Terminator: Dark Fate is the sixth movie installment of the Terminator franchise. It totally ignores the events of the last
three movies, operating instead solely as a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Essentially, it aims to establish its
narrative to be the “true continuation” of the saga, implying in the process
that the previous three movies occurred in alternate timelines. This way, it’s supposed to “clean up” the
mess that those movies had made. I
appreciate the thought, but still, at this point, the continuity is already an
utter dumpster fire that I now honestly can’t care less how these movies fit
together.
So, in this new – or rather, “correct”
– timeline (this synopsis is going to have major SPOILERS), Sarah Connor (Linda
Hamilton) and John Connor (Edward Furlong), with the help of the reprogrammed
T-800 “Terminator” (Arnold Schwarzenegger), did completely succeed in stopping
Skynet in 1995 from bringing about “Judgment Day” (i.e. the plot of Terminator 2). However, three years later, another T-800 appears
– apparently sent to the past by Skynet prior its erasure – and this time, he
succeeds in assassinating John Connor.
Fast forward to 2020, and a new
liquid metal Terminator model – the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna) – arrives from
2042. But this time, he’s sent by Legion
– the AI that caused Judgment Day in this timeline instead of Skynet. His mission: kill a young Mexican woman named
Daniella “Dani” Ramos (Natalia Reyes). Meanwhile,
the Resistance also sent a cyborg supersoldier named Grace (Mackenzie Davis) to
protect Dani. Eventually, Sarah and
the T-800 are drawn to the conflict as well.
It should be quickly discernible
from that spoiler-y synopsis what’s the problem with its script (that’s why I made the
synopsis spoiler-y this time). No, it’s
not the time travel logic. Again, in the
case of this franchise, one would be better off with giving up trying to make
sense of its timelines. The main problem
actually is that the script borrows a lot from aspects of Terminator, Terminator 2,
and even Terminator 3: Rise of the
Machines (I have to admit that the Rev-9 is an objectively better version of
the T-X, though). Whatever new ideas it
has to present are mostly on a superficial level. Thus, the story is effortlessly predictable. It can even be said that its only claim to originality
is that “it does all of the same cool stuff you liked about Terminator, but with more women and
diversity on the forefront” – which doesn’t really have actual creative value. And in the times that it does do something different
and surprising with its story, it does so by trampling on legacy (e.g. killing
John Connor in an unceremonious manner right before the title even appeared on
the screen).
By the way, the T-800 that
assassinated John in 1998? Having completed his
mission and with Skynet gone, he began to wander and observe humanity, developing
self-awareness and a conscience in the process. He felt guilty of what he did to
John that he desired to make it right with Sarah. He also took the name “Carl” and then even
started a family. That’s just dumb and
ridiculous! But, at least, there’s a silver
lining: Arnold is pretty funny as Carl. He even has a well-executed line about guns and Texas that made me literally LOL. The problem here is that the whole
characterization of Carl is uncharacteristic of who the Terminator is.
All in all, Terminator: Dark Fate is
actually an okay action film. I would be
lying if I said that it didn’t entertain me.
It has a couple of solid set pieces – the final battle is especially kinda
awesome – and seeing Arnold’s Terminator be a stiff badass in combat is genuinely
fun. However, after Terminator: Genisys, the franchise was left in
such a sorry state that it would take more than just an “okay action film” to truly redeem it.
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