Hamilton and Schwarzenegger have undeniable chemistry in Terminator: Dark Fate (review)

I was excited to watch Terminator: Dark Fate. I’m a fan of the series, even the ones that are not so critically acclaimed. When Linda Hamilton and James Cameron announced they were joining the project, my expectations for this movie soared. So what are my thoughts after seeing the movie?

Hamilton and Schwarzenegger made this movie!

The Story w/ spoilers:

The story surrounds Danny. She’s from Mexico and she lives with her father and brother. They all work in a factory, but machines are starting to eliminate jobs for the workers. Her brother is the first to get removed from his position.

None of that matters, it’s just a backdrop to introduce her as a character and to show that machines are playing a prevalent part in society again since the events of Terminator: Judgment Day.

What matters is that Danny is the hope for the future as she will be the new commander of the resistance. She doesn’t find that information out until later in the movie.

Her augmented human/terminator, Grace falls from the sky and protects her from the Rev-9 Terminator who’s specialty is separating from his exo-skeleton to attack.

Sarah Connor (Hamilton) saves Grace and Danny because despite Graces’ best efforts, Danny’s brother dies and Danny almost gets killed too.

Sarah explains that after the events of Judgement Day, she and John went on the run, but Terminators kept coming. Eventually, a T-800 shot john and killed him. Years later, she began receiving texts with coordinates and times and the message “For John”. She would show up, eliminate the terminator and repeat the cycle every two years.

We find out that the texts are coming from the T-800 who killed her son, known as Carl. Carl ends up helping them defeat the Rev-9 and Danny and Sarah ride off at the end of the battle (similar to how Sarah road off in Terminator (1984) to prepare for the war that is now being lead by Legion not Skynet.

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Highlights:

It was amazing to see Linda Hamilton back in the Terminator franchise. She is Sarah Connor and she didn’t miss a beat when it came to bringing that matter of fact realist attitude back to the film.

Danny was okay. There were no jarring issues with her character performance. We know that she didn’t have any experience dealing with terminators, so watching her grow through this big event worked well. By the end of the film, she had somewhat developed into the person that Grace meets in the future.

I have to be honest, Grace annoyed me in every sense of the word. Her character did nothing for me. She wasn’t a terminator, just an enhanced human being. That’s fine, but she was so confrontational with Sarah Connor for no reason. Sarah had more experience than her, even if the futures they know are different. So I did not understand what her attitude problem was. It made me not like her. However, I do accept that she was a plot device to help Danny become the future.

Within 5 minutes of being on screen, Arnold Schwarzenegger stole the show. Between him and Hamilton, I felt the movie accomplished its return to form. The T-800’s dry sarcasm, stories about drapes, and persistence to earn Sarah’s forgiveness made him just as loveable as the T-800 we encountered in 1991.

Rev-9 was a great terminator. His ability to separate himself from his skeleton was cool. He felt overpowered at times because he had a clear advantage from a technical standpoint as well as intelligence.

Thoughts:

If you are a Terminator fan and you specifically missed the story of Sarah Connor, the T-800 and John Connor, I think you will enjoy this movie. This time, the way John Conner was removed from the story worked well. It felt like a realistic way for things to end since terminator continued to chase them after the events in Judgement Day. Hamilton and Schwartzenegger have undeniable on-screen chemistry and it showed through the movie as they kept my attention more than anyone else.