Terminator 2: Judgment Day is my favorite movie of all time and I honestly cannot see anything ever changing that. I also love the first Terminator movie as well. However, despite my love for the first two Terminator movies, this series has just gotten worse and worse with Terminator Genisis and Terminator: Dark Fate being two movies that I think flat out suck. Still, my love for the first two movies has made this a franchise I love. I have multiple collectibles and video games and I have bought pretty much every version of Terminator 2 they have released over the years. I was legit excited for Terminator Zero, a Netflix anime series that at first glance felt like it was going to be a new spin on the Terminator series.
How to Download Terminator Zero
Terminator Zero was released on August 29, 2024. You can download or stream the film from Netflix. Click on the Download button at the end of this review.
A Fan’s Hopes for Terminator Zero – the TV Series Review
Initial Impressions of the Show
I feel like I need to say that as well as loving the first two Terminator movies, I also like anime, in theory, I am the person this show was aimed at. However, by the time the eighth episode ended, I was kind of underwhelmed by the whole thing to be honest with you. I did not hate it and I certainly liked it more than Genysis and Dark Fate, but there were more than a few things that bugged me.
The Weakest Terminator in History
The show started strong, with a scene in the future with a Terminator chasing down someone. There are dead bodies and blood all over the place and at first, I was like “hell yes, this is going to be awesome” as the Terminator stalks this other character through an old building filled with death and I was legit wondering how this person was going to get away from this Terminator.
Well, I needn’t have worried. Turns out this is the most incompetent Terminator in history and despite firing what was a whole clip from a minigun, this person was able to run away and not get hit once! The Terminator literally had them in their grasp and they still managed to get away. I have a few problems with this show and the Terminator being so incompetent at the start was not a fluke, this thing is kind of useless in most situations.
The Plot and Character Struggles
At its core, Terminator Zero is once again a story about a Terminator being sent back to the past to kill someone and a soldier being sent to protect them. We have a man called Malcolm who has created a rival AI to Skynet and this is what has resulted in a Terminator being sent back to the 90s to try and kill him. It puts him and his three kids in some real danger, but that soldier is there to try and keep them safe.
Terminator Zero jumps between time periods and it made the first four episodes of the show hard to follow. I do think that the second half of the series is much better than the first, but Malcom’s kids are just so insufferable at first that I had a hard time caring about them if I am being brutally honest.
A Familiar Yet Weaker Plotline
The plot is a bit of a mess and not all that exciting or interesting and it feels like some kind of rehash of what we got with Terminator and Terminator 2, but nowhere near as good. Now, the action scenes here are fantastic and the quality of the animation is very impressive. However, with people being able to so easily avoid most of the things that this Terminator throws at them, for as spectacular as they look, for the most part, they lack any real peril.
A Mixed Bag of Emotions
While this may seem like it has been mostly negative I did not hate the roughly four hours I spent with Terminator Zero. It did have some things that I liked, but it also had some things that I really did not like. This is a franchise that feels like they do not have a clue what to do with it. Give this a try, as I said, it does get better towards the end, but I would not be shocked if a lot of people watched this and checked out after the first couple of episodes.
