The release of a new Terminator sequel has become a familiar ritual: The latest filmmakers acknowledge the greatness of the first two movies, then mumble awkwardly about the other sequels — which are inevitably ignored, because they assure us that this time, they&ve created the sequel we&ve been waiting for.I can''t tell you whether &Rise of the Machines,& &Salvation& or &Genisys& deserve to be dismissed like this, because I haven''t seen any of them.
(I did watch the TV spin-off, &The Sarah Connor Chronicles,& which was pretty good.) But I can say that the latest installment, &Terminator: Dark Fate,& delivers on the promise of a worthy sequel.It helps, of course, to see the return of some familiar names — not just Arnold Schwarzenegger, but also Linda Hamilton, who takes up the role of Sarah Connor for the first time since &Terminator 2.&And then there franchise creator James Cameron, who was apparently too busy with his &Avatar& sequels to direct (&Dark Fate& was helmed by &Deadpool& director Tim Miller instead), but who stayed involved as a producer and story writer.Not that the story is really the selling point: The big emotional moments can feel clumsy and rushed, and some of the dialog is genuinely groan-worthy.All the script really needs to do, though, is give us a reason for those familiar faces to be back on-screen together, and to convince us that it not totally pointless to watch another Terminator movie.
In that, it succeeds — with a few nods toward the changing technological and political landscape thrown in for good measure.Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton star in Skydance Productions and Paramount Pictures& &TERMINATOR: DARK FATE.In the film opening minutes, we learn that Sarah and John Connor efforts at the end of &Terminator 2: Judgment Day& have succeeded in averting a nuclear apocalypse.
However, for reasons that only become clear later, those pesky Terminators keep showing up.The story proper kicks off in Mexico City, where a young woman named Dani Ramos (played by Natalia Reyes) becomes the latest target of a cyborg assassin.
Her pursuer (Gabriel Luna) is an advanced model whose skin and skeleton can function as two separate bodies, and she saved by not one but two protectors — Sarah Connor, along with a cybernetically enhanced soldier named Grace (Mackenzie Davis), plus the late-film addition of an old-model Terminator (Schwarzenegger, naturally).There are more revelations as the story unfolds, but one of the best things about &Dark Fate& is the simplicity of its storytelling.
Like its first two predecessors, it doesn''t overcomplicate the formula: There a killer cyborg, an innocent target and an overmatched guardian; mayhem ensues.It in the depiction of that mayhem that &Dark Fate& excels.
The film has plenty of CGI (I&d argue too much), but it feels very different from the weightless, super-powered battles that have become the big-screen norm, and even from the balletic killing sprees of the &John Wick& movies.Just got out of a screening of #terminatordarkfate.
Didn''t know the person next to me, but as the credits rolled, we both turned to each other and declared, &That was AWESOME.mdash; Anthony Ha (@anthonyha) October 22, 2019Instead, the action in &Dark Fate& feels like a throwback, specifically to those Cameron-directed Terminator movies, where a great deal of thought and ingenuity was devoted to coming up with all the different ways that a relentless murder machine might wreak havoc.Hamilton, by the way, seems completely at home in these scenes.
And although Schwarzenegger performance was gratifyingly funny and loose, &Dark Fate& is absolutely her film.Meanwhile, I&m still a little fuzzy on the details of how Luna Rev-9 actually works, but it makes for a striking and unsettling visual.
The finale, in particular, offers a masterful escalation of jeopardy and destruction, as Rev-9 tears through one environment after another in pursuit of our increasingly desperate heroes — almost convincing you that this time, the Terminator really might be unstoppable.I don''t want to overstate the case here: &Dark Fate& doesn''t quite replicate the perfect mix of violence, terror and melancholy that made those first two films so memorable.
But it can hold its own in a fight.