Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Welcome to the Day after Judgment Day.
There’s a couple of movies I’m interested in coming out relatively soon, but none of them in time for this weeks entry. Given it’s so close to my birthday, I thought I’d treat myself - I won’t lie to you, I’ve already watched this movie before. I’m a fan of the franchise, even if the franchise largely refuses to give me that future that I wanted to see on screen. It’s had its ups, it’s had its downs, and it’s overly concerned about judgement. Tonight, we jump back into Terminator: Dark Fate.
All of the Terminator movies follow the same plot really - well, except for Salvation, which was sort of an inverse Terminator really. A hero and a villain are sent back in time to accomplish a mission - to either save or kill a specific target important to the future. Here though, we find our targets moving a bit away from Connors - this time the target is a new character we’ve never seen before. Before we even get to that though, we get Alien 3’d as we watch our little quick-witted friend John get gunned down on a beach. Seems this terminator wants to start off real hard-edged. What’s the reason for the new target? Why isn’t judgement day dealt with already? Whose this new hero? Stay tuned and all will be explained (in the movie, I’m not doing it here).
There’s a lot of ways a person might approach this movie in the first few moments, and not all of them are positive. On the one hand, you’ve got a dead character from Terminator 2 that’s going to rub some the wrong way (although it does well for setting up the timeline of when this is happening. On the other hand, you have a case that has an almost budget momma Connor character standing in as a hero for a largely Mexican-placed story. I can see a bit of people being upset for the Connor-standee, although with the day and age we live in the inclusion of a cast of color really shouldn’t bother people (but probably will for some, and inevitably leads to some subtitle moments). Now, it’s not really a spoiler - it was in all the trailers and it happens very shortly into the story, but Momma C does show up in this movie and becomes a character, serving more a vengeful role and servicing some development later on in the story.
Now, characters and how they act aren’t going to really be anything nuts for people who’ve watched these movies before. The actors do a good job though, although I’m sure that’s not something anyone would be really surprised by. There’s some little nuances, some little developments, a bit of room for the story to breath. The biggest update is a different future being the cause of all the modern troubles, but despite the fact that the future is different it all really still feels the same. It does provide for some fun moments such as an augmented hero and a two-piece villain that function both as a liquid and normal Terminator. This leads to some pretty rocking action moments and good thrill times, although will feel familiar enough that some people might feel that it’s not different enough. For me, it’s different enough that it feels like it isn’t just treading the exact same ground while still being similar enough that it’s easy enough to say “if you like the other you’ll like this.”
When travelling through time, remember it’s all about location.
The effects department is probably one of the few things in the franchise that continually just betters itself. I mean, yeah, sometimes it goes a little nuts on the degree of stuff, and sometimes it tries to make some curve-ball plot choices, but if there’s one thing we can agree on is that the steady pace of technology increasing has only helped better the movies. It’s not without moments where you look at something and know it’s fake - but in all reality for the current day and age, no matter how awesome a superhero looks landing after falling from the stratosphere I still know that’s fake too - it’s not always about being completely realistic, it’s about looking good and working for the story. With that enhanced technology, we also get a update of the tech within the movie universe as well - sure, you get a classic robo-chassis and a liquid-metal terminator action, but they both still look different. Gone is the chrome reflective surface of the liquid, instead replaced with an oily black. The chassis is covered by liquid metal, so instead of worrying about following skeletal and muscular constraints, it’s more fine-tuned for weight with plenty of stylistic holes that would allow for more of the liquid to be carried as well as cutting down on weight and giving that futuristic suave style.
And that’s just the new bot. We get plenty of action scenes with hard effects like explosions, cars being thrown about by other cars, crashing planes and hulls getting ripped off, robot damage and human injuries. If you aren’t a fan of people getting stabbed, man are you in for a bad time! Somehow, despite all of this, it also manages to not be super graphic about things - with the most graphic of bits probably being on the lead, whose all augmented up so even the meanest looking injury carries a bit of easing-it-up with some mesh materials and the likes instead of muscles and blood all over the place. There’s a few moments, particularly in a semi-zero g brawl aboard the just mentioned plane that have a couple of moments where things might just look off - at which point I’m not sure if they did some CG doubles, or if it’s a comp thing, or lighting, or what it is exactly but the people just at times look odd - but largely this thing does it’s job off looking like a fine piece on someone’s effects resume.
Action scenes are also quite tasty. Some can be a little hectic, but it’s not generally a hard to follow thing. It’s shot well (as is most the movie), and the pacing follows a somewhat normal set. Yes, it slows down in the start of the middle and the end of the middle as more things get to the explaining parts, but there’s enough action sets mingled in that it feels right and keeps you interested despite it somewhat being “the same old story.” Actors do well throughout, with an odd facial expression or two from our main hero, although I’m wondering if it’s more just the framing or the movies choice of costume for her at the time of those shots makes it more emphasized than other times. Resident “I wouldn’t call them old to their faces” Arnold and Linda do a great job, and the fact they don’t look as young as they once done only helps with scenes that are begging for an “I’m too old for this” line or an after battle exhaustion scene.
Metal Max: Fury Plow
If you love the franchise, you’ll love this. This movies greatest fault is the same as every Terminator after the second: it isn’t the darn future war with neon lasers and skull-paved walkways patrolled by robots. If you were worried about them “empowering” the movie and ruining it (there is always the worry that they’ll focus too much on that and not enough on making a good movie), you shouldn’t need to because it still plays off just fine. You could replace any of the new characters with a different person and the movie would work great, but the ones they put in there do a darn fine job. It has actions, it has effects, it has some little throwbacks and plenty of slight new twists on the formula to make your trip home feel refreshing instead of boring.