Terminator: Dark Fate

Terminator: Dark Fate is a 2019 American science fiction action film directed by Tim Miller. It is the sixth installment in the Terminator franchise and the direct sequel to mh:greatestmovies:The Terminator and mh:greatestmovies:Terminator 2: Judgment Day, while disregarding T2-3D: Battle Across Time, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation, Terminator Genisys, and the television series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles as occurring in alternate timelines. The film was released in the UK on October 23, 2019, and was released on November 1, 2019, by Paramount Pictures in North America, Tencent Pictures in China, and 20th Century Fox (through Buena Vista International) outside of North America and China.

The film is notable for being the first installment in the Terminator series since Judgment Day to have James Cameron involved.

Plot
Terminator: Dark Fate takes place twenty-five years after Terminator 2: Judgment Day. In Mexico City, a newly modified liquid Terminator -- the Rev-9 model -- arrives from the future to kill a young factory worker named Dani Ramos. Also sent back in time is Grace, a hybrid cyborg human who must protect Ramos from the seemingly indestructible robotic assassin. But the two women soon find some much-needed help from a pair of unexpected allies -- seasoned warrior Sarah Connor and the T-800 Terminator.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Although Rise of the Machines isn't as good of a follow up to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, this film (while having improvements that are not shown in the five Terminator movies) isn't exactly any better than the previous three films, as the story is a complete mess and plot holes are common. Not helping matters is that the Terminator franchise is suffering from executive producer Gale Ann Hurd's decision to leave after Rise of the Machines didn't get quite as much praise.
 * 2) *Perhaps the biggest flaw of the story is the fact that John Connor is killed almost immediately at the beginning, which undermines the entirety of Judgment Day.
 * 3) **Considering how important of a character he was, the way he gets killed is incredibly silly and anti-climactic. What's more, Salvation previously had its ending re-shot after that film's producers realized that fans would never accept John being killed, meaning that the writers of this movie should have known that this plot twist wouldn't go down well.
 * 4) **Director Tim Miller claims that the reason John Connor was killed off is that he doesn't believe in stories about the "Chosen One" and felt that it would make the story stronger, except the "Chosen One" is exactly what Dani is. As a result, this really seems like John was killed off for the sole reason of putting in a female lead.
 * 5) **Similarly, producer James Cameron claimed that the idea was to explore the unintended consequences of the events of Judgment Day, by revealing that preventing the Skynet timeline meant that John was no longer as important for the future and could now be killed without dooming humanity. And while that actually is an interesting concept, it fails in execution because it happens too quickly for the movie to properly set up the twist.
 * 6) **Bottom line is, the decision to kill off John Connor comes across as a huge middle finger to the franchise and the fans. It practically renders the first two movies pointless and is the equivalent of Jurassic Park 3 killing off the T-rex so the Spinosaurus could get the spotlight, but even that's being generous.
 * 7) *The time-traveling plot device returns, but is handled so poorly that it makes the story confusing.
 * 8) *Carl, the T-800 that helps the protagonists, displays sentience even though Terminators are described in the first film as not feeling pity, remorse, or fear. It is also never explained how Carl gained sentience or why he had a change of heart.
 * 9) **He is also a comic relief, which feels very out-of-character for a powerful machine designed for killing.
 * 10) **If Terminators could change their behavior by themselves, then this makes Model 101's sacrifice in Terminator 2: Judgment Day pointless.
 * 11) *It is revealed that Sarah has been hunting and destroying Terminators by herself, even though destroying one, even with multiple people, has proven extremely difficult.
 * 12) *How did Sarah know exactly where Dani, Grace, and Rev-9 were when they were fighting on the highway?
 * 13) *Sarah has connections to a military base that supplies her with weapons to destroy Terminators. It is never explained how Sarah knows those people or why they give her their military weapons.
 * 14) *Rev-9 has the ability to impersonate anyone, but almost never uses the ability against the protagonists.
 * 15) Much of the plot is rehashed from previous Terminator films, especially Terminator 2: Judgment Day. As a result, the film feels like nostalgia-pandering.
 * 16) * On that topic, many shots are nearly identical to shots from previous films, which makes the film feel even less original.
 * 17) *Even the characters are far too similar to ones from previous installments, particularly:
 * 18) **Dani is essentially a female version of John Connor, as both characters are pursued by a Terminator and they also play an important role in stopping the machines. Thus, killing John Connor off and replacing him feels very forced and pointless.
 * 19) **Legion is basically another Skynet that has no characteristics to distinguish the two. The same issue occurred in Genisys.
 * 20) **Grace is essentially a female version of Model 101, with the only difference between the two is that Grace is a cyborg rather than a full-on machine. Her personality is ripped off from Kyle Reese & her concept is stolen directly from Marcus Wright.
 * 21) **Aside from the ability to become two different beings, Rev-9 has no other stand-out qualities from the previous Terminator antagonists, other than being a lame version of T-1000.
 * 22) In addition to being too similar to previous characters, the newer characters are forgettable, as we never really get to know who they are.
 * 23) *This problem is most visible with Dani, as her personality is like that of a stereotypical teenage factory worker girl.
 * 24) Several action scenes heavily rely on computer-generated imagery and other special effects, and as a result, they feel fake when compared to action scenes in the first two films, which used much less special effects.
 * 25) Just like Gemini Man, the pacing around the middle of the film is slow, which is out of place with the rest of the film's fast pace.
 * 26) This film was intended to focus mainly on the new characters and move on from the old characters, yet the movie heavily panders to nostalgia, as mentioned above.
 * 27) *As a result, newcomers to the franchise who have no interest in the first two films will most likely have to watch those films to fully understand what is going on.
 * 28) While it is nice to see Sarah Connor return and Arnold Schwarzenegger as another Terminator return, it feels like they were only there to make older fans happy, as they don't really do anything important during the film.
 * 29) The thriller elements present in the previous films, particularly the first two films, are absent here.
 * 30) Laughable dialogue, particularly Dani's announcement that she is willing to stand up and fight Rev-9.
 * 31) While it is awesome to see Sarah Connor still kicking ass and taking names, she seems unrealistically overpowered. She is in her sixties and yet that doesn't seem to slow her down at all.
 * 32) The film itself seems almost like a feminist propaganda film, as it makes all the female characters act like males with no reason to justify why they act like that. This is also a reason why Dani replaced John Connor, just to promote an ideology and nothing more.
 * 33) * Tim Miller basically admitted this, saying "If you're at all enlightened, she'll play like gangbusters. If you're a closet misogynist, she'll scare the fuck out of you, because she's tough and strong but very feminine. We did not trade certain gender traits for others; she's just very strong, and that frightens some dudes... I don't give a fuck.”
 * 34) * Even if the film wasn’t intended to resemble feminist propaganda, the productions reaction to criticism comes across as such. When you take a risk as big as killing off major characters or changing/destroying timelines, controversial reactions are inevitable. But the cast and crews (especially Tim Miller’s) reaction to the backlash, particularly saying all of it (whether related to the female leads or not) is rooted in misogyny, is not only insulting to the fan base, but it’s a cheap way to salvage your films reception. Similar to the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot (though not to the same extreme).
 * 35) The movie sadly ends on a shameless cliffhanger with Sarah and Dani are ready for their next mission, which is never resolved due to poor box office performance.
 * 36) Anachronism: The USBP is shown using a 2000 Chevrolet SUV in 2020; the car would be 20 years old by that point so would have likely been long-since retired.
 * 37) T-800 exhibits same action as the Tin Man feels unnecessary references for pop-culture.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Despite making the action scenes feel fake, the visual effects are pretty good, especially the de-aging effects for Sarah, John Connor, and "Carl".
 * 2) The action scenes can still be fun to watch despite feeling fake as mentioned above.
 * 3) The film ignores the events of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation, and Terminator Genisys, the three previous Terminator films. While the former had a decent reception, it had almost no connection to its prequel, while the latter two were met with mostly negative reception.
 * 4) Good acting, and it's well improved from terrible Terminator movies, especially from Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Mackenzie Davis.
 * 5) Sarah Connor is still a badass, and very likable character as always, as well as Carl even if his behavior causes some plot holes.
 * 6) *In addition, Carl is a fairly funny character who does a good job at providing comic relief.
 * 7) The soundtrack composed by Tom Holkenborg is well done.
 * 8) Like other Terminator movies, the famous quote "I'll be back." is used once again.
 * 9) The first and last thirds act are well paced.

