Terminator: Dark Fate

[stew-STR160]

IanH755 said:

Not a bad film, but a bad "Terminator" film for me. As the above poster said, if this was the first film of a brand new franchise (Terminator never existed before) then we'd be excited by the idea, but as new "T3" it's just not good for the Terminator lore or for long term fans.

Compared to the acting performances given by "Sarah and Kyle" in the original I'm just not sure the actresses in this modern reboot have the ability to do a convincing enough job, unlike the original duo.

It did feel in that respect like another 'strong women' biased movie. Men bad, women good.

[Otispunkmeyer]

stew-STR160 said:

IanH755 said:

Not a bad film, but a bad "Terminator" film for me. As the above poster said, if this was the first film of a brand new franchise (Terminator never existed before) then we'd be excited by the idea, but as new "T3" it's just not good for the Terminator lore or for long term fans.

Compared to the acting performances given by "Sarah and Kyle" in the original I'm just not sure the actresses in this modern reboot have the ability to do a convincing enough job, unlike the original duo.

It did feel in that respect like another 'strong women' biased movie. Men bad, women good.

I don't get why they have to do this 'strong women' stuff using the movie equivalent of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwM_-jyKQIs

Original terminator, original Alien etc all show you can make a film about a strong woman character without signposting it every few minutes.

I watched Avengers End Game again the other night and forgot about that little moment when all the female characters band together to help Captain Marvel. Absolutely cringe worthy and at the same time totally unnecessary: We just watched Marvel fly through and destroy a freaking massive alien spaceship like it was made of paper mache. What 'help' does she need exactly?

[Fastchas]

Watched this last night with my 15yo. He loved it, I felt the non-stop fighting at the end was a bit tiresome. How much can the human body take, for chrissakes? Connor being slammed into walls, being in close proximity to explosions and getting up with little effect etc..
I liked Arnie's 'comedy' slant on it, it was good he can laugh at himself somewhat.

But T1/T2 it ain't...

[HARTLEYHARE1]

9/10

Excellent effort from all involved and especially Arnold

[irocfan]

Watched it this evening and.... it was ok. I'd deliberately steered clear of reviews (and this thread) and I did enjoy it for what it was - a reasonable action movie.

I did like seeing Sarah Connor back and Arnie quite liked the female super-soldier/cyborg but Dani... erm no. Even allowing for the genre, a lot of the human action was far fetched and I didn't like the 'split terminator'.

As someone else on here mentioned though a terminator film should be more than just 'meh' - at least it wasn't Charlie's Angels that looked like proper dreck

[bloomen]

I were not impressed. There was literally no story at all beyond - chasing a bit. Nothing developed. Very little was revealed

I liked Mackenzie Davies in it. Linda Hamilton seemed like she needed some acting practice. Arnie was... Fine.

[Evercross]

bloomen said:

I were not impressed. There was literally no story at all beyond - chasing a bit. Nothing developed. Very little was revealed

I liked Mackenzie Davies in it. Linda Hamilton seemed like she needed some acting practice. Arnie was... Fine.

Yup, some decent performances I agree, but a description I read somewhere else sums it up perfectly - 'a Hispanic feminised remake of Terminators 1 and 2'.

Now that I've seen the film I have read-up a bit on the ongoing rights dispute over the Terminator intellectual property and I am convinced it has influenced this movie.

In retrospect I think Terminator:Dark Fate is to the franchise what Never Say Never Again was to the James Bond movies (where Kevin McLory successfully won rights to the storyline of Thunderball and the Spectre/Blofeld stuff and vowed to keep remaking tweaked versions of the same movie within the bounds of the rights he held.)

Looking into things in any depth it is obvious T:DF is just a cash-in.

Edited by Evercross on Thursday 31st October 15:18

[stew-STR160]

bloomen said:

I were not impressed. There was literally no story at all beyond - chasing a bit. Nothing developed. Very little was revealed

I liked Mackenzie Davies in it. Linda Hamilton seemed like she needed some acting practice. Arnie was... Fine.

I thought Arnold was very funny...

[A Winner Is You]

The problem with this and so many other sequels is they feel the need to go bigger. The T1000 would surely be the ultimate weapon, but they have to keep introducing apparently more advanced varients which have no real advantage over it. They also forget that Terminators are supposed to be scary - the scene in the original where he kills the wrong Sarah is still the most brutal in the franchise, even though there's no gore.


I still maintain the best sequel they could make would be something far smaller in scale. They are supposed to be infiltration units, so have a group of soldiers stuck at a deserted outpost, with one secretly being a Terminator

[eltawater]

A Winner Is You said:

I still maintain the best sequel they could make would be something far smaller in scale. They are supposed to be infiltration units, so have a group of soldiers stuck at a deserted outpost, with one secretly being a Terminator

That's basically the plot to Screamers....

[Ian974]

I'd agree that it's a reasonable action film, nothing groundbreaking but considering how terrible it could have been it's alright.
Of the issues that were in the film, the earlier whinging over whether 1 or 2 characters are male or female is an irrelevance IMO. Most of the cast was fine and I wouldn't have seen the film being any better or worse if it was Dani or her brother in the same position.

[Evercross]

Ian974 said:

I'd agree that it's a reasonable action film, nothing groundbreaking but considering how terrible it could have been it's alright.

More damning with feint praise.

Ian974 said:

Of the issues that were in the film, the earlier whinging over whether 1 or 2 characters are male or female is an irrelevance IMO.

