Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) review

The Terminator franchise has gone through quite a fascinating run over the years that has mainly been defined by its repeated yet ultimately unsuccessful attempts at kick-starting a full-fledged franchise. It all began, of course, with the original Terminator from 1984. This low-budget, noir-inspired sci-fi thriller went on to become a landmark entry in the sci-fi genre and effectively launched the legendary career of its director, James Cameron. Cameron would then return to the world of Terminator 7 years later with Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Judgment Day was a far bigger sequel in every sense of the word, and upon its release, it too became a critical and commercial success to the point where it’s often regarded as not only one of the finest films of its genre but also quite arguably a superior sequel to what was already a sci-fi masterpiece. However, this is where things start to get… complicated, since the ending of Terminator 2 was very much a conclusion to the story of the Connor family and their efforts to stop a self-aware artificial intelligence system from starting a nuclear war. And yet, a third Terminator film, Rise of the Machines, ended up getting made in 2003 without any involvement from James Cameron that straight-up retconned its predecessor’s ending. Despite this, however, the film managed to be a decent enough hit with both critics and audiences and ended up spawning its own sequel, Terminator Salvation, in 2009. However, in contrast to its immediate predecessor, Salvation was both a critical and commercial disappointment, most likely due in large part to the controversial decision to opt for a lighter PG-13 rating. To make matters worse, the film’s main production company, The Halcyon Company, ended up filing for bankruptcy two years later, effectively nixing any plans for a follow-up within the context of this current continuity.

Thus, the series ended up getting a major reboot in 2015 with Terminator Genisys. While the film would ignore the events of Terminator 3 and Salvation so that it’d be more in line with Cameron’s films, it would also make the bold move of setting up its own continuity by establishing an alternate timeline a la the 2009 reboot of Star Trek. But just like Salvation’s decision to be a PG-13 rated film, this alternate timeline plot did not go over well with fans of the franchise. This, along with other highly criticized aspects of the production that range from the second trailer’s reveal of its biggest plot twist to the widespread mockery of the ‘unique’ spelling of the Genisys subtitle, ultimately led to the film being yet another disappointment for both critics and audiences. And while the film wasn’t necessarily a commercial underperformer like Salvation (at least in terms of worldwide box-office since it didn’t do so well here in the U.S.), it was once again decided to cancel any follow-ups that would maintain its continuity. Thus, this brings us to what is now the third major attempt at continuing the franchise after Terminator 2, Terminator: Dark Fate. Like Genisys attempted to do before it, Dark Fate, directed by Tim Miller as his first directorial effort after the first Deadpool back in 2016, ignores the events of the most recent films in the franchise to be a clear-cut sequel to Terminator 2. And yet, perhaps this film’s biggest coup was securing the involvement of not only James Cameron as a writer/producer but also Linda Hamilton as the series’ iconic female lead, Sarah Connor. As a result, this does help the film succeed in several ways that the previous films didn’t despite being one of the most egregious examples in recent memory of ‘been there, done that’.

It was in 1995 that Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and her son John managed to destroy all evidence of the artificial intelligence system known as Skynet to prevent it from wiping out over 3 billion lives via a nuclear holocaust on August 29th, 1997, a date that would’ve become known as ‘Judgment Day’. And yet, even after all these years, that hasn’t stopped Sarah from continuing her efforts to hunt down any of the machines known as Terminators that arrive from the future to eliminate those who stand in their way. Sure enough, in 2020, a young factory worker from Mexico City named Daniella ‘Dani’ Ramos (Natalia Reyes) finds herself being hunted by Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna), an advanced Terminator model who can separate itself into two autonomous units. At the same time, Grace (Mackenzie Davis), a cybernetically-enhanced soldier, is sent back in time from the year 2042 to protect her, with Sarah soon joining the fight as well. It is through Grace that Sarah and Dani learn that, despite the former’s successful destruction of Skynet, a new A.I. system known as Legion ended up taking its place as the catalyst for nuclear Armageddon. And just like how Skynet sent numerous Terminators back in time to kill their greatest enemy, John Connor, Dani is now Legion’s primary target due to her playing a pivotal role in the rise of the future human resistance. Thus, Sarah, Grace, Dani, and eventually an aging T-800 unit that goes by the name ‘Carl’ (Arnold Schwarzenegger) band together to combat what is easily the most dangerous adversary that any of them have ever faced before.

A lot has been said about why the last three Terminator films haven’t been as well-received as the first two, and it could be argued that this was primarily due to some of their ‘questionable’ ways of trying to continue the story. This includes everything from Terminator 3’s implication that the events of Terminator 2 only delayed the inevitable incident that was Judgment Day to Genisys’ decision to flat-out ignore the events of the first two Terminator films in favor of its new alternate timeline that turned John Connor into an antagonist. Dark Fate manages to avoid this, for the most part (aside from maybe one key moment at the very beginning that radically changes the franchise’s dynamic), by maintaining a ‘back to basics’ approach with its narrative. However, there is one notable downside to this since Dark Fate ends up having quite a lot in common with its predecessors when it comes to the plot. Granted, I’m usually not one to ding a film for being ‘derivative’ since I know that it’s hard to be ‘truly original’ nowadays, but Dark Fate literally has the exact same plot as most of the other films in this series save for Salvation and Genisys. A Terminator is sent back in time to kill a target who becomes a major threat to them in the future while another being (usually someone who’s either partially or fully cybernetic) is sent back as well to protect the target. At the very least, director Tim Miller always keeps things moving thanks to the film’s rapid pace even if that doesn’t allow for a lot of moments to take a breather… that and the finale ends up feeling a bit too overlong.  

