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James Cameron has created a name for himself as the king of blockbusters, from Terminator to Titanic to Avatar... could his touch save the floundering Terminator franchise he helped create? Well let's dig in.
I think one can only truly enjoy the latest Terminator if you buy into how they have tried to sidestep the disastrous sequels that came after Terminator 2 by changing one fundamental mythology of the Terminator universe.
How you accept that major change will determine what you make of this movie.
It's lovely to see Sarah Connor back in action. The era of tough ladies past 40 is here, as we've seen in the latest Clint Eastwood, Denzel Washington and Liam Neeson action.
Linda Hamilton makes a convincing case for the veteran female action star.
Mackenzie Davis does her bit to complete the trio of female protagonists as the enhanced human sent back in time. But one keeps having flashbacks to the Terminatrix from T3.
Even the new Terminator - a mash-up of the T1000 and the Robert Patrick's Terminator of T2 - is another callback that does not really help the new edition.
The callbacks make me compare it to the first two Terminators, which is not a good thing because the first two were inventive and moved the mythology of the franchise forward.
This feels like it's cannibalising its own history and mythology just to create plot points for the new franchise without actually moving the mythology forward.
Even the action scenes, although big and loud as a good Terminator movie should have, all feel like rehashes of the stuff we have seen in the first two Terminators.
There's nothing new or inventive here. Tim Miller is a competent director and does action well, but even the dude who gave us the first Deadpool movie can't save how pedestrian this movie is.
Even having an Hispanic Terminator is wasted - that's how much the film lacks nuance or depth. The movie can't create great subtext around the immigrant / Hispanic context of its leads.
The film is so lacklustre that one could actually do a whole review and not even mention the Arnold.
If you really want an action film that you don't have to decode afterwards then Dark Fate is for you. But if you are a fan of the mythology of T1 and T2, then stay away.
The only good thing about Dark Fate is that at least it's cohesive, unlike the other 2019 reboot of a popular franchise that was a complete and utter disaster - and that's Hellboy.
It felt like cold, microwaved plot points of T1 and T2, reheated with okay-ish CGI and no real sense of invention or pulling in an organic new direction.
Rating
**
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* Trash
**You are on your own
***It tries
****Almost Perfect
*****Instant Classic
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