‘Terminator: Dark Fate’ fails Linda Hamilton
“Terminator: Dark Fate” is the sci-fi franchise’s best film in nearly 30 years – which says more about the series’ wretchedly low bar than the quality of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest manvs.-machine action extravaganza.
Director Tim Miller (“Deadpool”) includes all the necessary bonkers sequences and explosions galore, and Linda Hamilton shows up as a reminder of when “Terminator” was good, but “Dark Fate” (★★☆☆; rated R; in theaters Friday) ultimately blows up any chance for innovative storytelling with rehashed plot points and reheated signature moments.
The new film has a lot in common with last year’s “Halloween” entry, bringing back a middle-aged actress as a no-nonsense warrior woman while ignoring a bunch of unneeded movies to simplify its canon. So “Dark Fate” forgets the last three franchise movies (if only we all could do the same) and acts as a direct sequel to 1991’s stellar “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” when Sarah Connor (Hamilton) stopped the murderous artificial intelligence Skynet from existing and saved mankind’s future.
Sarah unfortunately finds out in “Dark Fate” that the robopocalypse is awfully hard to avoid, earning a fleeting victory only to be followed by a profound personal loss. Another A.I. called Legion rises with a mechanized army to wipe out civilization, a revolutionary Rev-9 Terminator (Gabriel Luna) is sent back in time to kill a young Mexican woman, Dani (Natalia Reyes), the enhanced super-soldier Grace (Mackenzie Davis) arrives from the year 2042 to protect her, and the cavalry comes in the form of Sarah wielding a bazooka. It’s different
pieces playing the same game of chess – our heroes save us from mechanical overlords, someone will be back, rinse, repeat.
It takes a while before Schwarzenegger’s T-800 shows up, but his reintroduction is welcome. Now going by “Carl,” the reformed cyborg assassin has become more human over the years and sells draperies for a living instead of hunting people, though his deadpan delivery of zingers hasn’t changed. Grace and Sarah enlist his help against the Rev-9 as they try to get Dani out of harm’s way, though Sarah still holds a grudge against her old frenemy.
Producer James Cameron returns to the property he began with 1984’s classic “The Terminator,” but the much more important comeback is Hamilton. Not quite the victim of the first film or the muscled butt-kicker of the second, Sarah of “Dark Fate” is grizzled and weighed down by what has happened in her crazy life, yet she maintains her persona as heavily armed protective mama bear.
Walking an intriguing line between normal human and otherworldly Terminator, Davis’ sinewy Grace is by far the most interesting character in the movie. While some of her significant back story is revealed, she begs for extra time spent with her and the pummeled, fascinating wasteland of 2042. Also, both Grace and Sarah’s complexities become lost amid the movie’s whiz-bang nature. (Perhaps that’s a consequence of a screenplay written by three people and five getting a “story by” credit.)
“Terminator” films always offer evolved robo-baddies, and Luna’s Rev-9 is seemingly a step up from Robert Patrick’s
“T2” liquid-danger T-1000. Miller boosts the cool factor having Rev-9 be able to separate his gooey, shape-shifting exoskeleton from his metal endoskeleton.
“Dark Fate” checks all the franchise boxes, including killer robots, Arnie and plenty of action, from a highway dumptruck chase to airborne jetliners crashing into each other. Strip away all that and there’s just not much left.
Hamilton gets the ubiquitous “I’ll be back” line this time, though one hopes if she does return again, “Terminator” will finally have figured out how to be remarkable once more.