Right from the moment that the film’s first promo image was released, it was made perfectly clear that Terminator: Dark Fate was primarily going to revolve around its trio of female leads, and sure enough, they’re arguably the best part of the film. Obviously, it all begins with Linda Hamilton’s heralded return to the franchise as Sarah Connor for the first time since Terminator 2 (or Terminator 2 3-D: Battle Across Time if you want to be specific). Prior to this, the character was unceremoniously killed off-screen in Terminator 3, reduced to a voice cameo in Salvation, and was recast twice, with Emilia Clarke taking on the role in Genisys and Lena Headey playing the character in the short-lived TV series The Sarah Connor Chronicles. But now the original Sarah Connor is back in triumphant fashion as Hamilton seamlessly slips back into the role with ease, once again finding that perfect mix of sardonic snark and devastating emotional pathos that defined her iconic turn in the role in Judgment Day. Meanwhile, Mackenzie Davis and Natalia Reyes are both excellent as well in what could best be described as this film’s ‘Kyle Reese’ and ‘Terminator 1 era Sarah Connor’, respectively. Davis’ Grace immediately establishes herself as a formidable action heroine while Reyes shines in what will surely be her breakout role thanks to her wonderful handling of Dani’s character arc where she transitions from an unassuming ‘nobody’ to a far more confident leader. But, of course, you can’t have a Terminator film without Arnold Schwarzenegger, and while he technically doesn’t show up until the second half of the film, Dark Fate does give him one of the most interesting characters he’s ever played in this series as we learn that this T-800 unit has a ‘very specific’ bit of history with Sarah. Finally, to close out the main cast, Agents of SHIELD breakout star Gabriel Luna also does an excellent job as the new main antagonist Rev-9. Like Grace and Dani before him, Rev-9 is admittedly best described as ‘this film’s T-1000’ given the many similarities that he shares with Robert Patrick’s iconic antagonist from Judgment Day. Still, Luna’s take on the character perfectly syncs up with the characterization that Patrick went with as the completely unassuming cybernetic being who could impeccably transition into his real identity as a stone-cold killer in the blink of an eye.

I’ll openly admit that I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from Dark Fate going into it and that had a lot to do with my overall experience with the Terminator franchise. Obviously, I love the first two films just as much as everyone else, but at the same time, I’m not afraid to admit that I do like some of the sequels. I think that Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines isn’t as bad as it’s often put out to be, and as long-time visitors of this site may recall, I was one of the rare people who gave a genuinely positive review of Terminator Genisys back in 2015. Heck, it even managed to make my Top 10 that year. As such, there was legitimately a part of me that hoped that they would try to do a follow-up to Genisys but perhaps manage to secure the involvement of James Cameron (since he did go on record stating that he did like the film) so that it could be a lot better. Obviously, though, that didn’t end up being the case, and instead, Cameron and Tim Miller decided to truly take the series back to its roots, for better or worse. In other words, Terminator: Dark Fate does indeed feel like the legitimate follow-up to Terminator 2: Judgment Day in terms of both its story and action beats. However, with that said, the film is somewhat hindered by the fact that it arguably tries a bit too hard to be like Cameron’s Terminator films to the point where it straight-up rehashes their plots practically beat-for-beat. And yet, despite how much it stringently adheres to the franchise’s long-running formula, the triumphant return of Linda Hamilton in the role of Sarah Connor is ultimately enough to make Dark Fate one of the better entries of this series. Let’s just hope that if any of these supposed sequels that Cameron has been teasing end up getting made, they try to do something a little different next time.

Rating: 4/5

Blade Runner 2049 (2017) review

In 1982, director Ridley Scott released the second big science fiction film of his career, Blade Runner. An adaptation of author Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, the film starred Harrison Ford in the role of Rick Deckard, a Los Angeles police officer tasked with hunting down humanoid robots known as Replicants in the year 2019. Upon release, the film didn’t do so well at the box-office and received a generally polarizing response from critics. A few years later, however, it started to attract a cult following that was paired with the release of different cuts of the film, which helped to provide new context to the narrative after the theatrical cut had been severely shuttered by studio-mandated cuts. Thus, this initially polarizing film has gone on to become one of the landmark entries in the sci-fi genre, and now, 35 years after the original, we finally return to the world of humans and Replicants with Blade Runner 2049. And as that long gap in time between these two films’ release dates suggest, this sequel was in development for many, many years. For a while, it seemed unclear if it would ever get made or if Scott and Ford would even be involved with it at all. But, ultimately, both are back for this highly-anticipated sequel, as Ford returns to the role of Deckard while Scott serves as the film’s executive producer. In the director’s chair this time around is Denis Villeneuve, who’s made quite a name for himself these past few years thanks to critically-acclaimed hits like 2015’s Sicario and 2016’s Arrival. And thanks to solid direction from Villeneuve, along with several of the things that made the original such a classic, fans of the original Blade Runner should be extremely satisfied with this long-awaited follow-up.

