"The Worf Effect" is a colloquial term used to describe the unintentional discrediting of a fictional character who is supposedly strong and very tough, and the biggest menace in a group, ie. the big guy, the muscles.
More specifically this unintentional discrediting happens by writers who create episodes or storylines where they want to show that a new villain is a credible threat by having him beat up this tough guy. If even the big guy can't deal with this new villain, he's certainly a force to reckon, and a real threat!
The thing is, if this same gimmick is used again and again, too many times, it starts to actually erode the credibility of the "tough guy" as an actual tough guy. After all, if he ends up with his ass handed to him in every episode, he doesn't seem so tough after all. Thus, the writers have unintentionally made him appear a weakling, even though that wasn't the purpose.
The name comes from the character of Worf in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, where he's a klingon and head of security of the starship Enterprise. Some viewers have commented how in too many episodes the villain-of-the-week is shown to be a credible threat by incapacitating Worf, making him actually unintentionally appear weak.
Anyway, the trailer for the upcoming movie Terminator: Dark Fate was recently released. While many are excited, others have commented how the movie series seems to be veering too much off from what actually made it good.
Quite particularly, note this "cool" shot from the trailer featured prominently in promotional material:
This is not the Terminator, the main antagonist of the movie. This is Sarah Connor. And she completely beats the ass of the terminator in question with multiple weapons (if you watch the trailer). The terminator, apparently, has pretty much no chance.
Which is precisely the problem many are seeing with this whole thing. I repeat: Sarah Connor is so badass, and her weaponry so overpowered, that apparently the terminator has absolutely no chance, and has his ass handed to him. Like completely.
Which brings the "Worf effect" in full force into the mix (although kind of in the reverse direction). The terminator doesn't feel like a menace at all. Yeah, just shoot it with some overpowered weapons, and it's toast.
This is supposed to be a cool shot, but it's in fact the opposite of cool. It's lame. It's completely lame. Even though it uses all the tricks in the book to make it look cool, with slow motion, explosions, special effects... it's still lame. And it's not lame because it looks lame, but because the terminator poses no threat whatsoever.
The Terminator movies should be about the Terminator, not about Sarah Connor. The first movie got it right: The Terminator is a nigh unstoppable robot chasing two people who are pretty much completely defenseless against it, and can do pretty much nothing else than to run from it. It's impervious to pretty much any sort of counter-attack, as bullets do essentially no harm to it, and even driving a truck at full speed onto it has little effect. The people it's chasing are not "badass". They are everyday weak people running for their lives. It's a sci-fi thriller movie. In fact, it's a borderline horror movie.
In the second movie (one of the best movies ever made in the history of cinema), the setting is very similar. Even though in the second movie the target is now helped by a terminator himself, the chasing terminator is still nigh unstoppable and a real threat. The "good" terminator doesn't just take an overpowered weapon and blast it to pieces. The good terminator is almost powerless himself against this new highly upgraded form of terminator. Pretty much the only thing that it can do is to flee and avoid the attacking terminator.
The third movie was pretty much a rehash of the second one. (Personally I liked it, but many people, including James Cameron himself, have disowned it and made it "non-canon". Even though judging by this trailer, he still took ideas from it, go figure. Personally I think this movie has got a lot more hatred than it really deserves.)
The fourth movie, Terminator: Salvation, is a bit of a mess, and quite a disappointment. Even I consider it quite a disappointment, and quite meh. It tries to change the setting to the future, when the T-800 model was first developed by Skynet... but it just somehow doesn't work. There was a good attempt in the scriptwriting and execution department, but they just somehow botched it, and it fell flat.
The fifth movie, Terminator Genisys, is likewise a complete mess (and, if I understand correctly, also pretty much considered non-canon. In this case I fully agree.) More importantly, though, it already shows the "Worf effect" in full force, especially in the scenes where they change the past timeline of the original movie. It doesn't get much better from there. Meh!
Dark Fate, according to this trailer, is nothing like the first movie. Here not even a terminator, but Sarah Connor herself, just comes and blasts the terminator, and that's it. The terminator has been reduced from a nigh unstoppable force determined to kill everybody in its path, to just target practice.
