It's actually fortuitous that I got to see this so soon after rewatching last year's Halloween reboot, as both have a number of parallels. Both have seen the female leads of the first two films of their franchises come back after a long absence, and getting to kick a lot of arse along the way. Both have used the reset button, in that they have erased all of the previous sequels past a key point (back to the original for Halloween, back to T2 for Terminator). Both have a clear mission statement of "getting back to basics" with their franchises, concentrating on telling a rock solid, stand along story first, and leaving sequel set up as a secondary priority. Both have as a key of the storylines a trio of female leads, almost three generations working together. I'm not sure exactly how much these two have influenced each other, although it should be mentioned that both Linda Hamilton and Jamie Lee Curtis' returns were announced in the same month, but these parallels are interesting, and hopefully it's as successful for Terminator as it was for Halloween.
Right from the word go, Dark Fate makes brutally clear that Rise of the Machines, Salvation, and Peter Gabriel don't count anymore (it does mean we lose the quite good Sarah Connor Chronicles TV show though). It wastes no time establishing a straight line between this and T2, introducing our new antagonist Terminator and some of its abilities, along with our new protector from the future, and our lead being hunted, and from there the action and tension barely lets up. It's actually quite impressive how well this opening section works in terms of setting up the characters and tension, although the audience's familiarity with how Terminator films work does help a lot in that regard, we already know the basics about what to expect. There are a few welcome surprises along the way too, including how certain characters enter the plot, and a welcome reveal of lead character Dani Ramos' role in future events, which means that though this is familiar territory regarding the shape of the plot, it's far from slavish. One touch I like is that though we have something similar to the old "you didn't stop Judgement Day in T2, you delayed it" from the sequels, it's made clear that the Connors' actions in T2 did have a real impact, the future isn't exactly the same, the technology they're fighting is a bit different than what we've seen before.
Terminator films are also all about delivering on action though, and this one definitely excels in that regard. Now I have heard some criticism that this one gets more than a bit ridiculous towards the end, and yes it's a pretty OTT climax, but to be fair, so does T2, and here it does escalate towards it well, it feels earned. Director Tim Miller had previously helmed Deadpool, but if I didn't know that going in, I wouldn't have guessed so. I mean that as a compliment, as the direction of the action, though with a similar level of energy, has a different feel altogether, emphasising the desperate chase nature of the story, something the later post Cameron Terminators definitely lacked. There's a nice variety of set pieces too, including a section that goes more suspense set in a border detainment facility, which makes for a nice little subtle political dig in how much the US's paranoia about the Mexican border makes this Terminator's job so much easier.
Which brings me nicely to the characters; Gabriel Luna is superb as the new RV-9 Terminator, capturing well the cold nature of it, how merciless it's pursuit is, learning all the right lessons from Robert Patrick's turn as the T-1000. Natalia Reyes makes a great English language debut (she's Colombian) as Dani Ramos, the target for Termination this time, bringing across quite naturally the arc of being terrified for her life at first, followed by a determination to stand her ground and fight. Mackenzie Davis gets a true standout role as Grace, such a far cry from the mousy character she had in Black Mirror San Junipero where I first saw her; she portrays a great physicality to not just her fighting, but her whole war-weary manner. Incidentally, yes this starts with her turning up naked, in traditional Terminator style, but I am so glad that they managed to film her in a non-male gazy way, rather than T3's "right, how much can get away with having her boobs be just out of focus" style. Of course the big comeback is Linda Hamilton, and wow is it great having her back! She has a perfect no-nonsense "stop that shit" attitude I love, whilst still coming across as very human, not as inhumanly focused as she was in T2. Arnie is also back one last time, and genuinely gets something new to do with the role; it would be a major spoiler to get into detail, but we get here a definite evolution of a Terminator character, one with a surprising amount of melancholy and poignance. He also gets some of the film's funniest moments, but in a far more organic, deadpan way than in the others, no groaners like "talk to the hand" in here.
Dark Fate doesn't bring a tonne of new ideas to the table, in fact a few plot points did turn up in the previous sequels, but many of the ideas it re-uses are far more fleshed out in here than they were previously. It does also have a few slightly loose moments of plotting, but nothing game breaking; besides, I always felt with T2 that the mission to Cyberdyne did muck up the pacing of the T-1000's chase a bit, here there's nothing to break the flow of the hunt quite so much. In short, Dark Fate is the return to form the franchise has been waiting two and a half decades for; whilst with some of it's franchise maintenance the baby has been lost with the bathwater (something happens in the prologue that I reckon will piss a lot of long term fans off!), it still manages to get back to the series core strengths, in a way that makes it mean something again. Hell, some of the character revelations in here are pretty close to a full on fight the patriarchy rallying cry! Definitely see this one on the big screen, it deserves to do really well, to let them know that this is the direction the series needs to take if it does continue. Mind, if this does end up being the last one, it's a far better note to go out on that Genesysn't...
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