Thoroughly enjoyable throughout, “Terminator: Dark Fate” marks the supposed end to a franchise that can finally be put to rest with a quality finale.
Continuity and canon no longer truly exists in the Terminator universe. Fans of the franchise tend to want to forget that 2003’s “Terminator: Rise of the Machines,” 2009’s “Terminator: Salvation” and 2015’s “Terminator: Genisys” happened.
“The Terminator,” released in 1984 and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” released in 1991, are the only two films in the franchise directed by James Cameron.
Cameron returned as a writer and producer for “Terminator: Dark Fate.” He did not serve any role in the three Terminator films released after the first two.
In an April interview with Deadline, Cameron all but said the previous three installments were not welcome additions to the franchise.
“One of the things that seemed obvious from looking at the films that came along later was that we would need to get everything back to the basics and that we would need to avoid the mistakes of making things overly complex and that we needed to avoid stories that jumps around in time and one that goes backward and forward in time,” Cameron said.
Cameron’s touch was very noticeable. He did what he wanted to do and he kept it simple.
The movie begins in Mexico City, immediately introducing the audience to a new and “good” terminator of sorts, an augmented human with similar capabilities to that of a typical metal-clad Terminator.
Grace, played by Mackenzie Davis, is sent back in time to protect Dani Ramos, played by Natalia Reyes.
Ramos is essentially the John Connor character of the original movie in the franchise. She’s the key to leading a future resistance but of course doesn’t know it when Grace comes to protect her.
Grace and Ramos head to the U.S. in order to distance themselves from the film’s main antagonist, a new model of Terminator called a Rev-9, played by Gabriel Luna.
The Rev-9 seems essentially unstoppable throughout the film, which is basically one long chase scene until the final battle.
The new model has the capability to take the form of any human it touches, much like a shape-shifter. It can also split itself into two - its “human” form and
its metal form.
Whenever the Rev-9 appears to be defeated throughout the film, it reconstitutes itself like a black sludge coming back together, akin to Marvel’s Venom character.
The film does a wonderful job of meshing the new with the old, as the duo of Grace and Ramos run into franchise standby Sarah Connor, with Linda Hamilton reprising her role.
Connor is still coping with the loss of her son John from the original films, and acts as a Terminator mercenary. She receives texts from an unknown sender with coordinates to the next Terminator attack and she shows up to kill them.
The film felt incomplete until Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator character joined the rest of the group running from the Rev-9.
Now known as Carl, he has a family and has learned human consciousness. It’s a pretty convenient plot point, but it’s a movie about time-traveling robots so I’m fine with it.
Despite settling down as a family man who runs a drapery company in Texas, he is still the same destructive Terminator he was before in the heat of battle.
The cast melds together well and the action is relatively non-stop, only taking a breather to delve deeper into character backstories.
“Terminator: Dark Fate” is what you want to see from a Terminator film. It wraps up the original movies nicely and most likely closes the door on a franchise that’s been open for 35 years.
