Terminator Dark Fate: Not As Bad As Genisys But Close

Here in Part 1, we also look at rumors of a new Terminator project in the works. Could some of the mistakes that plagued earlier films be avoided?

While finishing up the review of Terminator Genisys (2015) last time, I noted that Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) is considered by some to be even worse than its predecessor. I don’t think it’s quite as bad as Genisys but it’s still awful. All the issues that plagued the Terminator franchise throughout come to a head in this last installment.

Some have argued that Dark Fate fell victim to the politics of its day. While politics might have played a role in the way this movie was written, I think the issues really existed prior to 2019. They stem from a deep-seated resentment towards the fact that John and the Terminator have been the central focus of the franchise, when Sarah Connor has been the writers’ long-desired protagonist. While Linda Hamilton does an amazing job here portraying Sarah Connor, as she has done throughout the films, the way she’s introduced into the story is simply awful.

Sarah Connor’s character was not effectively used

I believe everyone has wanted to see a fully trained Sarah Connor fighting Terminators throughout these movies. But the writers have never been content to simply let her come into her own. They’ve always made it a point to make Sarah shine at the expense of the rest of the cast, as if she couldn’t hold her own against other competent characters. Of course, she could, and the fact that the writers refuse to acknowledge this fact shows a real insecurity on their part. And what they opted to do in this movie has killed this franchise for good. They already botched the series once with Genisys. Now, they’ve destroyed the continuity for the second time, and I don’t see how the Terminator franchise can come back from this.

Is there a new Terminator project in the works?

There are rumors that James Cameron is working on a new Terminator project. I can only see one way to pull the franchise out of its conundrum: bring John back, somehow put him and Sarah Connor on the same timeline, and then have him meet a Terminator and destroy Skynet for the last time. I mean, this wouldn’t be hard. All they have to do is reestablish the Salvation timeline, acting as if the last two films don’t exist. They’ve already declared that Genisys never happened, so why not say the same thing about Dark Fate? Then do the unthinkable: use the time machine to bring somebody into the future instead of the past.

Would a time machine that goes both ways help?

What a novel concept! Would it create narrative problems? Probably. But the tradeoff is that the audience would see all the favorite characters on screen at the same time for a climactic showdown. That’s a vast improvement from what we’ve gotten so far. If the writers want to be clever, they could address all the other weird versions of this franchise by saying the time machines have created different realities, and the only solution is to destroy the machines. But this imaginary plot of mine would require admitting that certain movies got it wrong, and I don’t see a studio taking that risk. Besides, Arnold is probably too old for the part now anyway. In short, if Genisys gave the franchise a mortal wound, Dark Fate was the headshot.

Dark Fate starts with a flashback

In the flashback, Sarah Connor is retelling her horrifying dream from the second film. I’m not sure why the writers did this because her monologue doesn’t relate to the movie in any way. The next scene shows Sarah sitting on the beach watching her son.

I have to compliment the CGI department. They did a wonderful job of recreating the characters from the Nineties. Suddenly, a Terminator appears out of nowhere and kills the young John Connor on the spot. Then the robot walks off, leaving Sarah to grieve over her slain son. Although this scene is disturbing, it’s also random and absurd.

The flashback doesn’t really make sense

First, the movie makes it very clear that Sarah stopped Judgment Day, so Skynet never came into existence. Therefore, even if other Terminators were sent into the past, they should’ve disappeared because Skynet never existed to send them. The second movie cleverly addressed this problem by having the T-800 destroy itself. That robot’s sacrifice ensured that nobody discovered Skynet’s technology, which in turn prevented the obvious conundrum of having the T-800 still exist despite Skynet’s termination.

This movie ignores such petty logic and another robot just appears anyway. And don’t think for a minute that the writers are going to explain how this could happen. The viewer is just supposed to consume exciting content. Never mind asking questions.

The second problem is that there is no way for this robot to find John. Sarah, being the paranoid character she is, wouldn’t leave a paper trail clear enough for the robot to find them on a random beach. Thirdly, the writers have reintroduced the nightmarish scenario that the first four movies were smart enough to avoid: an infinite regress of Terminators traveling up and down the timeline, altering the past in numerous ways.

I’ll address this point in more detail in the next review, but the bottom line is that the stakes and continuity of the franchise have been shattered for the second time.

The new “Kyle Reese”

After this senseless and unnerving scene, the audience is introduced to our new Kyle Reese. Her name is Grace, and she refers to herself as an augmented human, which basically means she’s been given some robotic parts to enhance her physical abilities. But this has come at a cost. The idea of giving her advanced abilities for a small amount of time was a nice touch. But the writers did a poor job making use of this detail. So there isn’t much to say about her limitations beyond that they basically kick in when the plot needs to happen.

She lands on a beach, beats up some cops, and takes the clothing of a guy who was trying to help her. Why didn’t she take one of the downed cops’ uniforms? It would make sense. She knows she’s on her way to fight a Terminator, so she should want something that would keep people from asking why she’s carrying a gun. But someone must’ve thought it would be funny for her to strip a good Samaritan. I thought it was stupid and tacky myself.

Dani Ramos as the “female John”

After Grace drives off, the audience is introduced to female John. That’s not her name, but that’s what I’m calling her. Why? Spite.

Natalia Reyes has been criticized for her acting during this film, but I thought she did a good job, so this moniker isn’t meant to insult her. However, the way the writers just introduced a discount version of John Connor annoyed me, so that is why I’m calling her female John. But speaking of acting, I will say that I believe both Natalia Reyes and Mackenzie Davis as Grace, are fine actors. It’s not easy to perform alongside the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, but they kept up.

If their performances seemed canned at times, I blame the dialogue. Pulling a good performance out of bad dialogue is like drawing blood from a stone, and frankly, they didn’t have a lot to work with. Anyway, female John has a brother, and the two of them work at an automotive factory. That’s where the new Terminator finds them, and I’ll cover what happens then next time.