Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Terminator: Dark Fate is the next tired attempt to revive the Terminator Franchise.

In a nutshell, this is awful. The film is little more than a generic and tepid action film with the Terminator name slapped on it. For 200 million dollars, it looks incredibly cheap and very bland, with an overly lit brown/beige palette and locations that you've all seen before (more road chases, more factories).

Mackenzie Davis is the standout and gives a really good performance as Grace, but the others are really below par. Even Linda Hamilton portrays Sarah Conner as some inept old women who is just really annoying. Her angst and negativity in T2 was always justified, but here the motivation are all so thin that it ends up just being a pale facsimile of what she did for Cameron. Arnie is 100% phoning it in here and his role in the film is almost comical in regard to his "character's" situation. The new girl....isn't even worth mentioning.

The plot is just exactly the same old "send a bad guy and a good guy back to kill/protect someone then go on a chase". There's absolutely nothing new here at all, and almost every beat from the other films is re-hashed, only here they inject long boring sections where nothing happens. These parts are supposed to be "dramatic", but there's no depth or originality to the story or characters for those kind of moments to work without just being dull.

The CGI is woeful too, and I'll not spoil anything, but it takes a very big dump on the first two films from the very start.

Any attempt at a third Terminator film should have been made in 1996-98. The film should have been written and directed by James Cameron and should have been completely set in the blue tinted post-apocalyptic setting we saw glimpses of in the first two films.

Alas, we will never see James Cameron's "Terminator 3: Future War" as not only has the lore been tainted, but the time for it has well and truly passed.

Terminator: Dark Fate is not only a poor, poor attempt at a third "canon" entry in the franchise, but it is for me, the worst of the post-T2 movies.

Yes, even Genisys.

Fmovies: I'm a huge Terminator fan, I re-watched both 1 & 2 before seeing this. Big mistake.

I'm gutted to say that this film has none of what makes Terminator 2 one of the best films of all time. The writing is below par, plot uninteresting and emotional connection between the Terminator and John Connor, none of that either. James Cameron, what is this? Mind, I don't think he's been on form for a good few years now.

What makes Terminator 2 an amazing film aside from the brilliant plot, amazing effects, great screen writing and superb acting is the emotional connection between the Terminator and John Connor. This is the life blood of that film and makes the viewer really believe that despite the hopeless future humanity is facing, if this Terminator can protect John then maybe mankind has a chance. The Terminator is a father figure to John and this is what connects the audience with the film so much. The heart wrenching ending cannot be forgotten. The fact that we forget the the Terminator isn't human because of how well the film builds the bond. This is what makes Terminator 2 so great, not the epic action sequences.

So I'm sad to say this film has absolutely none of that. CGI, CGI and more CGI. Do away with the depth of character building, emotional connections and just add over the top action. It's a poor follow up and lacks everything of what made 1 & 2 great. The acting is decent, Davis, Hamilton and Schwarzenegger do a good job but they've got very little to work with here. This is what disappointed me the most. Why does it lack substance? This is James Cameron's epic creation and this is what he serves up along with Tim Miller? A total cash in if I've ever seen one. If not going to divulge into the plot anymore, there's no need as it can't even be mentioned in the same breath as the first two films.

If this film was viewed as a generic action film at the cinema it'd still be mediocre. The fact that this is supposed to follow on from the brilliant Terminator 2 just makes it even more disappointing. This is James Cameron's judgment day.

Do yourselves a favour and wait until it hits home release or if you are planning on seeing it, don't bother watching the first two beforehand, you'll be even more disappointed.

It's like they wrote down all the political commentaries they wanted in the movie and then just filled in the rest, just copied and pasted without any regard for plot, logic or entertaining value whatsoever. All those 10/10 reviews insulting people for not liking this incredibly bad movie are hilarious, apparently you are not allowed to dislike female lead movies no matter how atrocious the are so they call you a troll, incel, racist, misogynist... Some of them even say it's better than 1 & 2 which goes to show how credible these reviews are. Anyways this movie has no entertaining value and no substance and is definitely the worst Terminator movie yet. If you haven't seen it watch The Sarah Connor Chronicles instead and if you're looking for a good action movie with solid strong female characters, there are plenty to choose from:

The Alien franchise, Underworld franchise, Resident Evil franchise, The Hunger Games franchise, Battle Angel Alita, Ghost in the Shell,Tomb Raider, Atomic Blonde, Salt, Mad Max Fury Road, Hanna, Haywire, Sucker Punch, Wonder Woman, Kill Bill 1& 2, Red Sparrow...

Trust me there is a reason this movie was a total flop and lost so much money, and it's not sexism or any other silly excuse these virtue signaling fake reviewers will throw at you.

The Expanse is an incredibly awesome sci-fi tv show filled with amazing and strong female characters all around, two of them (Drummer and Avasarala) being my favorite characters of the show by far, so if you looking for quality entertainment with lots and lots of cool strong female characters, this is a must for you.

Terminator: Dark Fate fmovies. The terminator gets a similar politically correct treatment as the star wars Disney sequels with racial diversity and feminism. You can tell Arnold and Linda did it for the money without bringing much passion to the screen and the new actors/characters are flat and weak. There's not much action till the last 30 min and even then its heavily cgi'd/cartoonish and you don't care about any of the characters.

Now all we need is to invent a time machine and send someone to 1997 and stop James Cameron from making titanic so he could direct the proper conclusion to the terminator trilogy with a young Arnold and save us from all these dreadful sequels from the last 20 years.

I'll be honest, Dark Fate is more mediocre than unwatchable, probably the best Terminator since T2... yeah, I know, the bar is so low, it's like limbo dancing at this point. This feels similar to The Force Awakens: in itself a slick, decent movie, but I've already watched the much better original, so thanks but no thanks.

Positives? Mackenzie Davis, for whom I've had a hopeless crush since seeing her as a cute NASA geek in The Martian (and then again in Blade Runner 2049), plays a relatable, compelling character, with an intriguing mix of power and vulnerability. There are also a couple of neat set-pieces, especially in the first half, before everything becomes over-the-top tiresome.

Linda Hamilton and Arnold show up for fanservice. It's kind of nice to see them both back with significant roles but, as is typical of fanservice, it's like gorging on too much chocolate: tastes good at first, but then come nausea and a vague feeling of shame.

My main point is, the Terminator series is now hopeless, as the last movies, especially Genisys, have poisoned the well. The continuity is a mess and keeps being rebooted, so everything is pointless: no development can feel meaningful. Show of hands: who would be particularly surprised if the next Terminator movie was once again about John Connor leading the Resistance in another alternate continuity? No one? Thought so.

Also, the new villain being so talkative was possibly the single stupidest idea in the whole project. You know why Arnold in T1 and Robert Patrick in T2 were so terrifying? Because they shut up! They said very little and, the few times they spoke, it always felt like something they did for pure necessity (probing for informations, setting up a trap) but was fundamentally alien to their nature.

This Rev-9 tries to talk its antagonists out of fighting him! Can anyone picture the T-1000 reasoning with its targets? The great Robert Patrick studied and imitated the body language of birds of prey to look creepier and inhuman, and the new bad guy wants to chat. Give me a break.

5/10

We, when we watch it, when we pay a ticket, we encourage these people to keep trowing garbarge at us, we need to stop...