Terminator: Dark Fate (Dir Tim Miller, 2h4m)


Terminator: Dark Fate feels like the film the Terminator franchise has been without since the moment Terminator 2: Judgement Day ended, a film that goes some way to make up for the mis-steps, weird asides and...whatever the hell Terminator: Genisys was, in a messy series of intervening films that run the gamut between simply uninteresting to the film that launched Christian Bale's bizarre on-set rant, to the film that nearly killed the franchise.

Dark Fate, reuniting the Judgement Day duo of Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800, and setting them both, together with an augmented soldier from the future, to keep a girl who threatens the existence of the future robot army safe from a shapeshifting Terminator. And whilst this film rests heavily upon the first two films, with its strong female cast, and its smart updated recapturing of the series' glory days, Dark Fate certainly feels more like a Terminator film than anything since Judgement Day

With John Connor having finally been killed by the Terminator, leaving a grieving Sarah Connor without a purpose, so the film concentrates on another young woman targeted by the machines, in the form of young Mexican woman, Dani, who is the target of the highly advanced Terminator, the Rev-9, who not only has the ability to change appearance, but split itself into a human exoskeleton, and the iconic skeletal Terminator.

Against this fearsome enemy (played by Gabriel Luna as an enjoyably dangerous mix of Robert Patrick's T-1000, and Rise of the Machine's T-X), is Grace, an enhanced human, sent back from the resistance of the future. Whilst this section of the film is, undeniably reminiscent of the first Terminator film, what with a cagey show-down between Grace and the Rev-9 in the car factory where Dani works, it's brought up to date with a bracingly visceral fight, followed by an equally crunching chase, straight out of T-2.

This is not to say these throwbacks are, necessarily a bad thing-certainly, as with any number of series that have spent several sequels in the proverbial wasteland, it's refreshing to see Dark Fate capture what worked well with the series, in making the Rev-9 a truly frightening villain that morphs appearance, splits itself, and kills practically everything in its path, all whilst, unlike almost every terminator before it, managing to pass itself off as human, nimbly manoeuvring through human society, getting access to information, and seemingly, out of scenes where he stabs his way through veritable armies of soldiers and civilians, acts as a normal person. This lends itself nicely to a number of, particularly in the first few sections of the film, of enjoyably tense scenes, that at least neatly begin to add things to the terminator formula

But the biggest single change comes in the form of Sarah Connor, who arrives on the scene, in the aftermath of the highway chase. Sarah Connor is, without doubt, the best single thing about this film, difficult, clearly still grieving from her son's death, violent-at one point she flippantly notes she's essentially wanted in the entire United States-but utterly determined to bring the seemingly never-ending arrival of the terminators to an end. Not only this but Linda Hamilton is every inch the actor star she always has been, and its refreshing to show her as a gritty, tough, and resourceful figure-not only as a female actor, but as a middle-aged one, a rarity compared to her male counterparts.

Even when Arnold eventually turns up, as a T-800 that has essentially "gone native" and essentially adopted a human family now masquerading as a blinds salesman, he feels a bit-player, there to be the support to tough and resourceful female characters, and even in the remaining action scenes, he often only steps in occasionally, and is, essentially, off-screen for a large chunk of the film. leaving our tough heroines to adapt and fight onward against the Rev-9

Indeed, this is a film dominated by tough female characters, not only in the figure of Connor, but also in the figure of Grace, who holds her own in the fights against Rev-9, not to mention a complex relationship with both Dani, who she protects against the Terminator, but also has a nuanced past with, but also an antagonistic relationship with Connor, who, at one point, pulls a gun on her, and demands that they divulge their information. This, undoubtedly, in its central figures, is a film abour women learning to be strong and powerful against a threat, with Connor taking Dani under her wing towards the end of the film, and begins to train her.

Moreover, unlike practically every outing since T2, there is a sense of the film taking on the fears of the epoch, and working them neatly into the narrative-from Judgement Day's fear of Mutually Assured Destruction and Skynet-itself a fairly on-point forecast of our modern Internet, so Dark Fate pushes forward into automated warfare, the ever-present Internet on mobile phones and CCTV being used to track down Dani, and even a surprisingly stark section of the film set in a Mexican border detainment camp, which cannot help but evoke the current American administration's view of Mexico

Is it a perfect film? No-its reliance on plot-points cribbed from previous films, down to its twist, do come a little hollow, and the Rev-9 is only occasionally truly threatening, but what the film lacks in originality, it more than makes up for in evoking the spirit of the first two films, to which it cannot help but be regarded as a worthy successor. Though Arnold may have spouted his signature catchphrase in practically every movie since Judgement Day, this is the first one so far that feels like The Terminator is back.

Rating: Recommended



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