It's been 28 years since James Cameron unleashed Terminator 2: Judgement Day, still deservedly regarded as one of the best sequels of all time. Cameron is a master of set piece kinetics, and Judgement Day delivered like crazy, along with dynamite characters you cared about, and a solid dose of humor. Audiences couldn't get enough.
In the intervening years, there have been three previous efforts to resurrect the franchise, with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Salvation (2009), and Terminator Genisys (2015), with the The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series sandwiched in there in 2008. Without substantial involvement from James Cameron, none of these projects found any lasting success.
The good news is, for Terminator: Dark Fate, Cameron got involved again - though being too busy making numerous Avatar sequels, farmed out directing duties to Deadpool director Tim Miller, with a screenplay by David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes, and Billy Ray. The team decided to pretend that none of these failed Terminator sequels ever existed, positioning Dark Fate as the first direct sequel to Judgement Day. More good news - they largely succeed, and the film is rated R. But they don't wholly succeed, and given the film's box office under-performance, it's easy to see why.
Part of the problem is they essentially go the remake/sequel hybrid route, with Dark Fate attempting to exhume the fundamental dynamic of the original (1984) Terminator, a heroic soldier from the future going back in time to try to prevent a hostile Terminator from assassinating the woman who brings their reign of terror to an end - a move that feels like calculated franchise avarice more than storytelling.
The result is a frustrating experience, in large part due to the casting. The headline here is Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire) as Grace, essentially the Kyle Reese character - a cybernetically enhanced future soldier with simply phenomenal combat skills. It's a star-making performance, and Davis throws herself into the role with 300% commitment and 1000 watt star power. With Grace, Davis jumps to the immediate front of the line for all heroic action roles, male or female - period. Imagine a short-tempered sci-fi Valkyrie version of Megan Rapinoe. Davis kicks every kind of ass there is, and is thankfully in nearly every scene of the film.
Likewise, an incredibly savvy move is luring back Sarah Connor herself, Linda Hamilton, who brings a very similar take to the character to what Jamie Lee Curtis achieved in last year's Halloween sequel - a hardcore, gun-toting sexegenarian, in a new chapter that ignores all the previous lamer chapters that came before. Hamilton is awesome, and has definitely not mellowed with age. She does vigilant paranoia and rage better than anybody, and when she teams up with Davis, the two make a serious house on fire.
Also got to hand it to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who pulls anchorman duty in a surprising way that genuinely works. I wish he'd entered the plot sooner than he does, but it totally satisfies, and his scenes with Hamilton have genuine sparks and poignancy to them. These three all do fantastic work.
So what's my problem? Sadly, it all of the other "main characters." As Dani Ramos, the "Sarah Redux" role of the Terminator's target, I'm not sure what's going on with Natalia Reyes. You might be tempted to say Tim Miller's better at directing action than actors, but he got one hell of a phenomenal performance out of Mackenzie Davis, so I don't think that's a fair take. Sad to say, Reyes just doesn't come off well as an actor here. She's plaintive and confused, and sometimes she gets very frustrated and mad. I found her an incredibly annoying and forgettable character.
So, too, with the antagonist. You gotta have a lethal, frightening villain in a movie like this, and as the zany "Rev-9" Terminator, actor Gabriel Luna is frustratingly lacking. He's no Robert Patrick. He never looks threatening; he almost seems affable at times; but mostly just comes off as goofy. This Terminator is the not-very-inventive cousin of T2's liquid metal Terminator, but with the ability to somehow morph off its fleshy human shell to move independently from its own endoskeleton. Now there are two of them! It makes no sense, and unfortunately, Luna's Rev-9 endures the shoddiest of the film's computer-generated effects.
There's also an embarrassingly preposterous mid-air action sequence that defies every disbelief-suspending implausibility in the history of mid-air action sequences. It's truly ludicrous. Thankfully, it's redeemed by a far superior climax ground battle, where Miller manages to capture some of that old Cameron visceral inertia.
I enjoyed seeing a genuine Terminator sequel, especially with the callbacks to Sarah Connor and the dynamic presence of Mackenzie Davis. Huge chunks of it are outright fantastic, and really enjoyable for action fans. But it's a movie that too often runs hot and cold.