And you are entitled to that opinion, but ask yourself would the film have been made were it not for the gender slant? Is there any point to the film other than the gender slant as otherwise the plot is indistinguishable from T1/2? It isn't 'whinging' - it is an accurate observation of the scripting and directorial decision which, considering the political climate we live in, had more to do with getting on board with a bandwagon that honest creative decisions.

I wanted to see a genuine new direction for the franchise, wiping out the mis-steps that were Salvation and Genisis (T3 wasn't as bad as some made it out to be IMO and suffered mostly because of the rights-issue fight and the dropping of James Cameron as director).

Instead I saw a gender-swap inferior remake.

Edited by Evercross on Friday 1st November 14:57

[bloomen]

The film was made to make money.

The biggest change was the return of Sarah Connor which in theory was a great move as she was integral to the best films. She seemed heavily sedated to me.

The female characters did everything a male character, or rather any person, would. I can't really see where the beef is other than not bothering to supply an actual story.

Strong female characters have always been a feature of the franchise. Having said that I found the womb talk stupid and the 'twist' regarding that.

Edited by bloomen on Friday 1st November 15:51

Edited by bloomen on Friday 1st November 16:58

[irocfan]

bloomen said:

The film was All fims are made to make money.

FTFY

[Ian974]

Evercross said:

Ian974 said:

I'd agree that it's a reasonable action film, nothing groundbreaking but considering how terrible it could have been it's alright.

More damning with feint praise.

Ian974 said:

Of the issues that were in the film, the earlier whinging over whether 1 or 2 characters are male or female is an irrelevance IMO.

And you are entitled to that opinion, but ask yourself would the film have been made were it not for the gender slant? Is there any point to the film other than the gender slant as otherwise the plot is indistinguishable from T1/2? It isn't 'whinging' - it is an accurate observation of the scripting and directorial decision which, considering the political climate we live in, had more to do with getting on board with a bandwagon that honest creative decisions.

I wanted to see a genuine new direction for the franchise, wiping out the mis-steps that were Salvation and Genisis (T3 wasn't as bad as some made it out to be IMO and suffered mostly because of the rights-issue fight and the dropping of James Cameron as director).

Instead I saw a gender-swap inferior remake.

Edited by Evercross on Friday 1st November 14:57

Yeah, damning with feint praise is probably fair, but that's how I saw it. I enjoyed it, but my film tastes definitely aren't a great measure!
Not a patch on T1 or T2, but I don't know what a film would need to do these days to achieve something like that.

With regards to the female characters, I've no idea if it would have been made with the roles reversed (the likes of Rambo and John wick still manage to get in the screens fine), the point is more that to make a better movie, story, plot etc I think are much more in need of being polished, it's not near the top of the list of issues on this film for me.

[ajprice]

I've seen the film and seen a few reviews of it, most say it's alright but it's not T1/T2. Others have issues with it . Jeremy Jahns has a big issue with John Connor getting the Newt treatment, he's a big fan of T2 so I can understand it but most of the video is about John Connor and not much about the rest of the film. https://youtu.be/mVdm5BM1nI0.

(The video also has a few El Camino/Breaking Bad spoilers in there if you haven't seen El Camino yet)

[JagLover]

Red Letter Media have their review up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hugsy-pQ61U

Be warned if you haven't seen the movie yet that they don't do their normal thing of giving a spoiler warning and then going into spoilers. Basically they think it is Ok and better than most of the other sequels since T2, just not great.

[JagLover]

chris watton said:

I remember vividly going to the cinema to watch T2 with my mate. When we left the cinema, my mate was flabbergasted, saying that was the best film he had ever seen. I thought it was a real tour de force of an action movie too. Still highly enjoyable now.

Roll on almost three decades, cinema ticket prices through the roof, but the best people have to say about this detritus is 'It wasn't that bad'!

Wow!, OK, you convinced me, will book my ticket now to watch this 'not too bad' identikit modern soulless movie!

Cameron really knew how to make an action movie. It wasn't just the scenes he put in there but what he cut out as well because the pacing was usually absolutely perfect.

T2 is an absolutely amazing movie and it is just a shame that I have watched it so many times now that it loses some of its effect. How has Hollywood lost its way so much that it can go from the likes of that to some of the modern dross, it just amazes me really.

[A Winner Is You]

JagLover said:

chris watton said:

I remember vividly going to the cinema to watch T2 with my mate. When we left the cinema, my mate was flabbergasted, saying that was the best film he had ever seen. I thought it was a real tour de force of an action movie too. Still highly enjoyable now.

Roll on almost three decades, cinema ticket prices through the roof, but the best people have to say about this detritus is 'It wasn't that bad'!

Wow!, OK, you convinced me, will book my ticket now to watch this 'not too bad' identikit modern soulless movie!

Cameron really knew how to make an action movie. It wasn't just the scenes he put in there but what he cut out as well because the pacing was usually absolutely perfect.

T2 is an absolutely amazing movie and it is just a shame that I have watched it so many times now that it loses some of its effect. How has Hollywood lost its way so much that it can go from the likes of that to some of the modern dross, it just amazes me really.

Nearly 30 years old and the opening of T2 still looks incredible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mg7qKstnPk&t=...

Those models still have a weight and presence that CGI just hasn't been able to replicate.

[Lucas Ayde]

A Winner Is You said:

Nearly 30 years old and the opening of T2 still looks incredible

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Mg7qKstnPk&t=...

Those models still have a weight and presence that CGI just hasn't been able to replicate.

Agreed that not only was T2 amazing for its time, it's still a damn good watch today.

Too bad that 'Terminator: Woke Flop' takes a big old dump all over T2.