Terminator: Dark Fate
I think Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a perennial title in my top ten (maybe even top five) films of all time. The film serves a great nostalgic purpose from my childhood and is also one of the greatest action movies of all time. The series from there has been hit or miss. I appreciated the following two entries because I’m a fan of the first two films but Genisys was undoubtedly abysmal. Having the director of Deadpool and James Cameron in a more expansive role was reason enough to get me interested. I had a good time with this, and its easily better than anything after T2.
The film starts off in Mexico City where a Terminator from the future aims to kill a young woman. It just so happens that an “enhanced” soldier has also traveled to ensure that the Terminator’s plan does not come to fruition. They soon run into Sarah Connor, a woman who encountered the first Terminator and the mother of future resistance leader John Connor. The group must try to escape this new model of Terminator Rev-9, a killing machine like no other. This film marks the return of Linda Hamilton to the series and also is her onscreen reunion with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The film may tread grounds very familiar to the first but I thought it did a good job in delivery. The action is ever present, and at extreme intensity, which was nice to see in IMAX. The plot doesn’t have much going for it, however the nostalgic factor of seeing Hamilton and Schwarzenegger together is quite a site. Linda Hamilton is pretty great in this and really a badass. Don’t think the relationship Mackenzie Davis’ and Natalie Reyes’ character was as deep or felt as it should have been. I also think the pivotal opening scene with de-aging was done quite well. The wonders of technology these days.
This is definitely the best of the bunch that came after T2. I think having Hamilton return was a big part of that. Much like how Halloween (2018) was able to succeed by retconning everything after the first film, Terminator benefits from eliminating the last three films entirely. I know people will have problems with this film and justifiably so. I was pleasantly surprised and at my minimum standards of being better than the last three films was met.
7/10
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