Reception
While Terminator: Dark Fate received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, with many deeming it a return to form for the series and praised the cast and action scenes, although they were polarized by its narrative choices, it was heavily criticized by fans of the franchise, with the most criticized aspect being John Connor's poorly-handled death. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a critic approval rating of 70% with an average rating of 6.22/10 and it reads, "Terminator: Dark Fate represents a significant upgrade over its immediate predecessors, even if it lacks the thrilling firepower of the franchise's best installments.", while the audience approval rating was an 82% with an average rating of 4.13/5. On Metacritic, the film's scores were much lower, with a Metascore of 54/100, and a user score of 4.1/10. On IMDb and Letterboxd, the film has an average score of 6.2/10 and 2.8/5 respectively.

Chris Stuckmann gave the film a C, stating the film is decent as an action movie, but awful as a Terminator film. Angry Joe had similar feelings, as he gave the film an 8/10 by itself, but a 3/10 when compared to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Edward Furlong, who portrayed John Connor in Judgment Day, was especially furious over how the death of his character in the movie was portrayed. Linda Hamilton also said: "This is going to upset a lot of people and a lot of the fan base who just thinks that it has to remain true to the first two stories. The whole concept of Terminator, that John Connor is the hope for the future of mankind and then to have him cut down like that. I think it's going to upset a lot of people," and also voiced her opinion that body doubles Brett Azar and Maddy Curley did not portray the scene realistically enough.

Box office
Terminator: Dark Fate was considered a box office bomb, grossing $261 million against an overall budget of $185–196 million. causing Paramount and Skydance to lose around $100-130 million and any plans for any future Terminator films were cancelled, most likely killing the franchise until it was announced that Netflix was developing a anime series with Skydance, Mattson Tomlin, and Production I.G., and the fact that it was overshadowed for highly anticipated films at the box office such as mh:greatestmovies:Joker.

Videos
MPQWXvAY1rU R6v1kAYcdUk 1Rs8LSxfL94 mVdm5BM1nI0 i0CJyMSLpXg OMHY_bdhWGw uJ5i5SWi5TI cmkF5a1ysYM Hugsy-pQ61U CFfJllcpaj8 p4TUG-M2r8A Tm01N7xzf-c

Trivia

 * In a January 2020 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Linda Hamilton stated that she would be happy to not return for another Terminator film.
 * This was 20th Century Fox and Tencent Pictures first film to produced by Skydance Media.