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'Terminator: Dark Fate' Review—A Mediocre Rehash

No spoilers!

By Jonathan SimPublished 4 years ago 10 min read
3

You know those scenes in the Terminator franchise where they shoot the Terminator over and over again trying to kill it and once you think it's dead and gone for good, it just refuses to die and keeps coming back?

That's a good metaphor for this whole series.

Here we go!

Terminator: Dark Fate is a science fiction action film written by David Goyer, Justin Rhodes and Billy Ray, and directed by Tim Miller (director of Deadpool). James Cameron returns as a producer on this movie, and it is a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, retconning the ones that have come after it.

Many have hailed Dark Fate as the best Terminator sequel since Judgment Day, and honestly, if you've seen Rise of the Machines, Salvation, or Genesis Genisys, you'd know that that isn't exactly a major accomplishment.

And in the case of this film, it really isn't, as this film may be more watchable than its three predecessors, but is nowhere near the level of the original two Cameron-led films, despite this film's constant efforts to reach the unreachable heights that the first two are at.

Shortly before heading to the theater to catch this film, I watched the first two Terminator films to refresh my memory and set the stage for Dark Fate, but after walking out of the theater, I am now even more convinced that nothing this franchise spits out will ever be as good as Judgment Day.

This movie is, at the very least, entertaining. It has some fun action sequences throughout that are directed by Miller with a lot of energy. It's a very exciting film that introduces many new characters into the franchise while throwing in a few twists along the way.

Dark Fate also sees the return of Linda Hamilton in her iconic role as Sarah Connor, marking the first time she has portrayed the character in 28 years, and she steps back into the shoes of her character very well, bringing back the charisma and darkness that she had in her two previous installments.

Hamilton is also reunited with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is once again playing the T-800, and he does so effortlessly. While this definitely isn't his most iconic performance, as he only has a supporting role in the second half of the film, he remains a likable presence in the film.

We also have Gabriel Luna stepping into the franchise as the Rev-9, a new Terminator who serves as the primary antagonist of the film. He gives a good performance in the film as a highly advanced Terminator with some new, unexpected abilities.

Mackenzie Davis and Natalia Reyes are also very good in their roles, and everyone gives good performances across the board. And when I spend this much time praising the acting, well, you know that I don't have too many more positives to write about with this film.

Okay, so what exactly is this film about? It is about a Terminator who gets sent back in time to kill someone important and another person sent by the Resistance to protect the person the Terminator is trying to kill.

Does that seem familiar? I don't know, it's almost like we've already seen that film before. Oh wait, we have. And I wouldn't have that much of an issue with the recycled premise if they took it and made it as good as the original two films.

But let's take a look at what the film does different: this film opens with a very shocking twist; it's very unexpected and looking back at it, I'm not a fan with the choice they made because the very existence of another Terminator film undoes the ending of Judgment Day, and the opening scene hammers it home.

I liked how the film has new characters stepping into the roles of the "good protector" and the "evil Terminator" instead of having Schwarzenegger play either one again, as we have already seen this three other times.

However, what the film decides to do with Schwarzenegger's character is another choice that I really didn't like, because without spoiling it, the decision that this character has made and what happens to him is almost laughable in the sheer madness of it all.

And on a little side note, it feels as if the writers ran out of excuses for why a cybernetic organism is visibly aging over time. Yes, we know Arnold is just a human and he's getting old, but he plays a Terminator; how exactly does a robot get white hair and a beard over time?

The film is nothing original. Instead of taking a risk and going in a different direction with the Terminator formula, this film takes it and adds a few characters. We get a cat-and-mouse game that we've already seen before in this series, and at this point, the films in this series are becoming very repetitive.

Davis's character, Grace, is the character sent by the Resistance to protect a girl named Dani, and Grace is likely the freshest idea this film has, as she is not a regular human like Kyle Reese, nor is she a full Terminator like the T-800; she is somewhere between the two, and I like how they changed that aspect.

The character who needs to be protected, Dani, is a mixed bag in terms of the way her character was written. Some very tragic events happen to her in the first act, and this is presumably what drives her to do some of the actions that she does later in the film.

However, the problem with her character is that her actions are unrealistically brave to the point where you don't buy into her character. While Sarah Connor spends The Terminator trying to escape the Terminator, as any normal person would, Dani is a bit more brave when it comes to facing the Rev-9.

And this doesn't feel earned because she is given very few character-building moments where we get to truly care about her the way we cared about Sarah Connor. Her only emotional scenes are near the beginning, but after that, she becomes a one-dimensional character that only serves to bring the plot forward.

