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Reagen Sulewski: Part of the problem seems to be that he keeps landing the least interesting roles in his big budget films. If he just wants to take the paydays so he can pursue other stuff like Rescue Dawn and The Machinist, that's one thing, but if he legitimately wants to be a big budget draw, he's got to start having a better radar on what people care about in films. In the end, John Connor is such a cypher that it's impossible to worry about his future incarnation.

Jim Van Nest: I think Scott hit the nail on the head. Sure, Bale is Batman. Sure, the Dark Knight is the #2 movie ever...but I really don't think that made Bale A-List. I think the weak showing for Salvation will simply adjust Bale back to where he really was in the first place. I mean, seriously...who went to see Dark Knight for Christian Bale? They see the Batman movies for the costume and the Dark Knight in particular for Heath Ledger's Joker.

Come back, Mr. Governor

Kim Hollis: Which do you think hurt the film more, the lack of Arnold Schwarzenegger as a star or the diluting of the brand with the unsuccessful Terminator television show?





Dan Krovich: I think the absence of Schwarzenegger was a big hit to this sequel in retrospect. He has been the face of the franchise for 25 years now. I'm not sure that the audience has ever been all that interested in John Connor. He's been played by a different actor in each iteration of the series he's appeared and it hasn't mattered. The one constant until now has been Arnold.

David Mumpower: I was one of the few but passionate supporters of The Sarah Connor Chronicles, an inconsistent but occasionally brilliant television version of the Terminator franchise. One of the reasons I clung to hope about the show's renewal was the fact that a presumed juggernaut movie release would build renewed interest in the television series. In hindsight, I now see that the reverse is true. A complex, intellectually challenging science fiction program that examined several simultaneous alternate futures clearly soured some fans on the franchise. The Terminator television series was heavily advertised on Fox prior to its debut and the casual people who didn't stay with it are probably the same group who were less inclined to give the new movie a chance. I also agree with Dan in that I would have expected Terminator to go on with Schwarzenegger without any real hiccups. He matters much more than I had thought probable.

Tim Briody: The lack of Governator had the biggest impact on the Terminator Salvation performance. As Dano said, I think the appeal is in the machines and not John Connor.

Pete Kilmer: Ultimately neither. While I think it would have worked to have the T-800 (Arnie) in there, it would have been extremely expensive to have CGI Arnie all over the place. I think the TV Show had zero impact on the movie as only three million or so people were watching it in the first place. I think the TV show could have really been a nice complement to the movie franchise. It was ballsy, told some really good stories and kept the name recognition out there for the movie. With the lack of massive budget for a ton of Terminators tearing up LA, that kind of hurt the show and people left it.

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