TERMINATOR: DARK FATE (2019) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

terminator: dark fate (2019) movie

Genre              |   Science Fiction

Classification   |   MA 15+

Running time   |   128 minutes

Released         |   31 October 2019

cast

Arnold Schwarzenegger ... The Terminator
​Linda Hamilton ... Sarah Connor
Mackenzie Davis ... Grace
Brett Azar ... T-800
​Gabriel Luna ... Terminator

director

​Tim Miller

writer

David Ellison ... (story by)
Josh Friedman ... (screenplay by)
David S. Goyer ... (screenplay by)
Tim Miller ... (story by)
Billy Ray ... (screenplay by)
Justin Rhodes ... (screenplay by)

cinematographer

Ken Seng

music

Tom Holkenborg​

film editor

​Julian Clarke

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box office result

Worldwide               $​261,119,292

Australia                 $​5,861,780

North America        $​62,253,077

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movie minutiae

Director Tim Miller was Second Unit Director on THOR: THE DARK WORLD (2013) which was directed by Alan Taylor. Taylor also directed the previous Terminator installment, TERMINATOR GENISYS (2015).

The film's release has been pushed back from July 26, 2019 to November 22, 2019, to avoid competition with HOBBS & SHAW, the second Fast & Furious spin-off. Then it was moved to November 1, 2019, wasting no time to take advantage of WONDER WOMAN 1984 moving to June 2020.

This is James Cameron's return to the Terminator films, as he has not been involved (other than being credited as creator of the characters) since TERMINATOR 2: JUDGEMENT DAY (1991).

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TERMINATOR: DARK FATE (2019) MOVIE IMAGES

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TERMINATOR: DARK FATE (2019) STORY SYNOPSIS

​​TERMINATOR: DARK FATE is a 2019 American science fiction action film directed by Tim Miller with a screenplay written by David S. Goyer.

Plot information is yet to be released, however, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been confirmed to return as " The Terminator" alongside Linda Hamilton, who reprises her iconic role as Sarah Connor.

In a recent interview promoting ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (2019), Terminator creator James Cameron, who is contributing to the Tim Miller-directed film as producer, said viewers may be surprised by the Terminator character's development...

"Here's what I can say," Cameron said, "Arnold is back, and he is bad. He's a different Terminator than you've ever seen before." 

He went on to say that the new Terminator is "Literally...a different chassis number, but he is also a very different guy than you've seen before."

TERMINATOR: DARK FATE (2019) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 31 October 2019

Pop ​Movee Rating

TERMINATOR: DARK FATE is a relatively safe reboot of the franchise, banking on audience familiarity with the first two James Cameron films and pop culture nostalgia to spark enough interest for a better Box Office result than the tonally-challenged TERMINATOR GENISYS (2015) and, in the process, reinvigorating the opportunity for further adventures in a universe where characters have no end of opportunity to make their own destiny...

Like a $200 million “Choose Your Own Adventure” story, TERMINATOR: DARK FATE confronts the audience very early in the film with the solution about what to do with the three films that were made after TERMINATOR: JUDGEMENT DAY (1991) and this, the sixth feature film in the series.

Fans may not be entirely thrilled with the solution, but it’s nothing if not a brave choice and one that has been made in the interest of cleaning up the entire TERMINATOR timeline.

The challenge of how best to tackle the story for this latest film is summed up by the number of individuals who receive either a ‘Story’ or ‘Screenplay’ credit…

No less than eight, including James Cameron.

The script is credited to David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes and Billy Ray. 

Both Goyer and Ray have form in hammering this type of film into shape. Goyer worked with Christopher Nolan on THE DARK KNIGHT movies, while Ray was involved with THE HUNGER GAMES (2012) and, more recently, was one of the writers on Ang Lee’s GEMINI MAN (2019). Rhodes is the newcomer, but he has already moved onto the recently announced ROBOCOP RETURNS scheduled for release in 2021.

At times, DARK FATE does feel like a movie that has been built by a committee. On the surface, it tries hard to bring something different to the franchise. Underneath, the film’s structure feels like an off-the-shelf template for the most generic of Action films.

Director Tim Miller can’t pull off quick the same trick as he did with DEADPOOL (2016), where character trumped action and the dynamic enthusiasm of Ryan Reynolds overcame that film’s more generic elements; in the process, elevating the entire viewing experience into a realm that was something more like an elaborate virtual reality with Wade Wilson/Deadpool as the viewer’s potty-mouth tour guide.

DEADPOOL intentionally pushed the boundaries of viewer interaction, allowing Miller to create a film that was both unique but also inclusive of the broader Marvel universe in which Deadpool exists.

TERMINATOR: DARK FATE does not have the same ambition. Like another 20th Century Fox Marvel movie, X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST (2014), this new film is trying to pull together the disparate threads of a franchise that hasn’t had access to its creative cypher (James Cameron) since TERMINATOR 2.

Miller’s directing on DARK FATE is much more stand-and-deliver. Shoot the scene, get the coverage needed to seamlessly insert the visual effects and move on.

Despite the film’s infinitely larger budget (rumoured to be $170 million USD), Miller is unable to engage the viewer in the same manner as he and Reynolds did with DEADPOOL, nor the way James Cameron managed to with his two TERMINATOR movies. 

