Terminator: Dark Fate Review (2019, Action/Sci-Fi, Paramount Pictures/Skydance Media/20th Century Fox)

Terminated. Again.

With a lot of skepticism and hype at James Cameron's return to the franchise, you know it had a lot to live up to. It also had to somehow provide a remedy for the contentious previous three films over the past 20 years. This installment had to, well, terminate the wrongs in order to make a right.

And for the most part?

It did.

Some time before release, this film garnered the attention of mouth-breathing edgelords all over the internet, from YouTube to Facebook, and beyond, you had people complaining about things that didn't end up mattering much: the antagonistic Rev-9's everyman facade instead of sticking with big buff guys like with the T-101; the mostly female cast; putting a South American actress in the starring role. People even thought that Linda Hamilton, finally returning to the franchise after nearly 30 years, would be the black sheep of the film. 

How wrong they turned out to be.

Now, am I trying to say this film is without flaws? Certainly not; this film bombed because of certain disadvantages it had to deal with. First off, franchise fatigue: with the three previous releases failing to live up to the name, as well as an interesting, if not divisive TV entry that was cut short before it could go anywhere on its own, Jimmy Cameron and crew had to do something, anything to breathe new life into this property.

And it didn't quite make it. While I mostly enjoyed myself when watching it on release day, I couldn't help but feel there were other things holding it back from being on the level of T1 and T2. Things like recycling the general plot threads of the first two movies. The film played things a bit too safe, even after they killed off a character that was seen as the linchpin of the franchise for all these years. It doesn't do a whole lot of new things. In fact, just as I said that it plays things safe, this might be why it didn't perform as well as the producers had hoped, aside from the aforementioned franchise fatigue that I brought up before. It straight-up bombed at the box office.

The movie starts off and gets on its two feet pretty quickly. Having earned their just rewards, basking in the sun on a beach in Guatemala, John and Sarah Connor feel absolutely free from the nightmare that had befallen them for so long. However, this is a new entry in the franchise, so something bad happens: John Connor gets gunned down by another Terminator, that had been sent to a different place from the one in the second movie, only to now conveniently show up. And it looks like Arnie again, using de-aging CGI effects. Edward Furlong's young (and more sightly, no offense) digital likeness is plastered over a pre-teen boy's body which gets peppered with shotgun rounds. Sarah Connor is de-aged as well, and witnesses first-hand the horror she had been trying to fight against. Then the scene ends, and takes us to Mexico. Neat.

At night over a busy freeway, a familiar sight appears: a time portal opens, right inside of the actual road itself. As previous entries in the series have made clear, anything caught in the actual portal itself is basically vaporized from existence. Or perhaps it's displaced into the time stream somewhere. Anyway, out comes falling a tall, slender woman with short blonde hair. We get introduced to Mackenzie Davis, this film's take on Kyle Reese and the good terminator from Terminator 2. Only somehow she's not only clearly human like the former, but she's inhumanly strong, sort of like the latter. If you already know where this is going then I'm not spoiling anything. Then we go somewhere else in Mexico, the next day.

The real star of the film, Natalia Reyes as one Daniella Ramos, shows up. She takes care of her father and her brother, and they're headed to work. Right after they leave, this film's take on the Terminator shows up: the Rev-9, played by Gabriel Luna. He showcases similar abilities to the notorious & badass T-1000 from Terminator 2, copying clothing being held by an onlooker who is a little too close to the killer machine. Legends say this woman is still standing there in complete shock.

The Ramos kids go to this automotive factory, and Daniella gets in a dispute with their boss because her brother's position just got automated. This is one of the messages of the film, by the way: the fear of humanity's obsolescence brought on by automation. Humanity causing its own doom once again. Anyway, Mackenzie Davis kind of waltzes into the place, takes down a security guard, and she moves right inside with a security outfit. Meanwhile, the patriarch of the Ramos family somehow shows up, confusing the brother as to why he's there. This is when Daniella shows up and the Rev-9 wastes no time in getting down to business. Just as he's about to deliver a killing blow, Grace, played by Mackenzie Davis, intervenes and fights him off. This is one of the best action sequences in the film, hands down. In fact, I would put it up there with the greats in the franchise. She buys the Ramos kids some time and they high-tail it out of there.

As they're fleeing from the Rev-9, doing all they can to slow it down, while also causing a lot of commotion and collateral damage to others, Sarah Connor is inexplicably (at this point in the film, anyway) tracking them down. She stops her pickup truck, pulls out an automatic shotgun to gun down the terminator, fires at one instance of the machine (it can make an autonomous copy of itself) with a rocket launcher, and proceeds to show how badass she is in dealing with these things. While she's distracted, however, Daniella and Grace rudely steal Sarah's truck and get out of this jam. Son of a bitch, indeed. Oh and brother Ramos got killed, but he's not all that important in the scheme of things.

