After seemingly failing twice to be brought into the 21st century successfully, with films where the only noteworthy aspects were trailers that gave everything away months in advance and a leaked tape of a lead actor ranting at a crew member on set, the Terminator series continues with Terminator: Dark Fate, directed by Tim Miller of Deadpool fame. He has brought back Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton and maybe to try to ensure a third failure is not on the cards, James Cameron is back as executive producer.
The plot sees two terminators sent from a machine-ruled future, one to kill someone who will play a key role in their downfall, the other to try to stop it. The machines send a terminator (Gabriel Luna) who can morph into two terminators at once, and the resistance send a soldier who is half human, half machine, with enhanced capabilities (Mackenzie Davis). But in a surprising turn of events, the target isn't Sarah or John Connor but a young factory girl named Dani (Natalia Reyes). And eventually she runs into the older version of Sarah (Linda Hamilton) that we saw in Terminator 2. And of course the T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) joins in and they find themselves going all over America in hiding and figuring out a way to kill the evil terminator and save the future.
There's nothing special in the performances. Out of all the new cast Davis seems to be the one with the most charisma and can carry scenes with some level of believability. Reyes plays her character in a too-similar way to how Hamilton played Sarah in the first film, but where Hamilton knew where to stop screaming and calm down, Reyes just keeps on freaking out until it reaches the point of being annoying. As for Luca, he would be a worthy addition to the Terminator villains list if he wasn't so hard to take seriously. It's clear that he's meant to be influenced by the T-1000, but he just looks too ordinary and just doesn't fit the part at all, no matter what he does in an attempt to be frightening. As for Hamilton and Schwarzenegger, she plays the older Sarah Connor much like she did last time, except this time she has to come across as experienced and hardened by what she has done. Her efforts are noticed, if a bit underused. Arnold just does what he's done before, says serious things when the plot demands it and occasionally says things that due to his accent you find funny. Overdone is definitely the word, but is works and gets results.
The script, by David S Goyer, Billy Ray and Justin Rhodes feels like it's doing what The Force Awakens did for Star Wars. New plot, new and old characters and hitting some beats from a previous film while adding some minor touches of their own. This script is a new story but can't help but feel very similar to the first film in a lot of ways: woman on the run from a machine, with help from a resistance fighter. But things like throwing in another machine as a protector and a terminator who has a lot of blade weaponry and turns into liquid a lot, echoes the second film. While all that's going on, you have to develop your new plot and characters and perhaps expand the film's universe... well, some of that did pay off as the T-800 and Sarah feel developed and fleshed out as characters. For additions, we have a slightly better look at the AI-controlled future (the AI is now called Legion, not Skynet any more). But where the script definitely fails is in being way overlong, with dialogue-heavy scenes dragging on instead of letting action scenes speak for itself; that would give us more to be entertained by. Also, the lack of original ideas causes it to lack the engagement of the first two films, especially the second one, considering it was longer but never felt like it. We do spend some time in Mexico for a change, but it's really only there so that the terminators will have two places to rampage through. However, to end on a positive note, I will mention the action scenes. They're easy to appreciate when onscreen and carry the franchise's brutal, hard-hitting action style.
I don't feel as if there's much to say about Ken Seng's cinematography, expect for one mildly impressive shot that occurs during a chase scene. Besides that, no shots really stand out. But on the other hand, the film is surprisingly well lit.
Tom Holkenborg's score did not do anything for me. It just felt like really intense music to go with the fighting and chase scenes, and its more or less the same for the even darker future scenes. For Terminator, the key moment of the music will always be the familiar main theme. It can be heard a few times during the film and I feel it should be admired as, instead of building up to something or slowing down, it just plays the same tune over again - until the last few seconds, where a minor amount of intensity is added, but the difference is not too much or too little but just the right amount to end a main theme and begin the film.
To my mind, Terminator: Dark Fate may have the potential to pave a future for the franchise, with one good performance from a new cast member, and the old cast giving their best efforts with the material they have been given. The script, while filled with ideas and ways to develop characters, seems promising but also has an unhealthy attachment to the franchise's past that is seen repeatedly throughout the film. It's far from perfect, but as a move into the new century and only a few years away from when Judgement Day is supposed to happen, it's not a bad start.
C+
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