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The Terminator franchise certainly has its ups and downs. At one end
of the scale you have The Terminator and The Terminator: Judgement Day
and at the other end of the scale you Terminator Salvation and
Terminator Genisys with Terminator 3 slap bang in the middle. So, the
question on everyone (who cared) lips was what fate would befall
Terminator: Dark Fate?
It turns out that Terminator: Dark Fate is the best Terminator film since Judgement Day. However, that’s really not much of a compliment, it’s like your sports team barely making it off the foot of table solely because the other teams were worse than they were rather than you actually being any good. Salvation and Genisys were awful, and who remembers anything about Rise of the Machines? Dark Fate at least tries to capture that magic that made Judgement Day so exciting but doesn’t come anywhere near matching it’s quality.
The relentless and merciless pursuit by the new terminator of our three (later four) central heroes harks back to Robert Patrick’s relentless pursuit of the Connors and the T1000 (Arnold Schwarzenegger). However, this is done without the threat, the ground-breaking special effects and the moral questions T2 proposes regarding whether it’s right to kill an innocent man to stop him creating a device that would bring Judgement Day. T2 had emotional weight, and whilst Dark Fate tries to capture some of that magic, it fails to fully do so.
What was great about The Terminator was the horror at being introduced to an unremitting, almost unkillable machine where it’s only aim was to complete the mission and it did this with an unparalleled, focused determination. Terminators haven’t changed. They’ve always has this installed in them, but what has changed is the latter films don’t seem capture that resolute evil. They just don’t have that threat. It feels derivative of the two, better films but the problem lies in the fact it tries to make everything bigger (T2 was a big film but carefully designed film) with its major set pieces but rather than focusing on their design they just make them as big as possible.
Dark Fate is a fun film, the action scenes are mostly well done (particularly the climactic battle and the car chase – the plane fight and underwater battle less so) and it’s refreshing for a blockbuster where the women dominate the screen (even if there is a slightly on the nose girl power moment that could only be penned by a room of men). Even if Natalia Reyes (though how old is her character supposed to be?) and Mackenzie Davis were good in the central roles, it’s the return of Linda Hamilton that’s the most rewarding aspect as she manages to bring some emotional weight to the film as she wrestles with her tragic loss. Like Jamie Lee Curtis in the Halloween reboot, an aging star makes her iconic role hers again.
It’s lacking in a good script (some of the dialogue feels like teenagers are bickering) where the humour is sorely lacking (something that is somewhat disappointing considering Tim Miller’s success in his last film Deadpool), but it’s an improvement other the previous three instalments in the franchise.
It turns out that Terminator: Dark Fate is the best Terminator film since Judgement Day. However, that’s really not much of a compliment, it’s like your sports team barely making it off the foot of table solely because the other teams were worse than they were rather than you actually being any good. Salvation and Genisys were awful, and who remembers anything about Rise of the Machines? Dark Fate at least tries to capture that magic that made Judgement Day so exciting but doesn’t come anywhere near matching it’s quality.
The relentless and merciless pursuit by the new terminator of our three (later four) central heroes harks back to Robert Patrick’s relentless pursuit of the Connors and the T1000 (Arnold Schwarzenegger). However, this is done without the threat, the ground-breaking special effects and the moral questions T2 proposes regarding whether it’s right to kill an innocent man to stop him creating a device that would bring Judgement Day. T2 had emotional weight, and whilst Dark Fate tries to capture some of that magic, it fails to fully do so.
What was great about The Terminator was the horror at being introduced to an unremitting, almost unkillable machine where it’s only aim was to complete the mission and it did this with an unparalleled, focused determination. Terminators haven’t changed. They’ve always has this installed in them, but what has changed is the latter films don’t seem capture that resolute evil. They just don’t have that threat. It feels derivative of the two, better films but the problem lies in the fact it tries to make everything bigger (T2 was a big film but carefully designed film) with its major set pieces but rather than focusing on their design they just make them as big as possible.
Dark Fate is a fun film, the action scenes are mostly well done (particularly the climactic battle and the car chase – the plane fight and underwater battle less so) and it’s refreshing for a blockbuster where the women dominate the screen (even if there is a slightly on the nose girl power moment that could only be penned by a room of men). Even if Natalia Reyes (though how old is her character supposed to be?) and Mackenzie Davis were good in the central roles, it’s the return of Linda Hamilton that’s the most rewarding aspect as she manages to bring some emotional weight to the film as she wrestles with her tragic loss. Like Jamie Lee Curtis in the Halloween reboot, an aging star makes her iconic role hers again.
It’s lacking in a good script (some of the dialogue feels like teenagers are bickering) where the humour is sorely lacking (something that is somewhat disappointing considering Tim Miller’s success in his last film Deadpool), but it’s an improvement other the previous three instalments in the franchise.
I'll probably wait for DVD for this, but I'm glad you brought up Natalia's age. All the clips that I've seen lead me to believe this girl is supposed to be a teenager but the actress is in her 30's. I was hoping the movie would provide more context for this.
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