Look I really wanted to like Dark Fate and after seeing the trailer and knowing Jim Cameron was playing a direct part, along with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, I thought I would. But ultimately I ended up disappointed. And I have to agree with many of the other scribes at this forum, that this $200 million film (Way too much to spend on a movie ... seriously!), despite its mega budget, scrimps on giving us a decent screenplay.
What we end up being served is endless variations of takes from the earlier films, not just the first 2 (the best), but also stuff from the next 3. Consider: 1 No Skynet, but Legion, which even has its own Judgement Day (called exactly that). 2 Dani is a combination of Sarah and John Connor. 3 Grace is the same as Marcus from Salvation 4 Arnie pretty much plays the same character as Pops from Genisys 5 The final battle even takes place in an almost identical facility to that of Genisys. I got to the stage where I felt I was watching a "best of" feature.
It's a pity, because I reckon the best part of the film was the first 20 - 25 minutes. Besides being set in a completely new location (Mexico), it also features the most exciting and realistic action sequences, as well as introducing Grace (my favourite character, even though she was a female equivalent of Marcus), reintroduces Sarah and the new dual - body terminator. But after an exciting and suspenseful first act, things just start to slide south.
Sarah and Grace endlessly bicker. Dani whines a lot. The terminator seems to kill humungous amounts of people without seemingly causing authorities to panic. Great to see Arnie again, but his back story?? Are you kidding me? He just hung out and became humane? And the jet/arial sequence! This just struck me as some huge set piece, inserted into the film purely to try to establish bragging rights over the earlier films. But it was dark, poorly lit, lacked any suspense factor and just reeked of an overindulgence in CGI.
As intimated earlier, I hate seeing movies lose huge amounts of money and apparently Dark Fate bombed memorably. I think the release date, coming when Covid restrictions were in force, contributed quite significantly to those losses. But really! If you're going to spend $200 million dollars on a film project, surely the screenplay needs to be more original and boast fresher ideas, than we see on display here. I think producers really need to draw a line under the franchise now. The market after all has spoken. No more reboots!
What we end up being served is endless variations of takes from the earlier films, not just the first 2 (the best), but also stuff from the next 3. Consider: 1 No Skynet, but Legion, which even has its own Judgement Day (called exactly that). 2 Dani is a combination of Sarah and John Connor. 3 Grace is the same as Marcus from Salvation 4 Arnie pretty much plays the same character as Pops from Genisys 5 The final battle even takes place in an almost identical facility to that of Genisys. I got to the stage where I felt I was watching a "best of" feature.
It's a pity, because I reckon the best part of the film was the first 20 - 25 minutes. Besides being set in a completely new location (Mexico), it also features the most exciting and realistic action sequences, as well as introducing Grace (my favourite character, even though she was a female equivalent of Marcus), reintroduces Sarah and the new dual - body terminator. But after an exciting and suspenseful first act, things just start to slide south.
Sarah and Grace endlessly bicker. Dani whines a lot. The terminator seems to kill humungous amounts of people without seemingly causing authorities to panic. Great to see Arnie again, but his back story?? Are you kidding me? He just hung out and became humane? And the jet/arial sequence! This just struck me as some huge set piece, inserted into the film purely to try to establish bragging rights over the earlier films. But it was dark, poorly lit, lacked any suspense factor and just reeked of an overindulgence in CGI.
As intimated earlier, I hate seeing movies lose huge amounts of money and apparently Dark Fate bombed memorably. I think the release date, coming when Covid restrictions were in force, contributed quite significantly to those losses. But really! If you're going to spend $200 million dollars on a film project, surely the screenplay needs to be more original and boast fresher ideas, than we see on display here. I think producers really need to draw a line under the franchise now. The market after all has spoken. No more reboots!