Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t kidding when he said he’d be back!
Four years after the last film in the Terminator franchise, the battle for the future of mankind graces our screens once again. Though, this time, we see the return of familiar faces, names and James Cameron’s original story.
Terminator: Dark Fate (“Dark Fate”), directed by Deadpool visionary, Tim Miller, features a return to the ‘original timeline’ set by The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991).
True to its tagline, “The day after Judgement Day”, the film follows the events directly after Terminator 2, in which Sarah and John Connor managed to save the world from Skynet. Though the Skynet threat was eliminated, a new evil rises up to terrorise mankind in the future, causing similar events to occur.
In what felt very much like a reboot of The Terminator, we see a cybernetically-enhanced human, Grace (Mackenzie Davis), from the future, travel back to 2020 to protect Dani (Natalia Reyes) from an advanced Terminator model, Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna), who had been sent back to kill her. Sounds a lot like the Kyle Reese, Sarah Connor and T-800 story of the 1984 film right?
The entire film was reminiscent of the original two Terminator films, though with advanced CGI and gory effects, making for a film that’s much more suited for today’s audiences. Though the story is incredibly predictable, the action and nostalgia certainly makes up for it. Throughout the duration of the film, there’s never a dull moment as the explosive action captures audiences’ attention.
More so than the action, it was the nostalgia that truly captivated me. Seeing Linda Hamilton return as Sarah Connor and having her interact with Arnold Schwarzenegger, who also plays a role in the film, brings back fond memories of watching the original films with my uncles and being completely spellbound by the idea of robots and artificial intelligence taking over the world. Despite it being 35 years since the first film, both Hamilton and Schwarzenegger still manage to kick butt. There’s definitely something to be said about the fight scene choreography as well, which was played out brilliantly by Davis and Luna. More than the explosions, gunfire and blasts, it was the hand to hand combat that really looked good on screen.
Visually, the film didn’t detract too much from what we see in reality today. Though the CGI depicting the capabilities of the Rev-9 was spectacular, everything else was stock standard for an action film. What did look good though, was the film’s depiction of the future and the creepy way the Terminators are shown.
Without giving too much away, Terminator: Dark Fate is the kind of film that action fans will love, regardless of whether they’ve seen previous films or not. However, those that grew up with the Terminator franchise, like I did, will find themselves at the edge of their seat, relishing in the throwback and the classic James Cameron story-telling.
Terminator: Dark Fate is now playing in cinemas.