Terminator: Salvation and Terminators 5&6 - Will it Work?

In Hollywood, it is rare for a property to get the green light once the profit takes a dip. It is even rarer for a floundering property to receive funding when the original creators and stars will not be onboard. In the case of the upcoming Terminator film, all this holds true; the last film underperformed and the cast will not be there. So why are we potentially getting not one, but three more Terminator films? Because someone came up with a new idea that just might work. If this on-the-set "diary" is any indication of what is to come, then I'm a fan already.

We have now had three films with a similar plot device; killer robots come from the future to prevent their worst enemy from taking leadership of the future human resistance, and fail. Not to mention that many of the plot points in the third film appeared to be low-budget rehashes of the best moments in the second installment.

In my opinion the best thing the Terminator franchise needs is a change. I fear that if the fourth film were to be just another robot-from-future-tries-to-kill-past-resistance-leader that the franchise would simply wither and die. It's old. The first two films are classics; everyone watches them, over and over. No one wanted the third film to be a low budget spoof of the second, although it did lay out some potential plot threads that could really help the fourth film to succeed. The most important thing the third film did was to move the plot forward, but you had to wait till the end for it.

The upcoming film claims to be the first of three that will bring us to the future battlefields that we've only seen glimpses of in the other films. This fills me with tantalizing anticipation, if they do it right, this could be a very lucrative and highly energetic sci-fi action trilogy with all the geeky things that sci-fi fans long for; cool future tech, awesome battle machines, adrenaline induced heroics, and a story to be remembered long after the credits roll; essentially everything that the first Starship Troopers was, but more awesome and less campy.

The success of the upcoming Terminator films depends heavily on the producers and director; even good actors can suck if they're directed poorly, but poor actors can carry a film with a good director. Even if the acting proves atrocious, fans can forgive that if the plot works and the special effects are solid.

It's a little early to say if the future of the Terminator franchise will succeed or fail, but it certainly can't be any worse than the last two Aliens films...can it?