It seems like making a good Terminator sequel is harder than it seems. Yes, Terminator 2 Judgement Day was good, but I don't think it's the best of the series like a lot of people make out; that still goes to the first film for me. Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines was pretty poor and best forgotten. Terminator Salvation is one I like because they made the machines scary again, but is far from perfect. And Terminator Genisys took a huge shit on the films that came before it and is probably the worst of the bunch. As such I had little expectations going into Terminator Dark Fate. But, I was really pleasantly surprised by this film.
Terminator Dark Fate follows on from the second film, disregarding much of the muddled mess that came after it. It begins back in the 90's with Sarah Connor and her son John after they defeated the T-1000 and stopped the formation of Skynet. Unfortunately, another terminator had already been sent back in time, and murders John in front of Sarah. Killing John Connor is a bold way to start the movie, and really sets it apart from all the other sequels, which all featured John in some way.
The film then jumps forwards to modern day Mexico, where two time portals open up, one depositing an augmented human named Grace, the other the deadly Rev-9 terminator. Grace has been enhanced using technology to make her faster and stronger than a normal human, capable of standing her ground against a terminator, and her mission is to protect Dani Ramos, a young woman who has been targeted by the Rev-9.
One of the first action sequences in the film, where Grace and the Rev-9 fight in a car factor, might be one of the best action scenes in the movie, and the franchise. Grace and the Rev-9 fight with a speed and agility that the franchise hasn't had before. Both actors, Mackenzie Davis and Gabriel Luna, move with a fluidity that Arnold Schwarzenegger was never able to achieve, and their fight is almost dance like. It also shows how far technology has come, allowing the integration of robot effects into the fight that was simply impossible even for the second film. The fight also shows off why director Tim Miller was a good choice to direct, with his great action directing on Deadpool clearly not a fluke.
The film really shines, however, once Linda Hamilton comes into things. She's angry, tough, and bitter, and is the exact type of person I can see Sarah Connor growing into, especially with the loss of her hope following John's murder. She fights terminators without fear, having gone up against so many now that she's a hardened warrior that even Terminator 2 Judgement Day Sarah wasn't. Despite this, she still has a heart, and one of the best scenes in the movie is where she breaks down and lets her emotions show, when she tells Dani that she doesn't have a photo of John and is slowly forgetting him; a scene that shows the level of grief and trauma the poor woman in living with.
Here scenes with Arnold Schwarzenegger's Carl are also highlights, and their interactions are perfect as a terminator who has learned to grow a conscience and can love (somewhat) and a woman who wants to kill him because he murdered the most important person in her life. The slow evolution of their relationship isn't central to the story, but is there and well played nonetheless. You also get a great moment where Sarah learns that Dani isn't the new her, the mother of the future resistance leader, but that leader. She realises that Dani is essentially John, and that moment means a lot to her, gives her something to fight for again. Dani becomes a stand in for her lost son, and the fact that the two of them stick together at the end of the movie shows that this has given Sarah a new sense of purpose and hope.
The only thing I'd say that the movie didn't do right with Sarah was the moment when she first appears on screen during the modern day segment. She walks out onto the highway with a shotgun and a rocket launcher and takes down the Rev-9 as it's about to kill Grace and Dani, and it's awesome. But, the fact that the iconic Terminator theme didn't start playing when she stepped out the car is a crime. Sarah Connor coming to the rescue with that stand out opening theme music would have elevated it to one of the best moments in the franchise.
I liked the changes that Terminator Dark Fate made to the mythology, especially in regards to the future war. One of the things that didn't quite make sense to me with the other sequels was that John and Sarah just delayed the future war, that Skynet still came into being and John still became the resistance leader. This film takes a different approach. Here Skynet is gone completely, and it's another AI that rose up against humanity. Now, to those saying that's silly and it should have just been Skynet, another AI coming to the same conclusion about humanity is much more believable than the same future playing out just a little later. There are so many factors that would have to come into play to have the same future happen decades later that it just doesn't make sense; this new Legion AI is definitely the way to go.
It also means that a different AI would create different terminators to help wipe out humanity. The brief glimpses we get of the future show this, with the flying Hunter Killer robots being a similar kind of design to those from previous films, and the opening sequence for this movie, but they're actually quite different when you look closely at them. The Rev-9 also shows off a difference in robot design. The Rev-9 combines the robotic endo-skeleton we've seen in other films, with a kind of liquid metal terminator from the second movie. And I say kind of liquid metal, because it never looks like the T-1000 during the movie. The shiny silver of the T-1000 is gone, instead the Rev-9's liquid parts look darker, closer to the black metallic of it's skeletal structure, yet moves less like a liquid and at times looks more like nanobots of some kind.
The Rev-9's makes for one of the more interesting terminators in the series too, thanks to his ability to separate his liquid and skeletal parts, essentially splitting into two machines, giving the heroes two targets to contend with. This feature is used pretty sparingly throughout the movie, but it's always cool when they do it. The scenes during the future flash backs (Flash forwards? Both) really show how cool and interesting these machines are when they attack with tentacle like spikes and blades.
Terminator Dark Fate was able to keep me entertained throughout. It had a story that felt like a good progression from the second movie, but was still able to do new and unexpected things. The new cast were really good, and weren't overshadowed by Hamilton or Schwarzenegger. If this is all that's done with this new timeline then I'm happy with that, but if this is the start of a new series and we get more from these characters then I'm all for that.
Despite going into the film expecting something as bad as Terminator Genisys I left the experience having been thoroughly entertained, and actually wanting to see more. This was something of a strange experience for a Terminator sequel, but one that was nice to have. Terminator Dark Fate might not meet everyone's tastes, but I found it to be one of the better sequels in the franchise.
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