Terminator: Dark Fate - Review

Terminator: Dark Fate

Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton reprise their star making roles from the previous highly successful efforts in the 1984 “Terminator” and 1991 “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” in the new 2019 “Terminator: Dark Fate”.

This film picks up in 2019 Mexico City and a newly modified liquid Terminator called the Rev-9 model arrives from the future to kill a young factory worker named Dani Ramos. Also sent back in time is Grace, a hybrid cyborg human who must protect Ramos from the seemingly indestructible robotic assassin. But the two women soon find some much-needed help from a pair of unexpected allies in the seasoned warrior Sarah Connor and the T-800 Terminator who is living among humans as a drapery salesman (an oxymoronic play on humor I guess).

REVIEW: Running 2 hours – 8 minutes, this latest effort has far more energy and overall more entertaining then its 3 previous films “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” (2003), “Terminator Salvation” (2009) and “Terminator Genisys”. Why is that you may ask? 

Well when the first two film came out, they were directed by James Cameron (also “Aliens, True Lies and Avatar”). Cameron directed, co-wrote and co-produce the first two films along with his then and now ex-wife Gale Anne Hurd who apparently in the divorce got the rights to the three subsequent sequels which she made. And while those sequels made money, they were viewed my most film critics as not being very good films. Now Cameron has the rights to pick up the story again which he did by writing the story line to “Dark Fate” and it clearly shows his infusion of imagination…………… “So enough of this divorce court chat Lester, is this new one any good”.  The answer is yes just as long as you forget and toss aside the third, fourth and fifth entries in this series which this story pretty much demands that you do.

The best things about "Dark Fate" is the visual effects, the sequencing and the pace .They are the most noticeable improvements as Director Tim Miller never takes his foot off the accelerator for one minute to keep you viscerally and visually entertained. That’s the upside. Now the downside ………………………It is exactly the same damn move from 1991 “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”. I mean it’s not even subtle about it either. Oh, they added a few odd and ends differences and wrinkles here and there and some new special effects. Specifically involving making people look young again as they did 30 years ago, this was super impressive. Trust there will come a day when actors will be obsolete as they will be able to make new movies hypothetically speaking of dead actors as if they were alive again. But isn’t that in some ways a bit of the subtext about how the machines will take over the world one day. But I digress.

“Dark Fate” has all of the essential elements of being a solid part of a continuing story about machines running the world. And from all accounts Cameron wants to write two more films before permanently ending this saga for good.

“Terminator: Dark Fate” is a hell of a ride, but a ride is all you get, But sometimes just going on for a ride is good enough to make you smile and enjoy the view.

3.25 Stars