Strip away all of the expensive digital special effects razzmatazz and what you have here is a very familiar plot cobbled together from bits and bobs taken from the previous five Terminator movies, with a heavy dose of political correctness and feminism, this being 2019 and all. Sarah Connor is old, the bodyguard from the future is an augmented young woman, mankind's only hope is a teeny tiny girl from Mexico, and Arnie's T-800 has developed a conscience and settled down with a family (I kid you not).
Don't bother trying to work out how this film fits into the whole Terminator timeline: they pretty much explain away most of the other movies to make it easier on the viewer. All you need to know is that another terminator has been sent from the future to kill Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes), saviour of the human race, and lots of stuff gets shot at, blown up, and smashed into a gazillion pieces in the process. Nasty terminator (Gabriel Luna) is virtually indestructible, which means that there's even more carnage than ever, because in Hollywood's eyes, bigger is always better.
Unfortunately, director Tim Miller really doesn't know when to pull hard on the reins, and allows the action to escalate to ridiculous levels. Hence, we have the risible sight of our feisty female trio falling from a burning plane in a Humvee, crashing onto a dam, plummeting over the edge, and being washed along in a flood of water whilst simultaneously being attacked by the rampaging Rev-9 robot. Not since Harrison Ford stumbled out of a lead-lined fridge have I had to suspend my disbelief quite as much.
Reasonably enjoyable in a 'switch off your brain and bask in the chaos' kind of way, Dark Fate isn't quite as bad as Genisys (the pared down script at least makes it easy to follow), but even after 28 years and several attempts, they still haven't come close to T2 for sheer entertainment value.
Don't bother trying to work out how this film fits into the whole Terminator timeline: they pretty much explain away most of the other movies to make it easier on the viewer. All you need to know is that another terminator has been sent from the future to kill Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes), saviour of the human race, and lots of stuff gets shot at, blown up, and smashed into a gazillion pieces in the process. Nasty terminator (Gabriel Luna) is virtually indestructible, which means that there's even more carnage than ever, because in Hollywood's eyes, bigger is always better.
Unfortunately, director Tim Miller really doesn't know when to pull hard on the reins, and allows the action to escalate to ridiculous levels. Hence, we have the risible sight of our feisty female trio falling from a burning plane in a Humvee, crashing onto a dam, plummeting over the edge, and being washed along in a flood of water whilst simultaneously being attacked by the rampaging Rev-9 robot. Not since Harrison Ford stumbled out of a lead-lined fridge have I had to suspend my disbelief quite as much.
Reasonably enjoyable in a 'switch off your brain and bask in the chaos' kind of way, Dark Fate isn't quite as bad as Genisys (the pared down script at least makes it easy to follow), but even after 28 years and several attempts, they still haven't come close to T2 for sheer entertainment value.