Mark Reviews Movies: TERMINATOR: DARK FATE

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Review by Mark Dujsik | October 31, 2019

To call Terminator: Dark Fate a copy of its predecessors is accurate. To criticize it on those grounds would be a bit disingenuous. Besides, there are many other reasons to criticize this inferior sequel.

This is the third attempt (the fourth, if one counts a short-lived TV show) to create a direct sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. That film, one of the shining examples of how to do a sequel correctly, was basically a copy of its own predecessor, and there's no reason to fault it for that.

The Terminator was about a machine from the future, sent back in time by a genocidal artificial intelligence, trying to stop the inevitable rise of the leader of the human resistance, while the human side sent back its own protector. The sequel essentially possessed the same premise, only with some ingenious variations and the aid of some then-revolutionary visual effects—not to mention a stronger sense of the characters, more robust action sequences, and a good deal of humor.

This new variation of a third installment (written by David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes, and Billy Ray) basically possesses the same premise as the films that preceded its in-movie continuity: a killing machine hunting a future leader and a protector trying to save humanity's future salvation. The notion of returning to those basics is sound, if only because we have the first sequel as proof that it can work.

The twist here is that the events of the second film have stuck. The original rise of the machines was stopped, but humankind, being proud and self-destructive as it wont to be, will eventually make the same mistake. A new artificial intelligence, called Legion, will destroy most of humanity, will construct an army of cyborgs (which coincidentally look exactly like the previous ones that, in this timeline, never existed) to wipe out the survivors, and will go by the same playbook as the now non-existent Skynet in order to prevent its defeat.

Yes, this is really just an excuse to tell the same story again while superficially making it seem kind of new. There is something so wickedly but understandably cynical about this setup, though, that we're mostly tempted to give the movie the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, the filmmakers don't have the same willingness or, for that matter, any kind of faith in this conceit.

The protector this time is Grace (Mackenzie Davis), a human augmented with advanced technology from around 2040, who arrives in Mexico City circa 2020. The hunter is a Terminator called the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna), which has a shape-shifting skin that can separate from its metallic skeleton (meaning it's two unstoppable killers for the price of one). The target is Dani (Natalia Reyes), an ordinary young woman who is destined for something great in about 20 years.

The story, like almost every other movie in this series, is an extended chase, with specific action sequences breaking up the explanations of the present and future. Along for the ride is Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton, whose return to this character after 28 years is the one undeniable joy here), who's still hunting Terminators, even though her initial work to save humanity succeeded. Alone after what happens in the movie's first scene, she's still as tough and even more jaded. A T-800 model, once again played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, arrives later, and with no target to terminate, it has become amusingly domesticated.

There are clever ideas here, and that, apparently, is enough for the screenwriters. The notion that humanity is essentially fated to doom itself—no matter how much is done to stop it—is an inherently haunting one. Once the gears of the plot—itself just a blatant excuse to go from setpiece to setpiece—are in motion, though, we realize the idea is nothing more than a cynical rationale for this movie to repeat its better predecessors. The characters aren't given any opportunity to reveal themselves or grow, given how much running, fighting, shooting, and exposition-giving they have to do.

As for those action sequences, they are, perhaps, the movie's biggest, most disastrous stumble. It's not just that director Tim Miller relies on rapid and constant cuts, along with progressions of shots that are often disorienting, that ruin the action's momentum and communication of how things move in a given space (It doesn't help that a pair of setpieces during the third act are indecipherable, thanks to their dimness).

It's also just the idea that Terminator: Dark Fate has to be as big as possible (An early highway chase is just mindless carnage, and there's a brawl in a crashing plane). The filmmakers have gone all in on spectacle, and they've sacrificed just about everything else for it.

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