Spoilers Terminator: Dark Fate Review and Discussion
- Thread starter David cgc
- Start date
Good movie, but the problem is that it was just good. Not great. It brought nothing really new to the franchise, just rehashing old ideas over and over again for the billionth time. After walking out of the movie, I felt like I'd seen it all before.
The opening really surprised us, we were really glad were weren't spoiled. The de-aging effects looked great too. It really did feel like they had some old footage that they found lying around.
The rest of it was good action, not boring, one or two decent lines, but overall just felt like more of the same. Grace was pretty damn cool, as was Sarah. But even if I wasn't actively thinking about it, somewhere in the back of my head my brain realized that saving Dani just wasn't that important, not after the opening two minutes of the movie showed us that saving or killing John wasn't any sort of an end to the story either.
Honestly, the best solution for the franchise going forward is probably a 100% full reboot/remake. No Arnold, no Sarah or John Connor, no connections whatsoever to 1984 or any of the previous movies. When they touch this franchise again in another 8 or 10 years, it has to feel 100% fresh and new.
The opening really surprised us, we were really glad were weren't spoiled. The de-aging effects looked great too. It really did feel like they had some old footage that they found lying around.
The rest of it was good action, not boring, one or two decent lines, but overall just felt like more of the same. Grace was pretty damn cool, as was Sarah. But even if I wasn't actively thinking about it, somewhere in the back of my head my brain realized that saving Dani just wasn't that important, not after the opening two minutes of the movie showed us that saving or killing John wasn't any sort of an end to the story either.
Honestly, the best solution for the franchise going forward is probably a 100% full reboot/remake. No Arnold, no Sarah or John Connor, no connections whatsoever to 1984 or any of the previous movies. When they touch this franchise again in another 8 or 10 years, it has to feel 100% fresh and new.
Not possible, there just aren't a lot of stories to tell, unless you go into the future war, and the whole point of T2 was to say that "There is no fate but what we make". So you'd have to throw that movie away no matter what you do.
The resistance sends a fighter back to get the 2016 anti technology candidate elected, who is going to stamp down on science, and turn away all the high skilled immigrant computer geniuses at the border.
Skynet counters by tricking Putin into fixing the election in Hillary's favour, almost.
This includes an infiltrator, Donyeta Brazhinski, who later is found out to have gotten the debate questions early
There actually was a time loop webseries about a small political affair.
Re-Election s01e01.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/karpenko/re-election-a-webseries
Re-Election s01e01.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/karpenko/re-election-a-webseries
I finally got to see it this morning, and I enjoyed it.
I went in knowing John was going to die eventually, but the way it played out was not at all what I expected.
The deaging for the opening scene was really impressive.
The whole cast did a great job, with Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie David and Natalia Reyes giving especially great performances.
It did follow the same basic idea as the other, but I thought that there were enough twists and turns in there to still keep things interesting.
I keep seeing people saying it trivialized the first two, but I don't think it did. Even if Legion rose in it's place, John and Sarah did still stop Skynet and prevent that future, it's just that another one ended up taking it's place. There is nothing in this movie to indicate that Legion can't be stopped the same way that Skynet was.
I was really surprised they actually killed Grace and Carl, I expected at least one of them to make it to the end. Once Carl showed up I thought maybe they'd be able to use his power source instead of Grace's or maybe put his in Grace to save her.
It really had some great action scenes.
Gabriel Luna was good as the Rev-9, and the splitting effect they used for him was pretty cool.
I went in knowing John was going to die eventually, but the way it played out was not at all what I expected.
The deaging for the opening scene was really impressive.
The whole cast did a great job, with Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie David and Natalia Reyes giving especially great performances.
It did follow the same basic idea as the other, but I thought that there were enough twists and turns in there to still keep things interesting.
I keep seeing people saying it trivialized the first two, but I don't think it did. Even if Legion rose in it's place, John and Sarah did still stop Skynet and prevent that future, it's just that another one ended up taking it's place. There is nothing in this movie to indicate that Legion can't be stopped the same way that Skynet was.
I was really surprised they actually killed Grace and Carl, I expected at least one of them to make it to the end. Once Carl showed up I thought maybe they'd be able to use his power source instead of Grace's or maybe put his in Grace to save her.
It really had some great action scenes.
Gabriel Luna was good as the Rev-9, and the splitting effect they used for him was pretty cool.
This is kind of my feelings too. It reminds me of an "Outer Limits" episode with the whole "kill Hitler as a baby" plotline. What was most interesting was that Hitler's dad watches as the time traveling assassin jumps in to a river, killing herself and his infant son and he immediately finds the son of one his housekeepers (or something...been a while) and adopts him as his own, and history marches on.