The meat of this sandwich is really great, but the bread containing it is just way too stale.
In the intervening years, there have been three previous efforts to resurrect the franchise, with Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator Salvation (2009), and Terminator Genisys (2015), with the The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series sandwiched in there in 2008. Without substantial involvement from James Cameron, none of these projects found any lasting success.
The good news is, for Terminator: Dark Fate, Cameron got involved again - though being too busy making numerous Avatar sequels, farmed out directing duties to Deadpool director Tim Miller, with a screenplay by David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes, and Billy Ray. The team decided to pretend that none of these failed Terminator sequels ever existed, positioning Dark Fate as the first direct sequel to Judgement Day. More good news - they largely succeed, and the film is rated R. But they don't wholly succeed, and given the film's box office under-performance, it's easy to see why.
Part of the problem is they essentially go the remake/sequel hybrid route, with Dark Fate attempting to exhume the fundamental dynamic of the original (1984) Terminator, a heroic soldier from the future going back in time to try to prevent a hostile Terminator from assassinating the woman who brings their reign of terror to an end - a move that feels like calculated franchise avarice more than storytelling.
The result is a frustrating experience, in large part due to the casting. The headline here is Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire) as Grace, essentially the Kyle Reese character - a cybernetically enhanced future soldier with simply phenomenal combat skills. It's a star-making performance, and Davis throws herself into the role with 300% commitment and 1000 watt star power. With Grace, Davis jumps to the immediate front of the line for all heroic action roles, male or female - period. Imagine a short-tempered sci-fi Valkyrie version of Megan Rapinoe. Davis kicks every kind of ass there is, and is thankfully in nearly every scene of the film.
Likewise, an incredibly savvy move is luring back Sarah Connor herself, Linda Hamilton, who brings a very similar take to the character to what Jamie Lee Curtis achieved in last year's Halloween sequel - a hardcore, gun-toting sexegenarian, in a new chapter that ignores all the previous lamer chapters that came before. Hamilton is awesome, and has definitely not mellowed with age. She does vigilant paranoia and rage better than anybody, and when she teams up with Davis, the two make a serious house on fire.
Also got to hand it to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who pulls anchorman duty in a surprising way that genuinely works. I wish he'd entered the plot sooner than he does, but it totally satisfies, and his scenes with Hamilton have genuine sparks and poignancy to them. These three all do fantastic work.
So what's my problem? Sadly, it all of the other "main characters." As Dani Ramos, the "Sarah Redux" role of the Terminator's target, I'm not sure what's going on with Natalia Reyes. You might be tempted to say Tim Miller's better at directing action than actors, but he got one hell of a phenomenal performance out of Mackenzie Davis, so I don't think that's a fair take. Sad to say, Reyes just doesn't come off well as an actor here. She's plaintive and confused, and sometimes she gets very frustrated and mad. I found her an incredibly annoying and forgettable character.
So, too, with the antagonist. You gotta have a lethal, frightening villain in a movie like this, and as the zany "Rev-9" Terminator, actor Gabriel Luna is frustratingly lacking. He's no Robert Patrick. He never looks threatening; he almost seems affable at times; but mostly just comes off as goofy. This Terminator is the not-very-inventive cousin of T2's liquid metal Terminator, but with the ability to somehow morph off its fleshy human shell to move independently from its own endoskeleton. Now there are two of them! It makes no sense, and unfortunately, Luna's Rev-9 endures the shoddiest of the film's computer-generated effects.
There's also an embarrassingly preposterous mid-air action sequence that defies every disbelief-suspending implausibility in the history of mid-air action sequences. It's truly ludicrous. Thankfully, it's redeemed by a far superior climax ground battle, where Miller manages to capture some of that old Cameron visceral inertia.
I enjoyed seeing a genuine Terminator sequel, especially with the callbacks to Sarah Connor and the dynamic presence of Mackenzie Davis. Huge chunks of it are outright fantastic, and really enjoyable for action fans. But it's a movie that too often runs hot and cold.
The meat of this sandwich is really great, but the bread containing it is just way too stale.
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