A Fateful Day

Hollywood is in the business of making unrealistic stories become realities. Unfortunately, studio executives have been in this business for too long, and as a result, they set unrealistic expectations for their products. Many executives wish for a franchise that can be dusted off the shelf every couple of years, have a new installment made, and the cash cow be milked for decades to come. Terminator is just not that kind of franchise. The first two installments were timeless classics (I prefer the second movie though), but they told a story that came to a natural conclusion, with nowhere else to go. But of course, that never stops Hollywood, and so three sequels/reboots were made, and sure enough, two of those three movies were just more of the same of the first two movies. Now, for what could be one last time, a sixth installment is trying to catch lightning in a bottle, and frankly, they missed yet again.

Terminator: Dark Fate is directed by Tim Miller (director of the first Deadpool movie and the mastermind behind the award winning Netflix series, Love, Death, and Robots), produced by James Cameron (the genius who wrote and directed the first two movies), co-written by David S. Goyer (a screenwriter who is only good if Christopher Nolan is looking over his shoulder), and features Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger returning to their most iconic roles of Sarah Conner and the T-800. Joining the main cast are McKenzie Davis as “enhanced human” Grace, Natalia Reyes as innocent bystander Dani Ramos, and Gabriel Luna as the evil Rev-9.

Like my Captain Marvel review, I feel this is a movie that I can’t talk about without getting into spoilers. For those of you who want to see this movie without knowing about anything that happens in terms of plot points, I’ll put my pros, cons, and final grade here, and then I’m giving away everything when it comes to story elements. So here’s what I thought overall:

Pros:

• Interesting new concepts with Grace and Rev-9.
• Great performances from McKenzie Davis and Gabriel Luna.
• De-aging effects looked great.
• Fun action sequences.

Cons:

• Grand Canyon sized plot holes when it comes to the rules of time travel.
• Dani Ramos’ character development comes across as forced and unnatural.
• The second act is slow, full of information dumps, and features hamfisted social commentary.
• Cringe worthy dialogue and one-liners.
• Hard to see anything during night time scenes.

Verdict: ** (two out of five stars).

Okay then, here’s why I gave that grade. The very first sequence of the movie are Sarah and John Connor at a restaurant near a beach, shortly after the events of Terminator 2: Judgement Day” The de-aging effects of this scene were incredible, except for a few seconds where the faces looked a little too glossy. Out of nowhere comes another Schwarzenegger T-800, who then shoots John dead with a shotgun, and proceeds to walk away, because his mission is accomplished. And this makes no sense whatsoever. According to the exposition within the movie, Sarah and John destroyed Skynet and stopped Judgement Day from happening, so how was this other Terminator created and who sent it back in time? This is never answered, at all, and comes across as just an excuse to have Arnold return without any logic to it. However, on the plus side, if you hated Edward Furlong for being annoying in T2, and always wished for him to be killed off, you finally got your wish; it only took 28 years to happen.

From there, we get our usual Terminator narrative, in which two naked people appear within a balls of light, one of which is a standard cyborg, the other is a Terminator with far superior combat abilities. The cyborg is Grace (Davis), who has the best backstory of anyone in the movie. She was once an orphan living in the ruins of a post apocalyptic world, who then became a soldier, and after being severely injured in battle, was surgically enhanced with robotic implants, RoboCop style. The Rev-9 (Luna) has a Terminator like endoskeleton with an exterior made of T-1000 like liquid metal. Sadly, the Rev-9 is never fully explained about what it is and how it functions, but from what we see, the endoskeleton and liquid metal can function and operate independent of each other, before fusing back together.

Grace and Rev-9 are easily the best parts of this movie. They are interesting concepts, and their roles were well played. Davis, by the end of movie, feels like a fully formed person, and you’ll be quietly rooting for her. Luna is possibly the best Terminator villain since Robert Patrick’s T-1000. Some fans might mock him for having an unimposing appearance, but this makes more sense than him being a hulking giant like Arnold; it’s all the easier for him to blend into crowds and not be suspected of being a dangerous person. He also has this neat characteristic in which he always says something that will automatically endear himself to whoever he interacts with, in order to gain their trust. These non-intimidating appearance and endearing banter features are both nice little touches that haven’t been explored within the 35 years of the franchise. The main thing about Grace that I didn’t fully understand is that she was only built for short bursts of energy, so she easily overheats and requires large amounts of water and medications in order to survive. The water I get, the medications, not so much. She just lists random meds that she needs, has them all mixed into a needle, and this needle is used like a magic elixir that fixes her whenever she needs it. Sure, it is important for Grace to have a weakness, but I think they could have gone without the magic needle and just stick with the needing large amounts of water aspect.