So yeah, with a few scenes giving us breathing room, we pretty much watch the same plot threads of the first two movies carry out, with a few differences of course. Grace is an augmented human, but comes with a heavy cost due to her being a living thing with a not-so-tough metabolism given some machinery. Daniella is the new John Connor. Skynet, the malevolent AI that has haunted the franchise ever since its inception, has been replaced with a new one called Legion, which carried out the same deeds conveniently enough. Sarah has been receiving communiques from an unknown source, helping her track down additional terminators so that she can, ahem, terminate them. So the team decides to meet up with their mutual contact and decide what to do from there. Chase sequences ensue, just like in earlier movies, and machines meet their grisly fates, ally and enemy alike. Just like Kyle Reese before her, Grace sacrifices herself to give Daniella a chance at defeating her assassin. Flash forwards into the future also show us what is at stake. Sound familiar? It should!

That's the gist of this movie. I might make it sound lame or underwhelming, but it really isn't either of those things. At least, I didn't think so. I just figured that they could have done more with it, to make it stand out. We've more or less seen all of this play out before, with different faces and different anachronisms to boot, so the film doesn't end up giving too many surprises. Now, the most intriguing and perhaps the most controversial thing they did in this movie, killing off John Connor (right at the start!), gave some sort of promise. Too bad the sum of the film didn't quite provide more of it. Does the film suffer horribly as a result? Not at all. It just doesn't transcend past itself and into greatness. 

The special effects, for instance, don't entirely hold up. And this is disappointing because nearly thirty years ago, in 1991, Terminator 2 made headlines for breathtaking special effects at the time. While some of those same effects don't entirely hold up today, they were still more convincing overall. This film is hurt, particularly so, by the use of de-aging effects, and trying to animate Arnie (who plays an older version of the same Terminator that finally killed John, as seen in the opening sequence) doing things that the actor is not physically capable of doing himself (he's an old man, after all). And then there's the scenes taking place outdoors, at night. They're poorly-lit and can be a chore to watch. Who thought this was a good idea?

However, the rest of the effects are great. The Rev-9, in particular, is a stunning addition to the rogue's gallery of this franchise. In one of the flash forwards, we get a glimpse into just how horrific the future must be in this new timeline, showcasing relentless assault of several Rev-7 terminators completely cutting apart at a squad of resistance fighters trying to escort their highly-coveted commander to safety. Gabriel Luna does well with his role, adding a certain degree of sinister that not even Robert Patrick's T-1000 could touch (not knocking on his legendary performance, however). And each action scene works as they should, providing varying levels of excitement each time.

The soundtrack wasn't as memorable as before, only going so far as to provide updated renditions of the franchise's theme. Arnie's (supposedly final) involvement in the film was not as welcome as I'd like, but it's not for lack of trying. Rather, it seemed like blatant lipservice to the fans, as if they can't be placated by anything else. It's always good to see a good terminator bashing around a bad terminator, but just like in previous films (even ones this installment disregards as non-canon), it's all for naught in the end. And because this film bombed, the likelihood of a new entry any time soon is nil, so we're all going to be left with a new path that won't be traveled. 

But it's certainly better than Genisys, grittier than Salvation, and less an of insult than 3:Rise of the Machines. It's also as violent and hard-hitting as before, does away with. The new political and social commentaries are welcome and relevant jabs at what's bothering our culture and society as large. The action is fun for the most part, I didn't shed a tear for John Connor's death. It was high time that they do something risky with him, and they did. If only they could have changed up the formula with Daniella, who is John Connor in all but name. Mackenzie Davis was surprisingly good as Grace, who showed that the resistance was capable of pulling tricks in the future war. Gabriel Luna delivered as the new bad terminator, and most of all, it was good to see a jaded, wise-cracking Linda Hamilton again after so long.

Just don't think of it too much. And unless there is a change of producers (short of Cameron himself), don't hold your breath too much for another entry because its performance warranted a termination of sorts from the producers. What a shame. This film didn't deserve the silly amount of hate that it got. Most of the arguments as to why this movie "sucked so bad" were immature and inconsequential overall. I know it wasn't going to please everyone, but for the most part, it pleased me.

B-

The Good:

+ It's actually a decent film to watch, and doesn't insult the viewer's intelligence
+ Takes, if any, a few chances to shake up the franchise and I felt that they worked
+ Solid special effects overall
+ Awesome action sequences
+ Mackenzie Davis made a great "guardian" character
+ Linda Hamilton's return was worth the hype
+ Acts as a "fuck you" to the previous three movies, especially in attacking the idea of "fate" and "not being able to change the future"
+ It's gritty, just like before
+ Flash forwards show a ravaged world of horrible adversity, just like in the old days. Too bad Salvation didn't quite deliver on that front.

The Bad:

- De-aging effects can invoke the uncanny valley effect
- While I didn't mind it, the killing of John Connor at the very beginning may not have paid off in the end
- In spite of the (few) risks they took with this one, it didn't do enough of them. The character of Daniella, for instance, is simply another John Connor. They couldn't make her stand out more on her own?
- A few scenes taking place at night are poorly lit
- Arnie coming back yet again doesn't do a whole lot for me.
- Recycles old plot threads, such as chase sequences, character roles, and the like.
- Leaves questions unanswered
- Felt a bit short; should have been more developed, in terms of characters anyway
- Soundtrack doesn't do anything memorable