Summary
It’s the sequel we’ve been waiting 28 years for, and while we’re not entirely sure why it’s here we’re going to have some fun with it while it lasts. [Insert obligatory gag about being back].
From the opening scenes, lifted wholesale from 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day, director Tim Miller’s TERMINATOR: DARK FATE wants you to remember the franchise’s past. Well, specific parts of it at least.
Ignoring the sequels created between 2003 and 2015, screenwriters David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes, and Billy Ray – working from a story co-credited to series progenitor James Cameron – literally blasts the past in the opening sequences and rewrite the franchise history. It’s now 2020 and Grace (Mackenzie Davis), a cybernetically enhanced human from the future, arrives to protect Daniella “Dani” Ramos (Natalia Reyes) from a newly arrived Rev-9 model terminator (Diego Luna).
It’s barely a compliment to say that this is easily the best sequel since T2, as the quality has rapidly declined across the three alternative timeline sequels. The action sequences are about as generic as they come, but they are relentless and comfortably familiar, which is a credo that could easily apply to the whole film. In terms of pure spectacle, there’s several set-pieces – including a highway sequence that reintroduces Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) – that should get the adrenal glands working in all but the most jaded viewers.
Yet it all still feels like a missed opportunity. The events of the opening sequence conclusive hit the reset button on the franchise, giving Miller and his crew a chance to take the film’s own advice and make its own fate. Instead they play it safe with a soft relaunch and what is ostensibly a remake of T2, right down to the “liquid metal” meanie. SkyNet may have been stopped, but the future feels like history repeating.
Even so, it’s great to see two-thirds of the original cast back together again, with Hamilton ultimately reuniting with Arnold Schwarzenegger for the final showdown. Playing a character known simply as Carl, it’s a strange and fun new direction for the ageing actor. You’ve never heard a T-800 discussing drapery before, have you? In fact, there should be a whole Twin Peaks style spin-off dedicated to this version of Arnie’s famous role.
In the end it’s a fun ride that plays with the current political environment, but one that feels entirely inconsequential as soon as you’ve stepped out of the cinema. It’s the third chapter in a story that never needed a sequel, even if the action-loving world is forever grateful for having T2 in our lives. While it sets us up for more films, this is as good a way as any to bring some closure to at least two characters, and it might be best to let sleeping cyborgs lie.
2019 | US | DIRECTOR: Tim Miller | WRITERS: David Goyer, Justin Rhodes, Billy Ray| CAST: Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Gabriel Luna, Diego Boneta | DISTRIBUTOR: 20th Century Fox (AUS) | RUNNING TIME: 128 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 30 October 2019 (AUS)
