Review:
*Originally written October 30th, 2019*
It's always a gamble when a new Terminator film is announced. In all honesty, despite my soft spot for them all (It even took me a few watches to turn on Genisys), it would be hard to call any of the films past the second "Good", some of them get points for effort in trying to something new and different (Salvation in particular), but there was always something lack with each one. When this was announced, I had no excitement, despite the whole retconning all the sequels past 2 in order to make a true sequel to Judgement Day, the involvement of Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger and even the first Terminator film to be adult rated since the third. None of this inspired any hope in me, I was sure this series had its day and when the abysmal trailers came along, I was more or less ready to write this off without even seeing it.
Despite having no hope for this (Especially given that 2019 seems to just be a never ending barrage of mediocre and terrible reboots/sequels), I was honestly very surprised to end up having quite a fun time with this. It definitely has its problems and relies on the franchises past a bit too much, but it is easily the best of the films since Judgement Day. For better or worse, this really is the Force Awakens of the Terminator series.
It opens with a very ballsy and surprising creative choice that I won't spoil, but it sets the story on a path that is both familiar and fresh at the same time. The whole Terminator being sent to the past to kill the saviour of humanity plot is still there, but it mixes things up and turns it on its head just enough to feel like a story worth telling. While Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton are both here reprising their roles, the new players are very welcome additions to the story and were surprisingly well developed and likeable enough to invest in. Natalie Reyes' Dani is excellent here as the new saviour of humanity taken from a normal life in order to fend for her life and save the world. This was the first role I'd ever seen her in, but I was very impressed.
Mackenzie Davis also provided a very solid performance as Grace, a genetically enhanced soldier sent from the future in order to protect Dani, she handled action very well with a lot more hand to hand combat than I was expected, but at the same time still managing to deliver a human and easy to root far protector that definitely feels different from what has come before. Her bond with Dani doesn't reach the emotional heights of T2, but there's still just enough there that you do feel invested enough to care.
The big selling point is Linda Hamilton and Arnie though, that's why everyone is here to see this. How do they do? Pretty great actually. Hamilton channels the wonderful badassery of Sarah Connor that was present in T2 and it's clearly never gone away, despite the action-heavy nature of her role, there still is a deep sadness behind the character that Hamilton does a great job portraying, despite still being the same person, this Sarah Connor is a lot more damaged and mentally broken due to what the last 20 years have done to her. The performance here is very similar to Jamie Lee Curtis in the 2018 Halloween film, but I'm all for that and it was exactly what I wanted. It was great to see her back and they took the character in an interesting direction, even with some excellent de-aging effects for the opening scene.
Arnold Schwarzenegger's appearance is sure to divide fans of the series. It's a hard role to talk about without spoiling, but he doesn't make his full appearance in the second half and what they do with him is a hell of a choice. It's arguably stupid, a little bit insane and downright doesn't make sense, but it answers a question I've always wanted to know about Terminators. Even with the creative choices, Arnie himself fits back into the role effortlessly, it feels like the heart of his character from T2 is back and he's not just some one note joke they turned him into with Genisys.
Lastly, with the cast, Gabriel Luna was much better than the trailers made him out to be. He was a bit similar to Robert Patrick's T-1000, but they do a lot of cool stuff with his character and he's a believable threat as he seems far more dangerous and advanced than all the Terminators previously. I did wish they went a bit further with violence in order to make him a bit more menacing, as it rarely lingers on the violence and aside from some CGI blood splatter, it was all pretty tame for a character that is literally slicing people up.
After the success of Deadpool, it surprised me that it took so long for Tim Miller to get another gig, but he did a far better job than I expected with this. My biggest worry is that they would try and merge the humour and violence from Deadpool into a Terminator film in order to get something that could have been a tonal disaster, but it's played remarkably straight and the lame jokes are kept to a pretty bare minimum, which is a relief, seeing as nearly every studio now is trying to cram in Marvel style lame humour into every single franchise these days.
He directs some really cool action here, which sadly seems to get more over the top and bombastic as it goes on. While I know a $180 million Hollywood franchise film wouldn't rely on practical effects, it would have been nice to see more. It opens very well with a genuinely tense and pretty thrilling freeway chase that kick-starts the story into gear very early on. That's something I should mention, I was amazed how well paced this was, even while it was over 2 hours long, it never lulled or felt boring at any point. While that opening freeway chase is awesome, the stuff towards the end feels far too over the top and CGI heavy to have much of an impact, it felt like something more from a Fast and Furious film than a Terminator film. Don't get me wrong, while this is a sci-fi franchise about killer cyborgs, the first two films managed to root it in a reality by relying on practical effects that actually made things feel weighted and real, something all the sequels (Including this) have failed to live up to. The worst is when Grace and the new Terminator are fighting, the CGI is so apparent that it feels more like watching 2 video game characters fighting than anything close to reality. It just astounds me, that 2 films from about 30 years ago managed to have more convincing and real feeling fights than a film made in 2019.
For the third time in a row, as far as I know, this is made to be the first in a trilogy of Terminator films. While the budget seems far too high for this to make that much of a profit, I would like to see this story continue and see where they wanted to take things. For the first time in a decade, I'm genuinely interested to see where this franchise will go. Although, at the same time, it leaves it in a place that could just as easily wrap things up. Knowing Hollywood, we're gonna get a new Terminator film in some shape or form, but this works as both a wrap up of the story started with The Terminator and a passing of the torch moment for the new characters.
Terminator: Dark Fate is a rare film for 2019 that actually exceeds expectations and makes for some very fun, but also flawed viewing that continues the story in a familiar, but fresh way that brings back old faces to good effect while also making way for new ones that are also compelling. Like I said, it's the Force Awakens of the series, it makes some decisions that will surely divide fans, but for me it just made it more satisfying and interesting. Finally a good Terminator film again.
7/10 Dans
Terminator: Dark Fate is out now in cinemas in the UK
Watch the trailer below:
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Letterboxd: Dan