It’s admittedly rather hard to talk about this film’s plot as some of its elements delve into spoiler territory. Villeneuve even made a request to those who reviewed the film prior to its release to not reveal anything from the plot, and while this ‘embargo’ has technically been lifted now that it’s out, I’m still going to try and keep plot spoilers to a minimum in this synopsis. As the title suggests, this film takes place 30 years after the original Blade Runner in the year 2049. While the development of human-like robots known as Replicants has blossomed in the past few decades, several older models are still on the loose, requiring the continued need of special police officers known as Blade Runners to hunt them down and ‘retire’ them. One such officer is K (Ryan Gosling) who, after retiring a Replicant that’s been hiding out on a farm, stumbles across a fascinating discovery; the remains of a female Replicant who was pregnant despite it being theoretically impossible. Thus, K now finds himself on the search for this elusive child of the Replicant mother, who turns out to be none other than the former assistant of the original Replicant creator Dr. Eldon Tyrell, Rachael. This, of course, then leads to K crossing paths with Rachael’s lover, former Blade Runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who’s been missing for several years. And soon, the two find themselves hunted by the current leader in Replicant development, manufacturer Niander Wallace (Jared Leto), who seeks to use the child to further advance the process of creating Replicants.

Just like the original Blade Runner, one of the first things to stand out in this film is its impressive visual/production design. While visual effects have obviously come a long way since the original film, which had been made back when the art of CGI wasn’t fully realized yet, this film still manages to maintain the great atmospheric feel of the original while also utilizing its larger effects budget to its full potential. That and the always fantastic cinematography from the legendary Roger Deakins, along with the completely mesmerizing score by Hans Zimmer and Benjamin Wallfisch, help as well when it comes to fully immersing you within this futuristic world. As for the main plot of this film, it manages to be a natural follow-up to its predecessor without ever feeling like it’s just a direct carbon copy of it. With that said, though, as was the case with the original Blade Runner, this film does maintain a slow and methodical pace throughout with a sparse amount of action sequences. This may once again prove to be problematic for some audiences, especially given that this film boasts a far heftier runtime compared to its predecessor at nearly three hours long (I think it’s safe to say that we won’t need a Director’s Cut for this one, unlike the original). And while I do think that the film is perhaps just a tad bit overlong, it still benefits from having a generally engaging story based around a solid cast of characters.

While the film does see the return of Harrison Ford in the role of Rick Deckard, it should be noted that he doesn’t actually appear in it until after the halfway point. Still, the character is well-utilized in his limited amount of screen-time and Ford once again does an excellent job as the gruff but emotionally conflicted former police officer. Ultimately, the film mainly belongs to Ryan Gosling in the role of K, who embarks on a very similar emotional journey compared to Deckard’s that yields equally fascinating results. But as for the film’s biggest standouts, that honor goes to its two main female leads. As Joi, K’s loving A.I. companion, Ana de Armas brings much warmth to this generally somber sci-fi story. Plus, she has great chemistry with Gosling and is arguably the most interesting character in the entire film given their relationship, which is ultimately the main source of the film’s emotional depth. Sylvia Hoeks, who plays Niander Wallace’s Replicant assistant Luv, is also great in a role that blurs the line between diligent assistant and a stone-cold killer. But as for Wallace, played by Jared Leto, he’s, unfortunately, one of the weaker parts of the film. And for the record, no, it’s not because of Leto’s trademark eccentric performance which, for many people, would’ve been a situation similar to his recent turn as the Joker in Suicide Squad. Instead, it’s more because he’s not in the film all that much… which, ironically, was also the case with Suicide Squad. While he does get to have a few effectively unsettling moments whenever he’s on-screen, the character feels vastly underdeveloped. I promise that I’m not spoiling anything when I say that there is absolutely no resolution for the character whatsoever.

Well, like the original Blade Runner, there’s not much else that I need to say about this film, and that’s because most of the internet has already done that for me. Also, I’m not going to be delving into any sort of diatribe about mainstream audiences’ apparent rejection of this film given its rather lackluster opening weekend at the box-office. If it just wasn’t their cup of tea, then that’s perfectly fine. And besides, the exact same thing happened to the original back in 1982… and look how that one turned out. At the end of the day, I bet that this film will go on to have the same kind of legacy that its predecessor has when all is said and done, and that is because Blade Runner 2049 is very much one of the best films of the year. Director Denis Villeneuve does an excellent job in giving us a film that serves as a fitting follow-up to its predecessor without losing any of the stuff that made the original such a classic in the first place. And while it is just as much as an undeniably slow burn as its predecessor, it also has its same great sense of visual/production design, strong storytelling, and layered characters that help to make it all worthwhile. In short, if you were a fan of the original Blade Runner, then you’ll be pleased to know that this film did manage to live up to most of the hype surrounding it.

Rating: 5/5!