Terminator Zero

• Directed by Masashi Kudō
• Developed by Mattson Tomlin
• Based on characters created by James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd
• August 29, 2024
• Netflix

Voice Cast

• The Terminator-Timothy Olyphant
• Eiko-Sonoya Mizuno
• Malcolm Lee-André Holland
• Misaki-Sumalee Montano
• Kenta Lee-Armani Jackson
• Reika Lee-Gideon Adlon
• Hiro Lee-Carter Rockwood
• Kokoro-Rosario Dawson
• The Prophet-Ann Dowd
• Annie-Julie Nathanson

A man developing an AI system intended to compete with Skynet finds himself and his three children pursued by an unknown robot assassin and a mysterious soldier that has been sent to protect him.

I greeted the announcement of Terminator Zero with great excitement. Anime seemed like the perfect way to bring the Terminator concept to television. It has significantly fewer limitations than live action plus you can do some great and visceral visuals. Having watched not that long ago the anthology film Memories (specifically the Magnetic Rose segment) I knew something dark and satisfying could be achieved. Terminator Zero never gets there.

It takes a significantly more philosophical approach than ANY preceding Terminator project. And by ‘philosophical’ I mean there are extended periods of talk punctuated by very brief periods of action and gore. So much talking that just goes in circles. This is a series all about social commentary that uses the Terminator-a universe about time travelling robots coming to the past to change the future for one side or the other-to have those weighty discussions.

A man from the future has traveled to the past to create an AI to compete with Skynet. Kokoro, this alternate intelligence, says that economic systems are a form of oppression. Kokoro also says everything man creates gets turned into a weapon. Not that I can argue that point but this leads into Kokoro not wanting to be a weapon against Skynet. She does kinda become a weapon AGAINST humanity with that bit irony being ignored. Really? It was a sure sign to me that commentary would overwhelm telling a story since it came so early in the series.

The thing Terminator Zero really drives home that there are multiple timelines. Terminator 2 cracked the door open to this with each successive film opening it just a little more to explain why Judgment Day had not occurred when predicted. Genysis swung that wide-open to the point you could drive a semi-truck through it. Dark Fate used the concept to poop all over 40 or so years worth of mythology as well as character and story development.

This drives pushes it to the point that you’re wondering why they even send anybody back. How so? Because it’s pointed out in a few moments that each time you travel back in time you create a new future. The act of time travel alters the future and creates a new timeline. You must consider why they’re wasting all this energy to send Terminators back if they realize that it’s not going to change their present in any way. They’ll still be living in a turd of a world.

By extension you can assume the timeline being observed here is a variation of a very similar timeline. In other words, these events are not as unique as the characters believe when you consider the presented scenario. They’ve all played out in one form-perhaps more-before. It made every Terminator movie and comic book and even the TV show a useless exercise! They’re just sending people and machines back to slaughter and die for a result they will never experience! If nothing ultimately matters why should the viewer care?

Terminator movies are mild philosophy with heavy action. This is heavy philosophy with very mild action. There is a lot of traveling and talking in this. I know that’s a conceit of anime and you could still do a movie with philosophy, but all those moments of extent extended dialogue bring plot development to screeching halt. Not that having major characters that are juveniles helps. They are all the children of Malcolm Lee who developed Kokoro and are as big of a part of the series as Malcolm. Cyberdyne or Skynet or Legion are barely a mention. Skynet gets one name drop that I heard but that is it.

Malcolm’s whole goal sounds like he’s just trying to make Skynet be good and not actually stop it. Kokoro from the initial moments seems like a serious threat on par with Skynet. Do you really want a computer that you designed to combat a threat that can decide not to help you? I think sounds like a really dumb idea! Malcolm is either very naïve or Tech-Com recruits morons.

Timothy Olyphant as the T-800 just doesn’t get it right. I’m not saying he needs to sound like Arnold. I’m saying he needs to be more monotone in his delivery. No inflection. No emotion. Just cold and to the point, and without breaks. And if he is employing something that sounds like emotion it needs to come off as phony like the moment in the original Sarah was talking with the T-800 she thought was her mother. Terminators don’t have a motion. Olyphant’s Terminator sounds like a guy who’s kind of sick of war.

The character designs and general animation are everything you would want for an animated Terminator project and everything you would expect from a company like Production I. G. It’s heavy on gore and detail with minimal CGI often giving it a cinematic feel. If I had any gripes as is often the case with this company they linger on the gore moments. They are slowed up so you get to see every little bit. In a film project that’s just fine but a television series when you have something gory happening every episode or every other episode those moments blunt the general impact.

I would’ve cut the show in half. From eight 30 minute or so episodes to four. Perhaps even repackage it as a film. Reduce the philosophizing and limit the lulls between action. It feels like it goes on too long and stretches a simple idea out too far. It makes what should be an exciting and cool concept somewhat labored to sit through in its entirety because the story is not tight.

Terminator Zero was okay and what made it okay was the animation. But the story was pointless with the expansion of this universe’s time travel science. Add to that the heavy dialogue and armchair discussions of social justice and it becomes like watching a sleekly crafted philosophical lecture rather than a streaming series. The Terminator in the show felt incidental and the connections to the franchise in general felt tenuous.

Terminator Zero has good yet brief moments of action but too few and far between. It adds nothing to the Terminator universe and may even do as much narrative harm as Dark Fate. Skip.