The people who are irate about John getting killed in the movie...I don't know what to tell ya cause I thought it was the most meaningful thing they could have done with the character at this point. When you look at John Connor as a whole, I do not know what else they could have done with him. We had three movies prior to this where they barely did anything with John: a reluctant leader haunted by a future that almost did not happen/Grim-dark foot solider forming his resistance against Skynet/Leader of the human resistance in the first 20 minutes only to then become the villain.
Despite John's death, his presence weighs heavily over the entire movie and influences a lot. His death is the sole reason why the T-800 is able to obtain freedom from its programming, is able to form consciousness and guilt for it's actions. He learns about life and the human experience. Carl comes to understand the ramifications that it's actions had on Sarah; Carl took away her only reason to live which was for John. Carl gives Sarah something to fight for
because of the impact John's death had on Carl. Because of John's death, Carl sends the coordinates of new Terminator arrivals, giving Sarah purpose. John's death is literally what prevents the Rev-9 from being successful. If it wasn't for his death, Carl would not become humanized, would not send Sarah on her crusade, would not lead to saving Grace/Dani.
Sarah's life is a miserable tragedy. She is the reason why judgement day was prevented and what does she get for doing so? She's on the run from the entirety of the US. She has no family, no one to confide in, no one will believe her. When she tells Grace/Dani about her accomplishments, there is no recognition for it, because the universe finds a way to right its self. There will always be a critical point in history where the height of human hubris costs them the world. Her face in that moment hurt me so much, but that didn't kill me like the Cabin scene did.
What broke me was was the conversation Sarah has with Dani after Sarah is denied her revenge. She laments that she never have a proper mother/son relationship with John because they were always on the run, because she was always so hard on him, training him to be a military leader.
She doesn't have a photo of him and she's forgetting his face. This is a person who's life was thoroughly destroyed by circumstances that she had no control over. She lost her chance at a normal life, she is burdened by knowledge of a future that she can't escape. She lost the two most important people in her life. She drinks herself to sleep, she lives with regret and it has been so long that she is getting to a point where she won't be able to remember her child's face.
There was meaning and purpose in John's death which not only thrusts the movie forward but also serves to further develop both Sarah and the T-800. I think people forget that John was never the hero, it was always Sarah. She was always the emotional core and the glue that held these movies together. This movie has so much heart to it and I'm happy that Sarah was the focus, not John. Linda Hamilton's presence gives the movie legitimacy.
I was very much on the fence leading up to this movie, but I genuinely enjoyed it and I'm happy it exists. Everything made sense to me. I thought the action was on point. The movie was tonally like T2. It did not resort to stupid shlock comedy or made a mockery out of its characters like T3 and Genisys. Grace was great as the next Kyle and Dani could use a little more work as the next leader. Rev-9 was fantastic and my greatest worry about the movie. A proper follow up to the menacing T-1000.It sucks that the movie is bombing, I hope positive word of mouth can change that. If they do not end up making a sequel, I'm more than content with this being the bookend to T1 and T2.
The movie is over two hours but feels like a 90min movie. Very lean, fast paced and easy to follow. It wastes not a single minute.
4.5 Draperies out of 5.
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And on a side note:
MY CPU IS A NEURAL-NET PROCESSOR, A LEARNING COMPUTER. THE MORE CONTACT I HAVE WITH HUMANS, THE MORE I LEARN.
If a machine, a Terminator can understand the value of human life, maybe we can too.
THE READ ONLY is NON-CANON.
T1) You see the T-800 learning and mimicking human behaviour.
T2) You slowly see Uncle Bob learning how to be more human-like in T2 and begins to understand the value of human life. Sarah's lines at the end of the movie literally retcons what Kyle says in T1 about Terminators not having pity or remorse.
TDF) Carl is the natural evolution of the T-800 across three films. Don't feed me that shit that it doesn't make sense for a T-800 to grow a conscious.
