Film of the Week: Terminator – Dark Fate

At this point is it necessary to try and figure out the timeline of the Terminator world? Genisys tried to reset the timeline by diverting it to an alternate one, in an attempt to make another trilogy of films, even leaving the first on a cliff-hanger where the characters believe they’ve defeated the A.I., but inevitably haven’t, establishing that Skynet is still powerful force. The box office records had its own timeline which saw the trilogy of films being cancelled. Possibly even yet another alternate timeline sits Salvation, a film set solely within the war between machine and humans, and maybe even yet another alternate timeline sits Rise of the Machines. My point being, the convoluted nature of the Terminator franchise is beginning to be a bit off putting.

When Dark Fate was announced, I think we all sighed. They tried rebooting the franchise, it didn’t work, so they’re trying again, and then I think we grew a little curious when we discovered that Dark Fate would completely disregard all that came after Judgement Day, including Rise of the Machines, which was widely regarded as the worst of the original trilogy. Dark Fate is a sequel to the best Terminator film in the franchise. Watching the film, it was easy enough to follow; I didn’t need to open a new spreadsheet in an attempt to understand where this sits within the timeline, it was just a standard sequel, going so far to bring back the original cast members, Linda Hamilton, playing the iconic role of Sarah Connor.

Unfortunately for many, the damage was already done, and they weren’t interested in yet another instalment in the franchise, they were happy with the first 2, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s definitely not the first time a studio has pumped out film after film within a franchise in an attempt to revitalise what was already had, oblivious to the fact that the reason why the franchise is still popular is because the first film or couple of films made it so. The Terminator franchise won’t be the last.

But I couldn’t leave it be. I had to see what Dark Fate had to offer, and I was neither disappointed nor amazed. The story was simple to understand, and it started off with a shocking twist clearly no one expected coming as test audiences collectively stated that they were shocked, but in the lore of that world, it made sense. When one Terminator fails, they send back another, and another, and another until one succeeds in their mission, and eventually one did, setting up the events of the film. And this film reignites the progression of technology once more by introducing a new enemy, Legion. Skynet was stopped from ever becoming a thing in Terminator 2, but Judgement day will always happen in one form or another.

Overall, this film is better than those that came before it, of course with the exception of the first original 2, as they cannot be matched, especially the incredible Judgement Day, with special effects which still hold up today but were considered ground-breaking back then. This film also introduces new elements, by enhancing humans so they can stand up against the Terminators with hand to hand combat, which was fun to watch instead of consistently fighting with guns, although that does happen a lot still.

To be honest, Dark Fate doesn’t destroy anything, and tries to build something new, so I recommend giving this film a chance, because I was surprised by it, but I see this film as being one of those where if you don’t give it a chance, you can’t complain about it as it does very little to set up an alternate continuity. You just might be surprised yourself, but no one would expect anyone to say this was atop their list of favourite Terminator films, just above all the ones that ultimately tried for all the wrong reasons.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)