Daft sequels Terminated by Fate
Terminator: Dark Fate (R13, 128 mins) Directed by Tim Miller Reviewed by Graeme Tuckett
The original 1984 The
Terminator is a deeply ingrained part of our collective movie-going past. There are ideas and techniques – some borrowed and reinvented – in The Terminator that still turn up in sci-fi and horror movies today, as well as lines of dialogue that have entered our common lexicon for good.
The Terminator launched the career of James Cameron, who went on to make Aliens, Titanic and Avatar, although, to be fair, anyone who’s ever met Cameron will know it was only a matter of when, not if, he would make the films he wanted to.
Likewise Arnold Schwarzenegger. Conan the
Barbarian (1982) had made Schwarzenegger a star, but The
Terminator blew the roof off his career and led directly to
Commando, Predator, Total Recall
and the rest of the box set we collectively refer to as ‘‘Arnies’’.
And Linda Hamilton couldn’t have imagined, turning up for duty on a mid-budget sci-fi with a firsttime director whose biggest claim to fame was doing the special effects on Piranha 2, that she was taking on a role that would define her career for the next three decades at least.
I mention all this because, for the first time since 1991 and the release of Terminator 2: Judgment
Day, it actually matters. There were three further sequels to The Terminator, culminating with the diabolically stupid and laughably uneven
Terminator: Genisys in 2015. But Terminator: Dark Fate (yes, I know, the title is a complete mutt) which was released this week, represents the first time the old gang are all back together.
Schwarzenegger – never a man to turn down a pay day – has turned up in versions of his original role a couple of times, and Hamilton contributed a voiceover to Genisys, but Dark Fate, with a story cocredited to Cameron, is the first film since T2 to stay true to the original timeline and actually
function as a proper sequel to the original brace of films.
It matters, because the franchise went wayward once Cameron stepped away and frankly, I like living in a world in which I can pretend that Terminator 3, Terminator Salvation and the aforementioned Genisys don’t exist. Dark Fate picks up the storyline only weeks after the events of
Terminator 2.
Sarah Connor and her son John are safe, well, and relaxing on a beach in Guatemala.
They’re secure in the knowledge that the future of all humanity has been secured because John survived the events of T2. Except, it turns out that time-streams and alternative futures aren’t quite as predictable as they might have hoped.
Just don’t miss the first five minutes of Dark Fate, is all I’m going to say.
The action shifts to Mexico, where a young factory worker named Daniella – Dani – and her brother Diego work in an autoplant.
We know, because we have seen
The Terminator, that there must be something about Dani that makes her a threat to the machines who control the Earth’s future.
Just as we know, because we have seen the trailer, that Sarah Connor (Hamilton, now 63 and still kicking all kinds of ass) and an aged T-800 model (that’ll be Schwarzenegger, wearing all of his 72 years with pride) will have to come to the rescue and defeat yet another iteration of an inhuman killing machine to save her.
Joining the party is Grace (Mackenzie Davis, San Junipero), an augmented human sent from the future to also fight for Dani.
And so the stage is set for everything a Terminator instalment should be.
Terminator: Dark Fate is a lean, efficient, often lovably daft and absolutely action-packed good time. I like a film very much that knows what it was put on this Earth to do and then does exactly that.
Dark Fate doesn’t bother with the pseudo-profound philosophising that sent the last three films to the dogbox.
There might be more holes than plot in many of the underpinnings, but this film’s not hanging around to worry about them.
Most of the expositionary dialogue actually happens in and around some ruinously well choreographed fight scenes, so your chances of even hearing it, let alone being bored, are gratifyingly tiny.
Not expecting much, I finished up enjoying Terminator: Dark Fate just fine. No-one’s ever going to accuse it of being a great film, but it can at least wear the franchise name with pride.
There might be more holes than plot in many of the underpinnings, but this film’s not hanging around to worry about them.