She is given very little personality and this film is giving us so many characters that nobody really gets much of a chance to be in the spotlight and get as much development as they should have.

Do you remember Terminator 2: Judgment Day when on top of our thrilling action sequences, we'd get short character moments where John teaches the T-800 how to high-five and explains why people cry?

That's part of what made that film so great. The relationship that is built between John and the T-800 over the events of the film is what makes the ending so emotional. The T-800 became the father figure that John didn't know he needed.

And this film misses every emotional beat it goes for by simply not giving enough time to its characters. We do have a backstory for Grace, but the film fails at its small character moments and interactions that endear us to the characters and make them more interesting and human.

Now, the film does have brief moments of development for its characters, but they feel too short, and I feel like this film missed an opportunity to give Sarah an emotional relationship with...any of the characters. She was actually pretty bland in this film.

Speaking of missed opportunities, and this is less on a critical level and more on a fanboy level, this movie doesn't have a good "I'll be back". Sarah says it in a scene from the trailer and later, the T-800 says, "I won't be back."

And that was a bit disappointing, but another scene has Grace say, "Come with me or you're dead in ten seconds!" instead of the iconic, "Come with me if you want to live!"

That was even more disappointing, but the scene in this film where the T-800 picks up his sunglasses and drops them instead of putting them on made me feel as if this movie was actively trying to infuriate me.

I know I've been speaking very critically of this film, but I don't want you to get me wrong; this is not a bad film. It's exciting and well-shot, and the performances are all great, but the script was just nowhere near as good as it should have been and it just rehashes what we've already seen in an inferior way.

There's a scene near the beginning with some incredible CGI, and there's a lot of fun to be had with the film's plane sequence, even though the film is lacking in any iconic moments that people will actually remember.

Don't expect a scene like this to be in the film, because trust me, this movie doesn't have the personality for it.

The film also throws in a large section involving illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexican border and getting put into a detention center, which is a very relevant political topic that I don't feel was coincidentally written into the film, and I felt like it wasn't necessary.

And at this point, the Terminator franchise is a complete mess. We had a Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines that most people didn't like, but I thought it brought the series to a satisfying close.

But then, they made Terminator: Salvation with the plan to make it into a trilogy that never happened because of the negative reception. This movie didn't have Arnold in it and felt vastly different from the first three.

When that didn't work out, they said, "F**k everything. We're making a new one and it's not gonna have Christian Bale and it's not gonna have anything to do with any of that!"

They made Terminator: Genisys, and they said this would be the start of a new trilogy. This movie has different actors playing the famous characters of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, while it also makes John Connor into a Terminator.

Obviously that's a horrible idea, so the trilogy got scrapped again.

And then, they decided to bring James Cameron back, and now, Hollywood is going, "okay, we know you didn't like the last three Terminator movies which have all been ridiculously different from each other, so why don't we make another one? We'll get it right this time, we swear!"

They made Dark Fate, they retconned the last three, and they made a film that's okay at best. It has glaring issues, and...well, you know where this is heading.

[Credit: entertainment.ie]

I doubt that this film will be a box office hit, and I have a good feeling this trilogy will be canceled again, and a few years from now, we'll get another Terminator film where they go, "Okay, Dark Fate never happened! Here's the real Terminator sequel!"

This series has become the Halloween of the sci-fi action genre where they keep stacking sequels on top of each other in futile attempts to make a good sequel when at this point, the franchise should have ended already and we should have been watching other, better movies.

And yet, we're still getting more mediocre Terminator movies because Hollywood is treating this franchise as an unkillable machine. Despite nobody asking for more Terminator, it's all we're getting, and it is absurd.

We've had four sequels since Judgment Day and not one has reached the heights of the first two, and nothing ever will. I know it, you know it, and Hollywood knows it. All they can do with this franchise is make money, even if it means nothing will be as good as the first two.

It's pitiful how every new Terminator movie now has nothing to do with the last. This series is essentially The Twilight Zone now, and it is long past time to retire this franchise once and for all.

Because even though many will like this film and think it's the best since Judgment Day, I had some issues with it, and I don't like where this franchise is heading.

I'm gonna give 'Terminator: Dark Fate' a 7/10 (C+).

Ah, I miss when Terminator was good.

Do I recommend this film? If you're optimistic about it, go for it. If not, and you're also sick of this series, skip it. It's an okay film overall. Thanks for reading.

movie review
3

About the Creator

Jonathan Sim

Film critic. Lover of Pixar, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Marvel, DC, Back to the Future, and Lord of the Rings.

For business inquiries: [email protected]

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