If you thought Wolverine lost points for breaking with the franchise's established lore, wait until you see T4. As a Terminator fan, it's easily the most offensive thing about it. I mean, T3 was a travesty for many the same reasons, but this one... oye.
And with such a simple idea for this set of films, I cannot imagine why. Here's what I think could've happened to make a great "Future War Trilogy:"
The first film shows the rise of John Connor from some regular survivor to the leader of the resistance, maybe play up some prophecy element, have some rough and tumble action scenes, and have him finding out about the whereabouts of Kyle Reese.
Second film follows the
Empire mold: one storyline chronicling Connor and the war, and the other with some guy, his second-in-command, finding and bringing back Reese, since it would be too risky for him to go out and do it himself? Who knows. Lead into the development of the time portal, T-800s, etc...
The third film is almost the end of the war. Like Reese says in the first film, Skynet realizes it's about to lose, and in a last-ditch effort, decide to send the T-800 back to kill Sarah Connor, etc... Like
Sith, we know how it plays out to a certain extent, but let's say there's a major game-changer, like John Connor dies in the end, secretly. The Resistance continues, since he's become an almost mythical figure at this point, and you get the sense that mankind will win out anyway? Just spitballing here.
Hell, maybe add the Worthington arc as part of the 2nd and 3rd films, which would actually carry some emotional weight since we'd actually get to see it develop over the course of a film or so? Again, this is purely me basing it off the fact that I haven't seen
Salvation or anything, and have had this idea for a couple of weeks. Maybe it sucks, but hey, what fanfic doesn't?