that the real star of the franchise is the Terminator, not Sarah Conner. Also, considering that it is her son, John Conner that becomes humanity’s savior, the idea of cutting him out of the story and replacing him with a female character, should come off as absurd to just about any self-respecting Terminator fan.

Sadly, not knowing when to give up on a dead franchise isn’t the only mistake that Hollywood keeps making over and over again. One of the biggest mistakes that Sony made with their all-female reboot of Ghostbusters is the way they handled criticism from the fans. Instead of addressing the criticism and reassuring the fans that the movie would be everything that they hoped it would be, those involved in the project decided to accuse the fans of misogyny. That is exactly what the director of the latest Terminator movie, Tim Miller did when he was interviewed for an article in Variety. He said that he didn’t care about facing backlash from misogynistic fans. Apparently, he learned nothing from the backlash that Sony received when they took it upon themselves to attack their fans. The very fact that the Ghostbusters reboot turned out to be a flop, is a testament to how attacking your fanbase is a no-win strategy. Yet, people like Miller insist on doing it, despite the overwhelming evidence that it is actually detrimental to their bottom line. Once again that point was driven home when Terminator: Dark Fate, unsurprisingly became the biggest dud in the franchise’s history. I don’t know if it is because the people in Hollywood have a severe learning disability or if it is because they are more interested in advancing an agenda than they are in making money. If it’s the latter, you have to wonder where they are getting the money to throw away on these obviously unprofitable ventures.