To the idea that "Dark Fate" could spell the end of the "Terminator" franchise, I say good riddance. Prior to the release of "Genisys," I hadn't actually seen a "Terminator" movie. Given that I had heard a lot of great things about the first two movies, I marathoned the whole thing, then went into "Genisys." And yeah, "The Terminator" is a great movie. That initial 1984 film is not one I brought up in box office comparisons because it was a small film that only opened to $4 million 1,005 theaters, bringing in $38 million total. It gained a large following in the seven years that ensued, which helped "T2" open huge, making $202 million total domestically, which adjusts to $438 million with 2019 ticket prices. And there's a great reason why the sequel made that much money. It took a fascinating concept with that original movie, then expanded on it, resulting in one of the best action movies ever since. Even though "T2" finished the story, they attempted to keep it going sans James Cameron with "T3" in 2003. In my opinion that was an utter disaster. Then they tried again in 2009 with "Salvation," and even though that's often considered the worst post "T2" sequel, I don't think that one is that bad. It's just useless and forgettable. "Genisys" did go back to being bad, though.
So yeah, three attempted continuations of the "T2" story arc and three failures. Each of those tried a unique angle to bring the franchise back into relevance, but nothing worked. My position thus became that this franchise should've ended after "T2." You have an excellent two story arc there and a completed story. The world has been saved. Crisis averted. Nothing more is needed. But Hollywood wasn't done. Enter "Dark Fate," which kinda saw James Cameron return. I say "kinda" there because I doubt how much involvement he actually had in this. He's not the director. He's just a producer. And that could mean just about anything, but I think he's too busy making "Avatar" movies to make a real contribution to anything. I think him listed as a producer is more of a marketing ploy. Sure, the movie has his stamp of approval, but I also seem to remember him thinking "Genisys" was worthy successor to "T2," so I don't know if his opinion or stamp of approval really means much of anything these days. Nevertheless, whoever came up with the idea behind this movie decided to go the "Halloween" route of completely retconning the previous sequels while choosing to be a direct sequel to "T2." OK, not a bad idea, I suppose. But how is the execution? Yeah...
"Dark Fate" picks up five years after "T2" happened. Judgment Day is in the past and Sarah and John Connor are living happily without any worries. Then an inciting incident happens. For now, all I'll say is the term "inciting incident" because that is a spoiler. But we HAVE to get into that later. But I'll warn you before we do. Moving on, after said inciting incident, we jump 22 years into the future, bringing us into the present day. Two random citizens in Mexico are minding their own business when a terminator-like being falls out of the sky. Turns out this first being is actually not a terminator. She's a genetically modified human of sorts who has been sent back in time to protect a certain individual from the real threat. It's then we see the actual terminator fall from the sky. This terminator is even more powerful than our previous terminators from past films. I can't remember what his model name is, but I call him liquid terminator because he turns into liquid and transforms into whatever his surroundings are. Perhaps shape-shifting terminator is a more apt term, but I still like liquid terminator because he melts into liquid and is impossible to kill. But he's out to kill the new chosen one and our genetically modified human is sent to stop him.
If this all sounds familiar, it's because it is. And that's what makes this movie frustrating. Sure, the idea of being a direct sequel to "T2" was fine, but the severe lack of creativity is painful. All they did was create a plot that was a completely recycled from "The Terminator" and "T2." The novelty of that first film was great. The expansion of that idea with "T2" was fantastic. But come on. Can ANYONE figure out how to do a new idea here that is actually smart and unique? First, though, before I continue my many complaints of this latest film, I must say that this is a competently crafted film. Tim Miller is the director here and he's the one who directed the first "Deadpool" movie. Given that both of his movies are franchise films with higher-ups who had ideas of how the movie needed to be, I don't really know what a Tim Miller film looks like. But in both cases, his movies are well shot, well directed, and exciting. The action in "Dark Fate" is extremely entertaining and all of the actors are giving it their all, with the idea that they are a part of a "Terminator" movie that's going to get people excited about this franchise again. This didn't feel like a paycheck film for anyone. I could see that everyone involved believed in what they were doing, which gives this movie a boost.
