Barrett Brief Review- Terminator: Dark Fate, Let Judgement Day Come

Terminator: Dark Fate, Let Judgement Day Come

Summary: Sarah Connor and a hybrid cyborg human must protect a young girl from a newly modified liquid Terminator from the future.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi

I have gone over in length how hard it is for a film to try and hit multiple genres. Furthermore, while some go together (crime/thriller) some do not (Comedy/Thriller). The Terminator franchise has been able to consistently hit that sweet spot of Action/Sci-Fi. However, Terminator: Dark Fate just continues the streak of below average retellings of the classic 1st/2nd films. The problem with Dark Fate ultimately comes down to betting on the all female cast to make it feel different. It did not.

The Plot that would not Die

Ever since the classic that was T2: Judgement Day graced movie theaters all the way back in 1991, it seems that is where it stayed. Despite the advancements in technology and the increase in budgets, all follow movies in this franchise follow the same beats. The story has never really advanced (outside of the 1st act of Salvation). Two gladiators come from the future to fight it out in the past over a person, then evil AI must be destroyed. Same thing here. In fact, the entire 1st act almost felt like a parody of T2, because it played out the exact same way for the first 15 minutes, just with much less depth or care for the story. In fact, when the opening scene of the film is a scene from a previous film, you know you are in for a long haul.

The New Cast does not fit 

While much was made about Grace (Mackenzie Davis) and how she was the new “girl power” protector, honestly she was fine. She wasn’t a breakout star, but it didn’t sink the movie for me either. To clarify, this doesn’t mean her delivery was bland and dialogue wasn’t cringe inducing. She is athletic enough to allow you to suspend your disbelief. The biggest problem, in my opinion, was Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes). who was absolutely miscast as the savior of the future. Not because she is a terrible actress, per say, but because she is too small. Standing at all 5’1”, she looks hilariously out of place during the film. She looks like a child and has 0.0 presence on screen. Observe how she looks standing compared to the other three leads

As they say in politics, it is bad optics. To say nothing of the fact that when her actions do come up, although we are suppose to identify with her and her journey, I couldn’t help but chuckle. Finally, Gabriel Luna who plays the “R-9” is completely wasted in this role. Similarly to Natalia Reyes, he just feels out of place. He is trying to do his best T-1000, but that is a problem. He can do sinister, but the script wants him to be a retread, and it shows. 

The Core Looks Bored

It must be remembered that the big attraction this this latest installment was the return of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). While many said that this was too late to come back to the franchise, I disagree. Her performance was not only the highlight of the film for me, it demonstrated just how bad the performances of Davis and Reyes really were. Sarah Conor is on the Mt. Rushmore of female action heroes (Along with Trinity, Ripley, Wonder Woman and Princess Leia) and she shows it here. Carl (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is here for a payday, and nothing more. He is shoehorned into the plot and his big moment in the end is undeserved, unlike the moment in T2. It feels like test audiences didn’t like the fact A) it was all-female and B) he was missing so they added more scenes with him. 

Overall

With no respect shown for the core characters of previous films that it was suppose to follow, coupled with a flat new cast, this iteration of Terminator has me wishing Judgement Day did come back in August of 1997.

Score 2 Briefcases out of 5 

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