The film focuses more on establishing sequels than proceeding with the main storyline.The story relies too much on confusing time travel elements.This undermines the entire story arc of the franchise. Even worse, it was revealed that John didn't actually lead humanity to victory over Skynet after all - Kyle was sent back in time before he could find out that Skynet had only pretended to be defeated in order to ambush and wipe out the Resistance leadership, and that with them out of the way, it's now in a position to exterminate what remains of humanity.Derails the story arc of the Terminator franchise - which was always about John Connor's rising to be the hero who overthrew Skynet and saved humanity - by refocusing the story back onto Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, even though their character arcs were concluded in the second and first movies respectively.While fan service may be a good thing, sometimes it can just feel like the story was rushed.
When John Connor (Jason Clarke), leader of the human resistance against Skynet, sends Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 to protect his mother, Sarah (Emilia Clarke), from a Terminator assassin, an unexpected turn of events creates an altered timeline.