After Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley from the Alien franchise, Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor, specifically from Terminator 2: Judgment Day, is the shero of my childhood to young adulthood. I don’t mind that I live in a world where all the action heroes are still starring as the lead after having strokes on screen, heart attacks off screen and all other sorts of ailments that come with time, but Lucy Lawless hung up her chakram, never to reprise her role in spirit, if not in actuality. I get that actors want variety in life and don’t want to get stuck playing the same role, but women in action films rarely get the same treatment as men even if they want to if they are action stars. Just ask Famke Jenssen. So I was psyched that Linda Hamilton would be reprising her role in Terminator: Dark Fate. All I need is the promise of a robot apocalypse and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and I’m in regardless of how crappy the movie is, but Sarah Connor was back so quality be damned, I’m there. Take my money! Hamilton walked so Lena Headey could run!
Terminator: Dark Fate is canon because James Cameron was involved in the creation of the story, which was obvious in one scene ripped from the headlines. A new model Terminator is hunting down Dani, a Mexican woman, played by Natalia Reyes, and Grace, a mysterious figure from the future, played by Mackenzie Davis, is trying to protect her when Sarah Connor comes to the rescue. If Judgment Day never happened, then what did?
Terminator: Dark Fate is far from being the worst entry in the franchise. Terminator: Salvation deserves that ignominy with Terminator: Geniysys not that far behind. While Terminator: Dark Fate is better than Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, it is only because of the quality of the cast on screen and the story…on paper. Visually it lacks rhythm and a certain Fred Astaire panache in terms of capturing the action, physical and emotional. It felt as if the writers did their job, and the actors were really delivering their best, but a dreadful combination of editing and directing couldn’t effectively capture the literal and metaphorical hits to my satisfaction and somehow managed to drop the ball. All the fight scenes are clearly superbly executed, but we don’t get to see the whole action unfold. Chaos cinema strikes again. The complete movement is never fully captured so you don’t get to appreciate the beauty in the dance of death.
Initially I wondered if it was to save money on CGI. The majority of the CGI in Terminator: Dark Fate is inventive and remarkable although there were a couple of moments when the seams were showing or it already felt dated so this theory wasn’t outrageous, but it does not explain why they would step on their best jokes and treat it like background scenery. Schwarzenegger delivers some really hilarious, campy lines, but the layout of the scene does not let the punchline land so it feels like an afterthought instead of a moment that could have been savored. The only moments that he gets to show his vast entertainment experience is in the scenes without words such as his initial scene with Grace when she refuses to answer his question, and he gives her the once over because he knows that she is a threat, but not one that he is familiar with. It is both humorous and in character with what we know about his model and how they assess threats, but we are usually seeing from his point of view, not observing him doing it. The cast is not the problem and gives it their all. I don’t understand how the man who directed Deadpool didn’t have comedic timing. There is a difference between an Easter Egg and a Saturday Night Live skit. There are two times when they riff on the “I’ll be back” line, which was one time too many or you have to do it so many times that it almost becomes ridiculous funny in spite of being the opposite.
Terminator: Dark Fate does sport some provocative and invigorating ideas. For example, if Robert Patrick was the LAPD in the early nineties in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, then Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Gabriel (Ghost Rider, give that man a show) Luna would be [fill in the blank] during the Presidon’t era in Terminator: Dark Fate. It is one of those moments that theoretically should work. It is sci fi using quotidian bureaucracy to amplify our horror at the systematic dehumanization of society while having the audience root for a hero who would ordinarily be derided in the media and overlooked in daily life, but it does not quite hit. There is also sci fi political commentary on the way that we declare war on individuals and begs Americans to see how we have become the Terminator, but it does not resonate at a frequency deeper than simple observation. I didn’t feel it in my gut.
I actually liked Terminator: Dark Fate’s overall story, especially what happens to Sarah Connor between movies. It reminded me of what I like about the latest iterations of the Star Wars franchise-what happens if you rip the rug from underneath us and things become unpredictable? Unfortunately in this case, the most shocking moment is in the beginning. A friend pointed out a crucial flaw in how the story managed to still have Schwarzenegger around other than they wanna. After the first act when all the women finally team up, the story begins to lose momentum, and it never recovers. The movie is too damn long. The rest of the story is predictable just in a different key. We know what happens, but the details have changed. It just felt redundant to constantly attack the new enemy in ways that even the characters knew were ineffective then the down time moments are not such a huge, quixotic reprieve as they normally feel between the action. By the end, we are just going through the motions. It feels exactly like Terminator 2: Judgment Day with a minor twist that you will see coming then scream, “Message,” which I enjoyed, but still could see coming a mile away.
I’m happy that I got my prescription for women kicking butt vitamins filled, especially seeing a mature woman in the lead; however it felt as if the writers and the actors gave everything, but the editor and the director failed to visually capture their hard work. Terminator: Dark Fate is the cinematic equivalent of blue balls or a tall person blocking your view of the screen even if in reality you had the perfect seat, which I did. In spite of a frustrating experience, if there is a sequel, I’ll be back.