Terminator: Dark Fate
A Fate Worse Than Desired — A Film Review
Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
Cast
Credited cast:
Edward Furlong …John Connor
Some films have the aurora of a pedigree. If the film is anywhere being good and has a followup successful sequel and critical acclaim, this honor is bestowed on them. The director is applauded, the writer is applauded, the cast is applauded. The audience is accepting of this and after a period of time, we place such film on this pedestal and shelf because we have relegated it to the position where any attempt to recapture that moment would be an offense to the hearts and minds of those who placed it there. Terminator: Dark Fate, is a movie that proves that revisiting a proven franchise is not always a pleasant experience. In the opening scene of this film, we find human skulls and a field of skeletal remains on a beach. As the scene continues, there are more human skulls as one roll down a hill of bones. We’ve seen this before in previous Terminator movies. Does this film attempt to remind us or just plain ran out of ideas to stimulate the audience with this rehashing of a plot point? This was your first sign of the repeating narrative that will be Terminator: Dark Fate.
James Cameron wrote this and Tim Miller directed it. These are two of the most high profile director and writer in the business. Somewhere in this collaboration, no joy was achieved in the making of this film. After the bones scene, the film quickly jumps into the time-traveling naked bodies of Grace, played by Mackenzie Davis and the Terminator, played by Gabriel Luna. The pacing for the first act is swift but it comes with perils to the storyline. The primary casualty is who is Grace and how did she get the enhancements to her body? Her backstory is convoluted as we see no technology being introduced to her body other than conventional first aid. The new Terminator is also a mystery. We got a full understanding of what the T-800, the original model, was about and the T-1000 was an enhanced dream bot of the highest order, liquid metal over a chassis. This newer version of the Terminator was lacking the sophistication of its predecessors and was enhanced with crude edges and jagged lines layered with a pewter finish. Gone is the silver metallic structures that came from the T-800 and T-1000.
The Terminator franchise has always been about a matriarchal figure. Sarah Connor played once again by Linda Hamilton, returns as the wounded mother figure after grieving the loss of John Connor from a successful assassination by a T-800. She’s a tortured woman living with the consequences and blaming herself for letting her guard down that caused the death of her son. It is this anger that fuels her rage throughout this picture. But is it too much rage? Gone and buried is the Sarah Connor from the original. Sarah had some warmth to her human existence. There was innocence that is now gone and replaced with unrivaled hate. Her undisputed hate for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 character is over the top and there is a question about this T-800 that also left with a perplexing identity crisis.
As we were told in the original Terminator, “Listen. Understand. That Terminator is out there. It can’t be reasoned with, it can’t be bargained with. It doesn’t feel pity of remorse or fear and it absolutely will not stop. Ever. Until you are dead.” So why is this Terminator living with a family and pretending to be a dad? Did he all of a sudden he has an emotion chip like Star Trek’s Data? Did someone rewrite his code to be kinder and gentler and be a hugging cyborg instead of a choking you to death cyborg? This take on the plot is completely illogical. If anything, this model Terminator should have deactivated himself after completing his task. By all things canon, he still should have remained a human killing cyborg. Was the rule book thrown out? Oh, and by the by, he goes by the name of Carl and he’s in the drapery business. He’s also behind the covert messages that he’s been sending to Sarah.
The object of the new Terminator obsession is Dani Ramos played by Natalia Reyes. The film leads you to believe that she is birth some new challenge to the future cyborgs but there is something that doesn’t track. Sure, you suspect that Grace may be the offspring to Dani because Grace is being cagey with answering Sarah’s questions. Still, after all is said and done, the surprise is revealed and it’s a nothing burger of a plot device. Unlike John Connor who led a resistance movement, we are lead to conclude that Dani would do the same thing but as with any group, an eventual leader will rise to the occasion.
So what was the point of all of this? Was it a self-serving interest from Grace’s point of view? After all, we accepted the premise that Grace had orders to follow but was any dispatched? There were some scenes that defied any logic what so ever. In one scene, the new Terminator is pursuing the group in a helicopter while they are on-board a C-5 transport plane. He crashes and gets another plane and catches up with them. How is this possible? It isn’t for you would have to suspend your belief on the laws on aerodynamics and physics.
I do not know why this film was ever made in the first place? It’s not like there was a huge demand to revisit this picture. The first two should have been an over and done situation. There was some humor that was supplied by Arnold but it wasn’t enough to keep this film from sinking into the abyss of failure. Sometimes going back to the well is only laced with rancid water. C’est la vie.
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