When it comes to Dani Ramos (Reyes), she’s a mixed bag. Her performance isn’t bad, but the development of her character doesn’t come across as natural. She’s more or less the new Sarah Connor; the working class, girl next door who is just trying to get by, but suddenly has her life is turned upside down with the arrival of a Terminator. The difference being that Sarah Connor’s character development took two movies to happen, while Dani’s happens within two hours! For the first half of the movie, she’s a helpless damsel in distress, but the second she touches a gun, she turns into a badass who bosses people around and can shoot firearms with pinpoint accuracy. It looks as jarring as it sounds. It also doesn’t help matters that Dani is so short and youthful looking, you can’t really accept her as the badass that Sarah Connor became, especially after the physical transformation that Hamilton went through over the course of seven years. Oh, and Dani isn’t the mother of someone who leads a human resistance against the Terminators in a future war, she herself is the leader in the future war. Yeah, you probably already figured that part. Again, based on Dani’s appearance alone, it isn’t all that believable.

As for the original Sarah Connor, Hamilton does well for herself, but doesn’t top her performance from T2. With John dead, she’s now a bitter, grumpy, old woman all the time. She apparently hunts Terminators, which makes no sense. Grace confirms that Skynet doesn’t exist, and instead, there’s another evil artificial intelligence called “Legion.” Other than Luna's Rev-9, there’s no mention of Legion sending the Terminators to the past, and if so, are these Terminators that Sarah hunts all Rev-9s, and if so, why is this one Rev-9 a problem? Likewise, are these Terminators old, T-800 models, and if so, how, if Skynet doesn’t exist? So yeah, Sarah’s entire backstory is a giant plot hole.

And there’s this other T-800, or “Carl,” as he has been nicknamed. As I mentioned before, this is really just an excuse to have Arnold in the movie, even though it makes no sense when it comes to the time traveling logic. He’s now aged over time, has an adopted family, and agrees to stop the Rev-9. Much like with Hamilton as Sarah Connor, Arnold doesn’t top his performance from T2, but does well for himself. Whenever he tells a joke, it’s pretty funny, due to his deadpan delivery. He even gets a heartfelt death in the end, although it doesn’t top the tear jerking death that he got in T2.

Casting decisions and time travel plot holes aside, the other big problems for the movie are the dialogue, the lighting during night time scenes, and the uneven second act. David S. Goyer has gotten a lot of work since he co-wrote Batman Begins and co-wrote the story for The Dark Knight. As he has proven time and time again, without Nolan to reign him in, his scripts are horrible. This script is no different; it’s full of bad one-liners that come across as flat, unfunny, unnatural, or just plain cringy. The only times when the dialogue sounds natural or heartfelt, I just assume that’s co-writer Billy Ray at work. As for the lighting during scenes that took place at night, there simply isn’t any. You can barely see anything without straining your eyes. Yes, it’s night time, so it makes sense that there wouldn’t be any light, but a bit of brightening to the color correction could have fixed this problem so we can tell what’s going on.

Lastly, there’s the painfully uneven second act. On the plus side, we get Grace’s great backstory, which is shown in flashbacks. That’s the only good part. The rest of the movie’s plot is told through long winded exposition. This is also where we get most of Goyer’s corny one-liners, and where Dani has a complete 180 degree change in personality. And then there’s the subplot about Grace, Dani, and Sarah illegally crossing over the border between Mexico and America, which results in ham-fisted commentary about recent problems with immigration. Yes, there’s nothing wrong with social commentary in movies, however, it helps if said commentary is subtle and is actually relevant to the overall plot. Here, it comes across as too on the nose, and doesn’t really apply to the rest of the story in any way. In other words, this is their version of the equally pointless Canto Bight sequence from Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Overall, I liked Dark Fate just fine. Yes, it’s better than Rise of the Machines (which was just a retelling of T2, but with horribly campy humor) and Genisys (which was just poorly written fanfiction), but it doesn’t hold a candle to the first two Terminator movies. And while we’re on the subject of holding a candle to the first two movies, let’s face it, no new installment ever will. So, unless you are a diehard fan of this franchise, there’s no real need to rush to the theaters to see this. Wait for it to be available to rent via physical disk or streaming. I give this movie a disappointing two out of five stars. That being said, if this is truly the final Terminator movie to ever be made, this is as good enough of an ending for them to go out on. As for where this movie ranks in the franchise (at least in my opinion), my list is as follows:

1. T2: Judgement Day (5 out of 5 stars)
2. Original Terminator (4 out of 5 stars)
3. Salvation (3 out of 5 stars)
4. Dark Fate (2 out of 5 stars)
5. Genisys (1 out of 5 stars)
6. Rise of the Machines (1 out 5 stars)

Yes, that’s right, as much as people love to dump on Salvation, I give it credit for doing something different by showing more of the actual war between humans and Skynet, and it gave us a good performance by Christian Bale (although his rant during the production is even more infamous). Sure, the ending sucked, but it was better than what we were originally going to get. That concludes this fanpicked review. And remember, when it comes to the media that you consume, be like Indiana Jones, and choose wisely.