TERMINATOR: DARK FATE ATTEMPTS TO REBOOT THE FRANCHISE (AGAIN)

Be warned, there be spoilers ahead!

In Terminator: Dark Fate,  Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) finds herself targeted by a new kind of terminator dubbed the REV9 (Gabriel Luna), who hails from a new post-apocalyptic future that was created after Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and her son John destroyed Skynet. Now, it's up to augmented super soldier from the future Grace (Mackenzie Davis), Sarah Connor, and an aging T-800 named Carl (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to protect Dani and find a way to destroy the REV9.

After the failure of Terminator: Genisys, it would appear that Hollywood refused to give up so easily, and (taking heavy notes from the reboot of Halloween), they decided to try again with Terminator: Dark Fate. Indeed, Dark Fate definitely feels like Genisys 2.0 (it recycles a lot from the previous film: John Connor dies, it's another attempt at "rebooting" the franchise, and it's yet another Terminator film that feels like more of an excuse to create thrilling action set pieces instead of a cohesive and captivating plot). It's certainly better than Genisys, and it's one of the better Terminator sequels....but it still ain't great.

Let's start with the good. The film is well-cast, with Hamilton, Davis, and Schwarzenegger easily carrying the weight of the film. Hamilton steps back into the role of bad-ass, sexy grandma Sarah Connor with ease. After losing John to another T-800 in 1998, she has been adrift and filled with an all-encompassing grief. She failed her mission, and she doesn't know what to do now (She even states at one point that she has started to forget how John looked, and regrets not taking any pictures of him. This decision stemming from a paranoia that if the terminators didn't know how he looked, they wouldn't be able to find him). She has gone globe-trotting, destroying any rogue terminator she finds. It's surprising to realize how much she has been missed during the last 28 years. Just having her in the film elevates the proceedings considerably, and her arc is quite satisfying and sad. It's hard not to grieve along with her.

Mackenzie Davis is fantastic as Grace. She hails from the new post-apocalyptic future, Legion (a new cyber warfare tech that rises up against humanity, turning off all technology. It's essentially a less cool, not as well fleshed out version of Skynet) has created machines to eradicate mankind. After suffering grievous injuries, she volunteers to become an augmented super soldier. Her mission is to travel to the past and protect new resistance leader Dani Ramos. Davis is believable as an action hero, and her scenes of butt-kicking are surprisingly cool and impressive. It helps that she has an interesting backstory that is reminiscent of Kyle Reese's. Davis is easily the stand-out of the new cast.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as aging T-800 Carl, who was responsible for terminating John Connor. After his mission was complete, he slowly grew something resembling a conscience and saved a mother and her young son. He became her husband, and the son's step-father of sorts. Raising the son made him realize what he took away from Sarah, and he now spends his days protecting his new family and trying to make amends to Sarah for his mistake. His catch-phrase isn't "I'll be back", but is now "For John". This is easily Arnold's best reprisal of his beloved character in any of the sequels post-T2. He is very funny, charming, believable and sympathetic as Carl the T-800. It's a performance that is reminiscent of the one her gave in Terminator 2, and he makes it clear this is his final performance as the character ( "I won't be back"). It's a fitting, beautiful swan song. What a way to go.

Tim Miller previously directed the stellar Deadpool, and is in the director's seat for Dark Fate. It's clear him and the other people responsible for creating the film are huge fans of the franchise as there are many, many nods to Terminator and Terminator 2 ('Guitars, Cadillacs' even plays in the back ground of one scene). None of the references bothered me, but I could see how they could rub some the wrong way (Some might say "too much fan service"). As director, Miller isn't exactly great, excelling at directing the numerous action scenes (which are thrilling, exciting and cool....when you can make out what's going on. The CGI is also inconsistent. Some of it is very obvious and bad, but some of it is stunningly gorgeous) but not doing so well the rest of the time. The screenplay by David Goyer, Justin Rhodes, and Billy Ray ain't great. The characters are fleshed out enough, but the plot just isn't cool, interesting, or engaging.

It is interesting that most of the first act, and some of the second, is set in Mexico City. This new location makes the characters feel more vulnerable, and more in danger than in previous sequels (The authority figures/police just don't seem as present, or as good at their jobs). Things get even more unsettling when our protagonists have to make a run for the border, and ultimately wind up in a confrontation with Border Patrol. There isn't much commentary to be sampled in Dark Fate, but it's appreciated that the film places us in the shoes of undocumented immigrants and somewhat attempts to show us some of their plights.

Gabriel Luna as the REV9 is one of the more impressive terminators from the sequel films. He is a metal endo-skeleton covered in a liquid metal alloy (think a cooler, more bad-ass version of the TX from Terminator 3). The liquid metal can separate from the metal endo-skeleton to create a 2nd terminator. It's very unsettling to watch the two merge back together after any battle.  Unfortunately, his performance just isn't great and he never feels like a real presence in the film. You don't buy him as the next, great, unstoppable killing machine (One thing that is distracting:  He can form guns with his hands...something that previous Terminators are explicitly stated can never do. The film gets away with this via the excuse that he comes from Legion, which is different from Skynet, so the old rules don't apply. What exactly the new rules are, aren't made clear.)

Natalia Reyes as Dani Ramos barely makes an impression. The film tries to make her into a new, bad-ass female icon and fails. Her character just isn't interesting, and we don't know enough about her to root for her or buy her as the new John Connor. It doesn't help that all our other protagonists are given so much more material to work with than her. In the end, she is more-so delegated to sit on the sidelines and try to look tough. Not sure if the fault lies with how she was written, how Reyes performed her role, or both. Either way, she is one of the least memorable things in Dark Fate.

Another thing that many will undoubtedly be pissed off by is John Connor's death (two shotgun blasts to the chest). The de-aging used in the scene is seamless and impressive, Sarah and John look exactly the way we remember them...which drives the knife even further into our guts when the termination happens. It doesn't help that John didn't really need to die. John could have easily lived and went into hiding or went on to live a regular life. His death didn't result in Dani Ramos becoming the new leader, Skynet's death did...so his fate feels unearned, meaningless and even more tragic. It would have been better if he wasn't included at all. Such a waste of Edward Furlong (John only appears in around a minute or less of screen time. And no, there isn't an end credits scene where John appears and his death is undone....so don't bother sitting through the credits). The only positive result is that it makes Sarah's story and arc that much more rich and engaging.


Terminator: Dark Fate is an undeniably flawed, but entertaining film. It's certainly one of the better Termintor sequels you can see....but that doesn't mean it earns a recommendation. Despite Sarah Connor, Grace, and Carl being fairly strong, engaging, well-written characters and the action being some of the best and most thrilling you can sample in any of the Terminator sequels post T2, the plot is exceptionally weak and uninteresting and it just feels like the film is trying much too hard with very little payoff. It's so incredibly disappointing that we have had four freakin' Terminator sequels after T2, and not one has been worth its weight in salt. Terminator: Dark Fate tries to be the Halloween 2018 of the Terminator franchise (featuring female characters who struggle with their own versions of grief, ultimately having to work together to defeat a big, bad male) and ultimately fails. In the end, it's just another flawed, failed attempt at rebooting a franchise that should have terminated with T2. Check it out when it is available to rent (worth a view to see the end of Sarah Connor's story, and for Arnold's final swan song as the T-800),  but don't bother running to theaters to see it.

3 STARS