David Pierdomenico
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Terminator franchise has been going through something of an identity crisis. Between The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Genesys, and now Dark Fate, each new iteration has completely retconned everything that came before, completely ignoring Rise of the Machines and Salvation.
With a series with this much past baggage, does Dark Fate prove to be the definitive sequel to Judgement Day, or does it fail to justify its own existence like so many sequels before it?
(Minor Spoilers Ahead)
Divisive Opening
The film opens in the 90’s, just a few years after the events of Judgement Day. We see Sarah Connor and her son John in some legitimately impressive de-aging CGI, as the scene looks like it was shot back in the 90’s. With terminators that still don’t look as good as Robert Patrick’s T-1000, this scene deserves recognition for having the absolute best visual effects in the film.
As the mother and son freedom fighters are hiding out in Latin America, another T-800 (played by an equally impressive de-aged Schwarzenegger) approaches John and shoots him dead, completing its mission. Apparently Skynet had sent several terminators back, and this one was just wandering around for years, looking for John.
It’s a strange scene to open with, mostly because it feels like a cheap cop out, in an Alien 3 sort of way. Everything they (and the audience) went through in Judgement Day was all for nothing, simply because they weren’t sure how else to properly utilize John Connor.
A New Generation
From there, bear witness to the iconic assassin and protector arriving from the future in modern day Mexico City. In a series first since the original film, the protector Grace (Mackenzie Davis) is not a terminator at all, rather she is a human who has been biologically enhanced with agility, speed, and hyper-senses.
In many ways, this actually works to the film’s favor, because we don’t need to go through all the motions again of the terminator learning how to be more human, instead Grace is simply human from the start, and it leaves more room for her character to have range and emotion.
But as Grace has been sent to protect, a new terminator, known simply as the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) has been sent on a mission to terminate. Unlike previous villains, this machine is able to separate its liquid metal from its rigid endoskeleton, thus allowing it to be in two places at once. And while this is a cool development, the CGI could be better, and both the T-1000 and TX seemed more effective at killing.
The two converge at a Mexican factory, where Grace finds Daniella “Dani” (Natalie Reyes), the new leader of the human resistance in the future (now that John is dead). Grace and Dani go on the run as the Rev-9 hunts them relentlessly. On their mission they encounter Sarah Connor, who’s spent the last 20 years hunting terminators, along with “Carl” (Arnold Schwarzenegger), a T-800 with a complicated history.
The One True Sarah Connor
As the franchise has always struggled with Sarah Connor, recasting her character with famous queens from Game of Thrones, this film reminds us that there is only one Sarah Connor: Linda Hamilton.Continuing her badass streak since the last time we saw her, Connor has been successfully living off the grid and hunting terminators where and when they pop up. When she meets Grace and Dani, there’s initially some tension and bickering, that doesn’t quite feel earned.
Obviously both Connor and Grace are very strong-willed and opinionated, but given Connor’s utter devotion to her mission, it would make more sense if she realized from the very beginning that they were all on the same side. That said, Hamilton eases back into arguably the best character she ever played. The thousand yard stare in her eyes reveals a thinly veiled trauma, brought upon by living a life this brutal.
New Blood
Amidst all the nostalgia of Hamilton and Schwarzenegger, and the conflicting of priorities between Grace and Connor, we have to remember that this film’s “protagonist” is actually Dani, but sometimes even the film forgets it.
Natalia Reyes does a decent job, despite not being given much to work with. Over the course of the film, she becomes more assertive and her stubborn determination begins to come out. These are the very convictions that help turn her in the resistance leader she will one day become.
It’s rather clear that this film was meant to a Force Awakens of sorts, where they still feature Schwarzenegger and Hamilton in supporting roles, while building up a new protagonist for future sequels. It Dark Fate performs well as the box office, we can sure expect the story to continue, for better or worse.
Terminator: Dark Fate is a definitive improvement over the last few sequels, But in a strange way, having those sequels before still diminishes it because Dark Fate uses (but perfects) several key plot points they used, including humanizing and giving a T-800 a family, and infusing humans with biological enhancements to make them terminators.
But it also boasts some pretty impressive action scenes, particularly car chases, done with mostly practical effects. It is quite true that it’s the best Terminator film since Judgement Day, but it still fails to ultimately justify the need to make sequels beyond that brilliant piece of cinematic perfection!
