Terminator: Dark Fate review: James Cameron and Linda Hamilton both return to the film franchise that made them stars, but is their return warranted or should the series be terminated once and for all?
Skydance Productions and Paramount Pictures.
Before I delve into my review for Terminator: Dark Fate, I feel it is only right that I confess that I am a massive fan of The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. I’ve seen both hundreds, if not into the thousands of times. They played a big part during my formative years and I basically worshipped at the alter of Sarah Connor. Then came Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, which was just all wrong, right from it’s opening monologue (John Connor is ten during the events of T2, not thirteen). Terminator Salvation did what its name suggests and salvaged some of the franchise’s dignity. That dignity was once again stripped away in Terminator Genisys; the whole film felt like average cosplayers acting out weak fan fiction. It goes without saying then that my hopes of Terminator: Dark Fate being any good were pretty low.
The only spark of hope lay with the involvement of James Cameron, the creator of the series, and the return of Linda Hamilton as warrior-mother Sarah Connor. Hamilton’s voice was heard in T3 and Salvation, but she has waited until film six to get back in front of the camera. But was her return worth it?
Skydance Productions and Paramount Pictures.
The answer is a tentative ‘sort of’. Dark Fate’s opening moments are strong, allowing Sarah to refresh the viewer’s memory with her story. She is soon cast aside however, in favour of meeting our new terminator, a Rev 9 (Gabriel Luna), and protector Grace (Mackenzie Davis). We then quickly move onto the new target, Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes). From there we descend into the usual Terminator game of chase, with Sarah Connor and a T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) joining the fray. James Cameron may have returned to the fold to produce this one, but what made the Cameron Terminator films so special is that, in addition to directing, he also wrote them both. Here the screenplay has been handled by David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes, and Billy Ray, and there’s a distinct lack of cohesion to the whole affair.
Whilst technically a Terminator film, Dark Fate has a lot more in common with the generic high-octane blockbusting action films that audiences have become accustomed too. This Terminator is very much a Terminator film by way of the Fast and the Furious franchise. There’s nothing wrong with the action spectacles per-se, but what made the first two films so great was that, in a weird way, there was an element of believability to what was happening to the characters. I’m obviously not talking about the killing robots from the future part of the plot here, but sneaking around an industrial factory, steel mills and breaking into a hi-tech office all make sense. Here we have battles on planes, bridges getting blown-up, and prison riots. The opening thirty minutes alone have more action, explosions and crashes, than in the first two films combined. It’s all too glossy and excessive, which makes it feel like generic popcorn fodder. It’ll make for a great watch in 4DX, but to me that’s never been what the series is about.
Skydance Productions and Paramount Pictures.
Given director Tim Miller has pumped in so much action, inevitably the story and character development has fallen by the wayside. We’ve hardly gotten to know Dani before she’s already on the run, and it makes it hard to connect with her. In The Terminator we spent a great deal of time with Sarah going about her daily life, waiting tables, meeting her roommate etc., so that by the time she was sat in Tech Noir with a red dot on her forehead, we were invested in her and not prepared to see her die. The same can’t be said here. It’s a similar story with Grace, her character lacks the complexity of Michael Biehn’s Kyle Reese. Arnie is under utilised, and whilst it’s nice to see my childhood hero of Sarah Connor back on the screen, the changes made to her character jar with what we’ve seen of her previously. The biggest misstep is that Sarah is suddenly spouting off wise-cracks and dead-pan jokes. It’s just one of a myriad of things that doesn’t make sense. Gabriel Luna is potentially the only character that truly gets to shine, and he does a great job of imitating Robert Patrick’s performance as the T-1000.
For the die-hard fans out there, the film pays lip service to the original duo, the film is peppered with nice little nods to what we’ve seen before. We get recycled iconic lines, a couple of bars of Guitars and Cadillacs, and plenty of visual references through the camerawork. It’s a loving touch that shows the passion of all involved to keep the spirit of the originals alive, but sadly it highlights how hollow this film is, and reminds you that you could just be watching one of them instead.
In terms of a tent-pole action film, Terminator: Dark Fate works. It has plenty of shiny special effects and exaggerated action pieces, but a true Terminator film it is not. It lacks the heart and emotional punch that the devoted audience of The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day are yearning for. This is by no means the worst in the franchise, but given what else has followed T2, that doesn’t really say much.
Terminator: Dark Fate is now playing.
