"August 29th, 1997, Was Supposed To Be Judgement Day. But I Changed The Future, Saved Three Billion Lives..."
Added into the foray of high profile film franchises in the world of Hollywood which have been dissected, disgraced and destroyed thanks to sub-par release after sub-par release, the Terminator series returns once again to cinemas this week in the form of Dark Fate, an effects ridden sequel which attempts to put the series back on track after the jaw-droppingly awful filmic abortion which was 2015's Terminator Genisys, a film so poor that there seemed to be no turning back or sign of redemption for a story which should have ended after the events of the masterful, Judgement Day, the last decent film to be released under the Terminator banner all the way back in 1991. Completely retconning the events of the films and the spin-off television series which followed James Cameron's original sequel, Dark Fate picks up twenty seven years after the events of the series' second chapter, a movie which follows an incredibly familiar and well-worn narrative as it attempts to both pay homage to Cameron's original films whilst offering a potential way forward for the franchise, and whilst the latest Terminator offering isn't as dreadful as previous entries in the series, Dark Fate is pretty much as generic as it can get in terms of a loud, bloated Hollywood blockbuster.
Directed by Tim Miller of Deadpool fame, Dark Fate begins with a snippet of film from Judgement Day, with the famous interrogation scene of Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor within the confines of the mental institution utilised to remind audiences of her character's existence as well as confirming once again just how well directed Cameron's sequel really is, and whilst it's rather heartwarming to see that Hamilton still exists as an actor as she once again rips up the big screen with her sarcastic, heartless demeanour, Miller's movie might as well be a retread of the a-typical Terminator narrative. With the "John Connor" hero subtype now being re-focused onto Natalia Reyes' Daniela Ramos, the plot sees Mackenzie Davis (Blade Runner 2049) take up the mantle of the primary protagonist as she continuously battles against Gabriel Luna's (Rogue One) Rev-9, an awfully designed rehash of Robert Patrick's infamous T-100 and a villain whose primary scare factor is the jarring CGI which follows him as he leaps around in attempt to make his character carry some form of relevance. When Arnie eventually and inevitably turns up, the film does begin to pick up slightly but when a two hour film is essentially just a twenty first century rip-off of two science fiction classics, it's fair to say that maybe it is time to put the Terminator franchise on hold indefinitely.
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