Green Goblin Reviews Terminator: Dark Fate
Well, look at that. They made a real Terminator film again. R rated and everything. Neat! Is it the best? No. Is it the best since T2? Yes. Does it allow for continuation? Ehhhhh……….I guess? I honestly think this feels like a “one and done” kinda thing, but the older I get, the more comfortable I am with films not necessarily needing sequel after sequel. Sometimes, you get a Creed II, but sometimes you get a Rambo: Last Blood. Dark Fate is somewhere in-between, but leaning more towards the positive, I’d say.
T2 became one of my VHS regular watches when my parents purchased it for me for Christmas one year when I was about 7 or so. I was a little too young for the first film (a sci-fi horror film with a Linda Hamilton sex scene that came out 2 years before I was born), but its sequel switched genres to more of an action ensemble movie starring a wisecracking kid, his badass angry mom and his big, dumb pet robot, not unlike Alien switching from isolated horror to “give us all the guns!!!” for its own sequel. Even back then, I saw a dilemma looming and a harder issue standing in the way of answering it. The dilemma: they didn’t stop Judgement Day; they only delayed it. The original T-800 still had to have come from somewhere for Cyberdyne to have started replicating its tech. The harder issue: Even if they were to make a Terminator 3, how the hell were they gonna make something more scary than T-1000? It would be my summer vacation in High School where they tried to solve the dilemma, but they utterly failed at making a scarier threat with the T-X. Apart from one decent 2-season TV series in the mid-00’s, it was all downhill from there.
Apparently, I’m not the only one who thought so, because this film starts in 1998 in Guatemala, and proceeds to shake things up by completely retconning everything else out of existence. I don’t want to give it away, but HOLY SHIT does this film start off strong. Sarah Connor’s (Hamilton) role is pretty much set up right then and there, but it takes another 22 years before we see those all-too-familiar time spheres generate once again in Mexico City. Our target this time is a young factory worker named Dani (Natalia Reyes). She and her brother are going to their shift at a car manufacturing plant that is slowly being mechanized as jobs are being eliminated (haha…..subtle). This Terminator model, dubbed Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna), wastes no time generating clothing, assuming a familiar identity and infiltrating the factory in all of about 10 minutes. It’s seconds away from killing Dani as it draws a 9mm and begins to take aim, before being shotgun-blasted repeatedly by a our time-traveling guardian for this go-around, Grace (Mackenzie Davis); a human with mechanical augmentations, giving her enhanced strength, speed and reconnaissance but the trade-off of limited stamina and a hard crash after too much conflict. They flee the factory and end up on the highway with the Rev-9 still in hot pursuit until they are eventually saved by Sarah Connor, decked out in gear that looks like she was making a guest spot in the latest Call of Duty game and they’re given precious little time to collect themselves and run as the hunt begins anew.
The first thing I feel like I have to address is that yes, for the first time in decades, the titular Terminator is fucking scary again. Hallelujah!! Go tell it on the mountains!! It feels like what the T-X should have been. While it is also a mimetic poly-alloy over a hardened metal endoskeleton, the Rev-9 lacks the various guns attachments or nanobots. But it more than makes up for that with its unique talent of being able to completely separate into two separate entities and attack in perfect sync with itself, not unlike Noob Saibot from Mortal Kombat. They manage to utilize this ability with some solid fight choreography that shows just how many bodies it can pile up at a time. It also shows a degree of competence that hasn’t been seen before, due to the impact our digital footprint registers now in the 21st century. Oh, and there’s also a heavy focus on the US’s current immigration practices with a first act spoken nearly entirely in Spanish and a second act taking place mostly in a US border concentration camp, that’s handled only a little clumsily.
I’m trying not to focus too much on the backgrounds of Dani, Grace or Sarah (hell, I haven’t even mentioned to you how Arnold fits into this film), because so much of their personalities in this film revolve around some pretty heavy spoilers, but suffice it to say that all the characters’ motivations are well-defined with resolutions for all involved that feel earned. There isn’t any driving goal in the film other than “we gotta hide from/stop this fucking thing” and that’s for the best, but it feels like it goes just a bit too over-the-top between the second act and the climax, giving the audience very little room to breath. As we jump from one bombastic stunt to another, I could easily see a bit of sensory overload beginning to occur with my crowd, as eyes started to glaze over just ever-so-slightly. It also kinda peaks just a little too early, but I was still left satisfied enough to have this film push aside the Sarah Connor Chronicles as the third best thing to come outta this damn franchise (shut up, that show was neat).
7/10 This film rejuvenates and revitalizes the franchise, but suffers from some slight pacing issues and a lukewarm finale. Still worth a buy on home media and adding to the collection though.