After Genisys struggled at the box office (before China saved it) and especially now after Dark Fate, I've found myself wondering if the franchise actually needs to go back to the style of the first movie, The Terminator. Lower budget, more horror and cyberpunk inspired (tech noir as it was called- not the Tech noir scene from the movie, but genre of fiction). The Terminator had like a $7 million dollar budget, which would be like, what... $15 million today? Not saying go that low, but like a John Wick-style $80 million budget as opposed to the $150-$180 million budget of the last few movies would give them some breathing room and not demand a Marvel movie type return in the box office. You'd lose some blow 'em action, but you can make that up in other ways. I realize T2 set the standard of not just Terminator, but the summer action blockbuster movie, but I just think something closer to the first movie would benefit the franchise, if it isn't... well... terminated.
Oh, I missed that. But I actually meant stop it before the apocalypse, like Sarah and John stopped the Skynet apocalypse in T2.
lol. Cameron stole the terminator story from a 1960s episode of the outer limits.
I saw this last night, and loved it!
Overall, a great watch, with an astoundingly shocking (in a good way) opener of a scene, and the momentous return of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton hits it out of the park, IMO!); hilariously dead-pan 'Karl' and his wooden humour (drapery consultancy pro-tips, and proud diaper changing skills - acquired through his learning to become human).
MacKenzie Davis did a great job also, as did Natalia Reyes: I would absolutely love to see more future war scenes, and I was intrigued by the Resistance dropship (would love to see Neca make a cinemachines of this vehicle!), and would love to see more sequels (however unlikely). As King Daniel Beyond posted, Dark Fate didn't leave any loose ends, unlike previous terminator iterations - but also left things open for possible sequel(s).
Diego Luna carried out the role as Rev-9 fairly effortlessly I thought, and with unshakable focus and resolve.
The early Rev-7 models (with the tentacles protruding from the back) were cool to see - and once again, if Neca could produce a 6-inch figure of this model, I'd be a happy camper!
Anywho, excuse my brain-dump review - overall I give Terminator Dark Fate a Five Huzzah! rating
Get thee to a cinema fast, while showings last on the big screen!
Overall, a great watch, with an astoundingly shocking (in a good way) opener of a scene, and the momentous return of Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton hits it out of the park, IMO!); hilariously dead-pan 'Karl' and his wooden humour (drapery consultancy pro-tips, and proud diaper changing skills - acquired through his learning to become human).
MacKenzie Davis did a great job also, as did Natalia Reyes: I would absolutely love to see more future war scenes, and I was intrigued by the Resistance dropship (would love to see Neca make a cinemachines of this vehicle!), and would love to see more sequels (however unlikely). As King Daniel Beyond posted, Dark Fate didn't leave any loose ends, unlike previous terminator iterations - but also left things open for possible sequel(s).
Diego Luna carried out the role as Rev-9 fairly effortlessly I thought, and with unshakable focus and resolve.
The early Rev-7 models (with the tentacles protruding from the back) were cool to see - and once again, if Neca could produce a 6-inch figure of this model, I'd be a happy camper!
Anywho, excuse my brain-dump review - overall I give Terminator Dark Fate a Five Huzzah! rating
Get thee to a cinema fast, while showings last on the big screen!
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No he didn't...I NEVER saw a Cat.
**Decides to jump in on the last page of the thread; is immediately greeted with a long post about the Magna Carta, 18th century British politics, & the Founding Fathers. 
**
Although, if they did a period Terminator film, that would be pretty awesome. Maybe something Medieval or 18th century but I think their best bet would be a western! A gritty, low budget cyberpunk western!
I'm pretty sure that the only thing keeping them from stopping after Genisys was the hope that "Maybe bringing back Cameron will be the key to saving the franchise!"
I'd say Dark Fate is a decent but very frustrating movie. There are some interesting ideas here--
Wasn't that a 2002 Twilight Zone episode? Or did The Outer Limits do one too?
**Although, if they did a period Terminator film, that would be pretty awesome. Maybe something Medieval or 18th century but I think their best bet would be a western! A gritty, low budget cyberpunk western!
I'm pretty sure that the only thing keeping them from stopping after Genisys was the hope that "Maybe bringing back Cameron will be the key to saving the franchise!"
I'd say Dark Fate is a decent but very frustrating movie. There are some interesting ideas here--
- Carl's remorse causing him to evolve from emotionless killing machine to something more.
- Grace voluntarily becoming a machine in order to fight machines, essentially absorbing an essence of her hated enemy.
- Sarah Connor dealing with the grief of losing her teenage son and having nothing left but revenge. Granted, it's an well-worn trope for action movies but Linda Hamilton brought a unique rawness to it.
Wasn't that a 2002 Twilight Zone episode? Or did The Outer Limits do one too?
I think you're right. I couldn't remember which show it was.
What I took from the movie is it makes no difference if Legion is defeated. The A.I. that destroys Humanity (or comes close) will always come into being.
Skynet, Legion, something else. A.I. is too tempting.