Specifically I give a lot of credit to Mackenzie Davis. She's our genetically modified human coming back to protect our new chosen one. In the movie we call her Grace. She has some great acting chops, making her character quite interesting. I came to love her personality and the extremely likable on-screen presence she had. She was also great in her action sequences. Now this is not gender specific, but sometimes you get an actor or actress who gets forced into being an action star, yet you don't believe it. With Mackenzie Davis that was not the case. I don't know what work she put into this movie, but it felt like she did a lot of training so that she could personally pull off what she was required to do. And that made everything exciting, especially as this unstoppable liquid terminator came after both her and the girl she was protecting. Speaking of that girl, her name is Dani and although she's not the most memorable part of this film, she also did a fine job. She was more of a damsel in distress and thus doesn't compare much to Sarah Connor in that original film, but she also had personality and emotion, so I had a genuine interest in her safety. The performances of these two ladies and some well directed action sequences made for a first act of this film that was excellent.
Of course those two ladies aren't the only ladies at center stage of this film. "Dark Fate" sees the return of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, who has developed into hardened, angry terminator hunter. At 63 years old now, she hasn't missed a beat. Her presence and excellent acting abilities elevated the first two "Terminator" movies and her involvement in this movie is also a welcomed presence. With her added to this trio of ladies, we have lots of girl power to help stop liquid terminator, making this an entertaining and progressive film for a portion of it. And while all three of these ladies did their absolute best to make this a good film, the root problem here for me was that this movie eventually became exhausting. A big part of the problem goes back to the core issue of this being the most unoriginal sequel to date, which in turn made this extremely frustrating. I kept waiting for something different and unique to happen, but the further we got into this film, the more this just became empty noise as we repeated the same exact tropes of the first two movies and I got tired of seeing an unstoppable liquid terminator hunting them down. Arnold in the first movie was a great villain and the T-1000 is pretty awesome. But liquid terminator bored me. He was fun for a bit, but just got old and dull, just like the movie's plot.
And this brings us full circle to the "inciting incident" that mentioned in the beginning of the movie. If you are interesting in seeing this movie, then turn away now because I'm going to bring up spoilers. If you've already seen this movie or you don't care about the plot of a sixth "Terminator" movie is, then let us continue. The beginning of this movie reminded me a lot of "Alien Cubed," my nickname for "Alien 3" due to how the title is stylized. "Alien" and "Aliens" both spent a good amount of time building up a likable team. By the end of "Aliens," the surviving group was family. Yet most of them died off screen at the beginning of "Alien Cubed," which is perplexingly frustrating. That leads us to "Dark Fate," which for some reason decided to kill John Connor in the opening scene. A rogue terminator shows up, despite Judgment Day already ending, and shoots John Connor in cold blood. This is why Sarah Connor became a hardened terminator hunter. I kept waiting for a justification here for this action, but that never came. Ultimately Dani became the new John Connor in another alternate future that forms, which is dumb. And it's frustrating because we spent two full movies protecting John Connor... only to see him shot dead at the beginning of the new one?
If you're a fan of this franchise, I have no idea how you can be fine with them doing this, just like I have no idea how you can be fine with "T3" completely ignoring the continuity errors that they set up. Everyone seems to hate "Salvation" because that one was only PG-13. I don't care about that. I don't require a movie to be a certain rating in order for it to be enjoyed. I just want it to be a good movie. And at least "Salvation" tried to be something different, which I think is respectable. We can all agree that "Genisys" was a unfortunate blunder, but I can see a lot of people supporting "Dark Fate" because it gave us some great action sequences and some great acting, with the return of Linda Hamilton. I need more than that, though. I need a good movie that's not recycled from previous movies and I need the movie to respect the events of the first two movies that are excellent. In that, this movie fails. And I feel bad for Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes and Linda Hamilton because they tried to make this work. Thankfully this timeline is so screwed up that I can forget that any of these sequels post "T2" ever happened and simply enjoy the first two movies as a solid two movie story arc. "Dark Fate" isn't the worst sequel, but it is the most frustrating and I'm giving it a 6/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment