Paraphrased from Rotten Tomatoes (RT):
"More than two decades have passed since Sarah Connor prevented Judgment Day, changed the future, and re-wrote the fate of the human race. Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) is living a simple life in Mexico City when a deadly new Terminator travels back through time to hunt and kill her. Dani's survival depends on two warriors: Grace (Mackenzie Davis), a super-soldier from the future, and a battle-hardened Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton). As the Rev-9 relentlessly pursues Dani, the three are led to a T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) from Sarah's past that may be their last best hope."
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The director, the brains behind the snarky action-fest of Deadpool, Tim Miller, showed he can bring the vision of James Cameron to life while keeping the intensity of the action at an all-time high.
Cameron took a hands-on role with prep and pre-production. Miller worked from a script put together by writers Josh Friedman (TV’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) and David S. Goyer (Dark Knight trilogy), Justin Rhodes and Billy Ray (The Hunger Games, Earth 2 and the surprising hidden gem of a 2018 film, Overlord.).
Starring Cameron's ex, Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Mackenzie Davis (Halt and Catch Fire, Blade Runner 2049 and a bunch of upcoming projects), Gabriel Luna (Agents of SHIELD, Wicked City) as our new Terminator and Natalie Reyes (Cumbia Ninja, 2091, Lady La Vendedora de Rosas).
With a creative team like this, how can this film fail as an action film?
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The film starts out fast and hard, showing two 'have to go naked' time travel bubbles showing up and dropping off our two nemesis from the future, the protector and the Terminator, Rev-9.
The movie takes place in a time when "we" are ignoring the last three films completely, and Cameron proves it by having the film pick up one year after the John Conner life-saving events in the 1997 film.
The new Terminator in this film just makes you feel completely helpless, in as, how in the bloody hell are they ever going to stop it and it's different modes? But I also had the back part of my brain screaming at me that it's OK... it's OK, this is just the first of three new films coming from Cameron! Possibly. Still...
I'm really loathe to talk about much because to talk about any of it in any kind of detail can be spoilers... so...
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THIS IS THE TERMINATOR DARK FATE NON-SPOILER Section
When I went into this film, I was wondering just how they were going to pull off another completely new film and keep it fresh or at least, fresh enough to be entertaining.
Cameron/Miller succeeded in keeping it fresh, and keeping me slightly off-balance, with the non-stop action, interlaced with side-story details of our characters, showing us critical details that help fill in things we need to see for the film to move forward and the film viewer, not being distracted with wondering about different things.
For the fan of the classic franchise humor, it's there, but there in such a way that they don't make a huge deal about it, and sometimes, it doesn't get enough of a focus to hit the spot. BUT it's there, old, familiar and yet just a bit different in its own way.
Much like this film.
The film nabbed a 69% from RT and a score of 6.6 out of 10 from IMDb. Which is weird when RT and IMDb scores agree. But I think that may change in time.
Some things can be a bit of a head scratchier in the film, but still, Cameron is back. While the last three films focused on the crazy realms of Skynet and its creation-filled world, Cameron focused on one holy terror and kept the focus of the story on the characters.
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Here's where you avert your eyes if you don't like spoiler details...
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Let's Talk About Some SPOILERS From Terminator Dark Fate:
Cameron comes at us hard, with a few franchise changes right off the bat, averting what could have been curious conflicts between his new film(s) and what has come before this one. Much like how the recent Star Trek films kept things familiar yet changed things up just enough to keep it close to very familiar.
Adding to that, the fact that even though not killing John Connor in 1997 prevented Judgement Day, the technology that was Skynet changed, moved on, and the humans once again (or still, since J-Day was averted) created an AI that turned the tables on humanity.
But even though all was set right, there were still rogue Terminators out there, on one mission, and one mission only. Kill John Connor.
Do you see where I'm going with this?
Hence, we not only see a battle hardened Sarah Connor, but an angry one. But when she shows up in an early battle to save Grace and Dani from this split-personality Rev-9 Terminator, (you'll see what I mean by split-personality), it's because someone pointed her to this battle.
The new hero, our enhanced soldier, Grace, is a mix of Terminator and human. It was a nice touch up or change up to the story.
Time travel and time mucking is everyone's favorite trope to muck with, and Cameron is no exception. Still, that's a good thing, right?
I was a bit confused or unclear at how Sarah Connor saved J-Day, and yet, John Conner was still eliminated from living out his destiny, but I have to let that go. It's that time travel trope thing!
In this new reality, rather than Skynet bombing humanity, humanity bombed the new AI, and doomed itself. Then the new Skynet stepped up, letting humanity starve itself out, and eliminating survivors.
It was a nice twist to the franchise story of the past. Defeat the enemy, but in time, the enemy is inevitable.
There are some weak spots and fun spots throughout and to be honest, I thought it was worthy. It was popcorn 7 worthy.
AND YES, I put the note about the lack of a mid-credits scene in the title. I got ticked that so many sites were giving you the info, but only if you clicked on their question-inducing, click-bait title... arg. Then made you scroll through their article and ads. I love what Tim Miller said about mid-credit scenes that didn't happen... Why? It's a Marvel thing. Doh!
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