A large part of the problem lies in the prolonged set pieces that drag the film’s running time out to 128 minutes. 

The 1984 film was 107 minutes, JUDGEMENT DAY was 137 minutes, RISE OF THE MACHINES was 109 minutes, SALVATION was 115 minutes and GENISYS was 126 minutes…

DARK FATE is, in terms of story chronology, the film that now immediately follows JUDGEMENT DAY, but it didn’t need a two hour plus running time. Key sequences in each of the film’s three Acts could have been substantially trimmed. 

Somewhere around the 115 minute mark would have achieved the same outcome.

Experienced Film Editor Julian Clarke, who worked with Miller on DEADPOOL, along with Neil Blomkamp on ELYSIUM (2013) and CHAPPIE (2015), again collaborated with the Director, but this is not Clarke’s most disciplined work and DARK FATE feels long and overly repetitive, using innumerable visual effects to show something even though a handful would have been perfectly satisfactory.

When Robert Patrick appeared as the T-1000 back in 1991, his Terminator felt unique and special. Yes, the T-1000’s computer-generated morphing effect was relatively new, but James Cameron also made sure the character didn’t get overused. Those who watch TERMINATOR 2 closely will notice how little the T-1000 appears in scenes even when it’s in the middle of the action.

In DARK FATE, Gabriel Luna’s Rev-9 is overused and a sense of tedium creeps into the film’s finale as the character seems all but impossible to destroy. Yes, he’s a Terminator. That’s his job. He’s meant to keep going and going and going, but the use of Rev-9 sets a new benchmark for the expression “Never give up!”

What tips the scales in favour of DARK FATE is just how there is to like about the return of Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the introduction of Mackenzie Davis as Grace. 

Like her character, Hamilton’s performance is rough around the edges; but, quite deliberately.

In DARK FATE, Hamilton plays Sarah like a lost soul whose existence has been stolen away from her by the spectre of a never-ending struggle against an enemy she has no way of knowing how, where or when they’ll appear. Sarah has been shaped by events that never happened and without purpose, the fate she believed she once had manifest control over is, now, nothing more than a memory of what might have been.

The hardness of her T2 performance no longer defines her character and there’s just a very small glimmer of the young Sarah Connor and who she might have become if she’d not been targeted for termination back in 1984.

Like Hamilton, Schwarzenegger delivers a performance that shows just how much better an actor he has become over the years…

The Austrian Oak isn’t the main attraction anymore, but when he enters the story, the whole movie lifts. Part of it is to do with his sheer physical presence. Even at 72 years of age, he’s central to the action that unfolds throughout the film’s Third Act and, thank goodness, there’s been no overt effort made to de-age him or make him look younger in an effort to satisfy audience expectations that either the 1984 or 1991 version of him would play any part in the movie.

He also gets, arguably, the funniest lines he’s ever delivered in any of his movies…

The DARK FATE Schwarzenegger isn’t the Mr.Universe bodybuilding man mountain of the 1980s, but he delivers the best version of any of his TERMINATOR performances in this film.

It’s also great to see an effort made to bring new characters into the mythology, providing an opportunity to prolong the series one or two more movies (as has already been reported by some entertainment media outlets).

Mackenzie Davis is excellent as Grace, an augmented human sent from the future to protect a young Mexican girl, Dani Ramos, played by Natalia Reyes.

Davis has caught the attention of audiences over the last few years with supporting roles in high profile, big budget movies like THE MARTIAN (2015) and BLADE RUNNER 2049 (2017). As Grace, she’s a key character and has as much screen time as any of the other characters. 

As good as her acting is, her role is also very physically demanding right from the time she arrives from the future. Not only does she have to battle Luna’s Rev-9, she also has to go up against the Mexican Police and US Border Patrol authorities on more than one occasion; her mission objective being challenged time and again.

Natalia Reyes is solid as Dani, but the diminutive actress doesn’t quite carry the film. That in mind, she’s a substantial improvement on Emilia Clarke’s Sarah Connor from TERMINATOR GENISYS. She’s more authentic and she receives a huge boost from the inclusion of Hamilton and Schwarzenegger.

TERMINATOR: DARK FATE is not an instant classic, but it has a lot to offer...

It’s an honest attempt to energise a franchise that has struggled to find a way forward since Schwarzenegger left Hollywood for the California Governor’s Mansion in October 2003. Without him, the franchise tried to do something different with TERMINATOR: SALVATION (2009), but it wasn’t to be. TERMINATOR GENISYS tried too hard to be nostalgic but was exposed as nothing more than elaborate imitation.

While TERMINATOR: RISE OF THE MACHINES (2003) has been discounted from the timeline with the events of DARK FATE, the two films are quite close in how the characters are used and how the story unfolds. Unlike the RISE OF THE MACHINES finale, DARK FATE concludes on a much more certain note and there’s a sense that, for the first time since JUDGEMENT DAY, the TERMINATOR franchise has a clear path into the future.

TERMINATOR: DARK FATE MOVIE (2019) USEFUL LINKS

Terminator: Dark Fate - Wikipedia​
​Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) - IMDb
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) - Rotten Tomatoes​

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