Emotionally satisfying and action-packed, Dark Fate rewards fans of the franchise.
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The Terminator franchise does a Halloween - by forgetting that its past sequels (Rise of the Machines, Salvation, Genisys) did not exist and going into Dark Fate as if it is the true third movie of the franchise. Fortunately, the movie works and our faith in the franchise is renewed, for now.
Taking place 27 years after the events of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, a hybrid cyborg human and former soldier, Grace (Mackenzie Davis), arrives from the future to protect Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes) from a new class of Terminator, the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna), which has a traditional solid endoskeleton covered with a liquid-metal exoskeleton, but comes with the ability to split into two separate, fully autonomous Terminator units.
An aged Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) arrives just in time to save Grace and Dani from the Rev-9 after an intense roller-coaster highway chase. Connor has been receiving anonymous tip-offs of new Terminators and she’s been hunting them for the past 2 years after the death of her son. Suspicious towards each other at first, Connor and Grace slowly learn to trust each other, while Dani, who later finds out that she plays an important role in the future of humanity, has to grow up quickly and learn to take charge of her own fate.
But the best part of the film arguably belongs to Arnold Schwarzenegger as T-800. After successfully executing his mission to kill John Connor, T-800 gained autonomy and learned what it means to be human, living in seclusion with his new-found family. Connor, meanwhile, just wants to kill T-800. Their tense and conflicting relationship forms the meat of the latter half of the movie.
Directed by Deadpool’s Tim Miller, Dark Fate never neglects emotions and story in favour of action, which are all more than competently staged. We have the classic highway chase, a ton of other chases and most importantly, the classic Terminator versus Terminator fights. But at the end of the day, what we care about are the characters and Dark Fate successfully wraps up their arcs in satisfying ways. This is a movie that rewards fans of the franchise.
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