The Clown Prince of Crime
Super Freak
Yeah that's absolutely right. I think not only does it shortchange us on emotional impact the film might otherwise have had by having the Reese character be so unlike the original, I also think it's a disservice to the character and Biehn's performance of that role - that it wasn't deemed important enough to get someone who could keep it consistent to Biehn. Heck even Jason Clarke said he looked at Edward Furlong's John Connor to guide his own performance FFS. But with Kyle Reese it apparently didn't matter at all?
And if Arnie thinks Courtney was perfect for the role (as per one of those promotional interviews) I wonder how much value he places on the Reese character. I don't think I've ever heard Arnie talk about Michael Biehn in T1.
It's was a choice, unfortunately. Here's what Courtney had to say when asked about Kyle Reese.
To be honest … I don’t pay any attention, really, to how the role has been played before. I might watch [previous works] for a point of reference as far as the world or the style [and] genre of filmmaking, but I [have been] asked if I studied Michael Biehn’s performance [as Kyle Reese] in the first “Terminator” and I’d be crazy to go and do that. It’s not going to translate, and I wasn’t hired for the job to emulate someone else’s performance. It’s a standalone film and the character’s changed. The writing’s changed.
It’s not to say we abandoned all the setup. He’s still a soldier in John Connor’s army fighting the resistance, and he still has the task of saving Sarah Connor, but that’s virtually all that links the two. I just can’t see it being interesting as a performer nor it being interesting for the audience if I was trying to go in there and just steal things from someone who’d played that role already. I think there’s archetypal similarities you’ll get with doing a role like that, and you can pluck influence from other actors or other performances, but it certainly wasn’t a concern of mine to try and hit specific things.
Spoiler: 
