Movie Review: Terminator Dark Fate (2019)

Terminator Dark Fate (2019) directed by Tim Miller

After Sarah Connor's (Linda Hamilton) son John is killed in 1998 by a Terminator sent from the future, she lives an unhappy existence terminating Terminators. She gets a text on her cell phone telling her when and where to go with the message at the end: "For John." She's managed to erase Skynet from the future, i.e. the defense system that would have sent the Terminators to kill her and her son, which it actually did even though it never exists (a conundrum that the movie basically just ignores). The new threat is from a company called Legion that invents very similar Terminator machines. This time the killer is called a REV- 9 (Gabriel Luna), which is a hybrid of the classic android exoskeleton and the liquid metal machine from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The good guys send back an enhanced human (Mackenzie Davis) to defend the new target, Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes). Dani is the key to the humans fighting back in the new apocalyptic future. The enhanced human and Sarah join up to protect Dani, leading to a lot of big action sequences as they attempt to destroy the REV-9.

The story is fairly unoriginal, just remapping the characters and plot of Terminator 2 onto new people, but still having the characters from the original film. The time travel element is exceptionally nonsensical. The filmmakers don't seem to care; they just want to make an entertaining action movie. The action scenes are exciting, taking advantage of the latest in special effects. The characters discuss fate and free will a lot (which is a staple of the Terminator films) with nothing particularly profound to add to the discussion. The twists in the story are highly predictable. The story is very unsatisfying.

The performances are okay. No one bombs their role. The only standout is Arnold Schwarzenegger. His Terminator has more depth, interest, and humor than any other character in the film. If the movie had been focused on the Terminator who has to find meaning in existence once his only designed purpose was fulfilled, the film would have been more original and more interesting. Even in his 60s, Schwarzenegger has more star power and charisma than the rest of the cast combined. I admit it's weird to claim that the acting in the film should have had more Schwarzenegger, but that's the way it is.

Slightly recommended--the movie is not particularly bad but neither is it particularly good. For Terminator completists or fans of dumb yet spectacular action films.