Review - Terminator: Dark Fate
Hey guys, Chuck here, and I just got back from seeing Terminator: Dark Fate. The sixth entry overall in the Terminator franchise, this movie ultimately ignores the last three entries in the Terminator series and acts as more of a direct follow-up to the original two films in the series.
So the story is that after Sarah Conner, her son John, and the T-800 prevented the creation of Skynet in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, another T-800 catches up with them in the year 1998 and kills John. Twenty-two years pass and a new kind of Terminator, a Rev-9, is sent by a new artificial intelligence unit called Legion to terminate Daniella "Dani" Ramos, with an augmented human named Grace being sent back to keep Dani alive. They eventually meet Sarah, who works with them to keep Dani from being killed by the Rev-9. Along the way, they recruit Carl, the T-800 that killed John years earlier, and has since learned more about humanity and is willing to help stop the Rev-9.
Okay, let's get the positives out of the way first. First of all, it's really great to see both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton back as the T-800 and as Sarah Conner. One of my issues with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, other than Nick Stahl making John Conner such a whiny drug-addicted bitch, was that they unceremoniously killed off Sarah off-screen. While I think that it sucks that John dies instead, it does make her ongoing fight against the machines more meaningful. I also really like that it's the exact T-800 that killed John that ultimately joins in the fight to keep Dani safe from the Rev-9. Of the new actors in this movie, I thought Mackenzie Davis was terrific as Grace. She was not only great to watch interact with the others, but seeing her as a soldier in the future was great as well. Gabriel Luna, while lacking the sheer amount to dread that Robert Patrick's T-1000 character had in T2, was still pretty intimidating as the Rev-9, and I like the mechanic that his human-like liquid metal skin can separate from the solid metal endoskeleton and become two separate attackers. I also liked Natalia Reyes as Dani, as she felt like a character, and was very active in the final showdown against the Rev-9.
Now onto a few thing I did NOT like with this movie, and that includes the change over from Skynet to Legion as the evil A.I. that wipes us all out. While I think it makes sense that the events of T2 would erase Skynet from existence, I still think it's odd that yet ANOTHER A.I., that was designed as a military defense system (in this instance cyber warfare), would become self-aware and turn on humanity, resulting in yet ANOTHER nuclear holocaust, and ending with humanity being hunted by yet ANOTHER army of machines. I'm sorry, but I think it's just too convenient that just because Skynet doesn't exist anymore, that Legion would enact the exact same plot against humanity that Skynet did in the earlier films. Speaking of Skynet, I think the fact that the multiple Terminators it sent back in time to kill John weren't automatically erased from existence is pretty strange. I mean, if the A.I. that sent the Terminators back is erased from existence, wouldn't those same Terminators be erased from existence as well? I- ughhh.
What is really unfortunate is that while I like the direction that Tim Miller took with this movie, I feel that his style clashed with that of producer James Cameron, who returned to the franchise for the first time since directing T2 back in 1991. Unlike with Alita: Battle Angel, where the styles of James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez complimented each other, resulting in a great experience, the same can not be said with Terminator: Dark Fate. However, while this movie was a bit of a mess, it is definitely a return to form for the franchise. It doesn't feel clunky or disjointed the way that Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genisys felt, and it doesn't feel like the slap in the face of fans that T3 was. While it's still not as good as the original two, it still feels like a decent Terminator movie. All in all, Terminator: Dark Fate is flawed but enjoyable, and I give it a rating of 3.75/5.
This is Chuck signing off. See you guys next time.
So the story is that after Sarah Conner, her son John, and the T-800 prevented the creation of Skynet in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, another T-800 catches up with them in the year 1998 and kills John. Twenty-two years pass and a new kind of Terminator, a Rev-9, is sent by a new artificial intelligence unit called Legion to terminate Daniella "Dani" Ramos, with an augmented human named Grace being sent back to keep Dani alive. They eventually meet Sarah, who works with them to keep Dani from being killed by the Rev-9. Along the way, they recruit Carl, the T-800 that killed John years earlier, and has since learned more about humanity and is willing to help stop the Rev-9.
Okay, let's get the positives out of the way first. First of all, it's really great to see both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton back as the T-800 and as Sarah Conner. One of my issues with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, other than Nick Stahl making John Conner such a whiny drug-addicted bitch, was that they unceremoniously killed off Sarah off-screen. While I think that it sucks that John dies instead, it does make her ongoing fight against the machines more meaningful. I also really like that it's the exact T-800 that killed John that ultimately joins in the fight to keep Dani safe from the Rev-9. Of the new actors in this movie, I thought Mackenzie Davis was terrific as Grace. She was not only great to watch interact with the others, but seeing her as a soldier in the future was great as well. Gabriel Luna, while lacking the sheer amount to dread that Robert Patrick's T-1000 character had in T2, was still pretty intimidating as the Rev-9, and I like the mechanic that his human-like liquid metal skin can separate from the solid metal endoskeleton and become two separate attackers. I also liked Natalia Reyes as Dani, as she felt like a character, and was very active in the final showdown against the Rev-9.
Now onto a few thing I did NOT like with this movie, and that includes the change over from Skynet to Legion as the evil A.I. that wipes us all out. While I think it makes sense that the events of T2 would erase Skynet from existence, I still think it's odd that yet ANOTHER A.I., that was designed as a military defense system (in this instance cyber warfare), would become self-aware and turn on humanity, resulting in yet ANOTHER nuclear holocaust, and ending with humanity being hunted by yet ANOTHER army of machines. I'm sorry, but I think it's just too convenient that just because Skynet doesn't exist anymore, that Legion would enact the exact same plot against humanity that Skynet did in the earlier films. Speaking of Skynet, I think the fact that the multiple Terminators it sent back in time to kill John weren't automatically erased from existence is pretty strange. I mean, if the A.I. that sent the Terminators back is erased from existence, wouldn't those same Terminators be erased from existence as well? I- ughhh.
What is really unfortunate is that while I like the direction that Tim Miller took with this movie, I feel that his style clashed with that of producer James Cameron, who returned to the franchise for the first time since directing T2 back in 1991. Unlike with Alita: Battle Angel, where the styles of James Cameron and Robert Rodriguez complimented each other, resulting in a great experience, the same can not be said with Terminator: Dark Fate. However, while this movie was a bit of a mess, it is definitely a return to form for the franchise. It doesn't feel clunky or disjointed the way that Terminator Salvation and Terminator Genisys felt, and it doesn't feel like the slap in the face of fans that T3 was. While it's still not as good as the original two, it still feels like a decent Terminator movie. All in all, Terminator: Dark Fate is flawed but enjoyable, and I give it a rating of 3.75/5.
This is Chuck signing off. See you guys next time.
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