What a letdown, really. I'm not looking forward to this movie, no matter how visually impressive it might look.
More specifically this unintentional discrediting happens by writers who create episodes or storylines where they want to show that a new villain is a credible threat by having him beat up this tough guy. If even the big guy can't deal with this new villain, he's certainly a force to reckon, and a real threat!
The thing is, if this same gimmick is used again and again, too many times, it starts to actually erode the credibility of the "tough guy" as an actual tough guy. After all, if he ends up with his ass handed to him in every episode, he doesn't seem so tough after all. Thus, the writers have unintentionally made him appear a weakling, even though that wasn't the purpose.
The name comes from the character of Worf in the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation, where he's a klingon and head of security of the starship Enterprise. Some viewers have commented how in too many episodes the villain-of-the-week is shown to be a credible threat by incapacitating Worf, making him actually unintentionally appear weak.
Anyway, the trailer for the upcoming movie Terminator: Dark Fate was recently released. While many are excited, others have commented how the movie series seems to be veering too much off from what actually made it good.
Quite particularly, note this "cool" shot from the trailer featured prominently in promotional material:
This is not the Terminator, the main antagonist of the movie. This is Sarah Connor. And she completely beats the ass of the terminator in question with multiple weapons (if you watch the trailer). The terminator, apparently, has pretty much no chance.
Which is precisely the problem many are seeing with this whole thing. I repeat: Sarah Connor is so badass, and her weaponry so overpowered, that apparently the terminator has absolutely no chance, and has his ass handed to him. Like completely.
Which brings the "Worf effect" in full force into the mix (although kind of in the reverse direction). The terminator doesn't feel like a menace at all. Yeah, just shoot it with some overpowered weapons, and it's toast.
This is supposed to be a cool shot, but it's in fact the opposite of cool. It's lame. It's completely lame. Even though it uses all the tricks in the book to make it look cool, with slow motion, explosions, special effects... it's still lame. And it's not lame because it looks lame, but because the terminator poses no threat whatsoever.
The Terminator movies should be about the Terminator, not about Sarah Connor. The first movie got it right: The Terminator is a nigh unstoppable robot chasing two people who are pretty much completely defenseless against it, and can do pretty much nothing else than to run from it. It's impervious to pretty much any sort of counter-attack, as bullets do essentially no harm to it, and even driving a truck at full speed onto it has little effect. The people it's chasing are not "badass". They are everyday weak people running for their lives. It's a sci-fi thriller movie. In fact, it's a borderline horror movie.
In the second movie (one of the best movies ever made in the history of cinema), the setting is very similar. Even though in the second movie the target is now helped by a terminator himself, the chasing terminator is still nigh unstoppable and a real threat. The "good" terminator doesn't just take an overpowered weapon and blast it to pieces. The good terminator is almost powerless himself against this new highly upgraded form of terminator. Pretty much the only thing that it can do is to flee and avoid the attacking terminator.
The third movie was pretty much a rehash of the second one. (Personally I liked it, but many people, including James Cameron himself, have disowned it and made it "non-canon". Even though judging by this trailer, he still took ideas from it, go figure. Personally I think this movie has got a lot more hatred than it really deserves.)
The fourth movie, Terminator: Salvation, is a bit of a mess, and quite a disappointment. Even I consider it quite a disappointment, and quite meh. It tries to change the setting to the future, when the T-800 model was first developed by Skynet... but it just somehow doesn't work. There was a good attempt in the scriptwriting and execution department, but they just somehow botched it, and it fell flat.
The fifth movie, Terminator Genisys, is likewise a complete mess (and, if I understand correctly, also pretty much considered non-canon. In this case I fully agree.) More importantly, though, it already shows the "Worf effect" in full force, especially in the scenes where they change the past timeline of the original movie. It doesn't get much better from there. Meh!
Dark Fate, according to this trailer, is nothing like the first movie. Here not even a terminator, but Sarah Connor herself, just comes and blasts the terminator, and that's it. The terminator has been reduced from a nigh unstoppable force determined to kill everybody in its path, to just target practice.
What a letdown, really. I'm not looking forward to this movie, no matter how visually impressive it might look.
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