Action-Adventure Terminator: Dark Fate

[Wheels]

I appreciate Salvation for attempting to depict things I've always wanted to see. I respect it more than any of the others that came after T2.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Ah yes, the great future war that was only hinted at...

to finally get...

 

[Mysteryman]

Salvation is my second least favorite.
For me, the bottom of the barrel has got to be Rise of the Machines. It was far too campy to be considered a proper Terminator film.

 

[OutOfBoose]

I can't even rank anything that came after T2JD. All of them are bottom of the barrel, but for different reasons.

 

[samsnee]

The only thing enjoyable that came out of Salvation was Bale’s tirade.

 

[Nardz937]

The only thing enjoyable that came out of Salvation was Bale’s tirade.

It became even funnier when it turned out the scene he flipped out over didn't even make it into the movie.

 

[Mani-Man]

Agreed. I think the problem is they feel they need to create an even deadlier version of a terminator with each sequel. But honestly, you’re not going to top a terminator who is liquid metal.

Yeah that is one huge problem.
You cant get better than that, everything else just feels like a rip off...liquid metal terminator is the top of the game.
I mean you could go maybe with two liquid metal terminators or so...but how do you top the t-1000?
Uh you could do one where skynet is desperate and sends older models back in time, some kind of mercenary group of T-800 and below.

Terminator 3 had a great dark ending. But Terminatrix sucked.

Yup.

Salvation finally gave us a future war, but the whole Marcus storyline was dumb.

Yeah.
And im super torn on the setting of Salvation.
I do like it but i dont know, i expected a more futuristic setting to be honest.
The previous movies prepared us for a specific look and all, so i was expecting that.
Salvations setting makes more sense imo in terms of style and how you would imagine such a future war to look...but i also want to see the war we have seen in the previous Terminator movies shown.

Genesys had an interesting idea about an aging terminator but the casting of Sarah and Reese were horrible and honestly it only confused the timeline instead of telling a good story. John Connor should not be a terminator.

Maybe a better cast could have saved it, i dont know.
The plot twist is a interesting idea but something that should have stayed an idea.
Turning john connor into a bad guy was dumb as hell.

I actually liked Dark Fate. The action and most of the acting was good and felt right to see Sarah Connor again. But they basically said FU to T2 while basically just doing that same story again.

Absolutly, i recently watched it and man its fun.
But nobody should have greenlit that story...giving the middle finger to T2 and then doing pretty much the same kind of story was so stupid.

 

[henzINNIT]

I actually think Salvation is the worst sequel in many ways, it's certainly the one I dislike most.

Genysis has lower lows but it's first hour is genuinely good stuff and so has higher highs IMO.

It's between T3 and DF for best sequel since T2 though for me.

Agreed on all counts.

Salvation is bottom for me. The only positive in it for me is it mostly looks pretty good, but not like Terminator, so what's the point.

Genisys is a mildly entertaining fan film for a while before it gets really bad.

Dark Fate is a fantastic Terminator film at times. The effects are great at times. One part of this film is this grim, Logan-style late sequel with a drunk Sarah Connor facing down her son's aged robotic killer. Another part is a lean action reboot with the old premise and new characters. Both of these could have worked fine on their own, but the film is downright goofy at times when these things cross-over. Ultimately, I think the film has tremendous balls opening the way it does, but fails to do anything interesting in its run-time to justify it.

T3 may just edge it out for me. I like Stahl's Connor, which helps a lot.

 

[Teelie]

Salvation and Genisys were two great potential stories utterly ruined by incompetence and unreasonable demands. Dark Fate tried to pull a Halloween and for the most part it did but it wasn't enough.

It seems all the 80's action franchises have been run into the ground. Terminator, Alien, Predator, Robocop, Rambo... I think they could still come back with a good sequel or remake at some point but not any time soon. Definitely not with the bitter pill fans and audiences have had to swallow with so many lackluster sequels and poor reboots.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I wouldn't count Rambo as failed to be honest, the last 2 have been quite good and made decent money as Sly was clever in keeping the budget down. Something the other franchises should take note of.

 

[Teelie]

Rambo's last two movies, especially the last one, were a faded shadow of what came before. The law of diminishing returns at work. This last one was not even Rambo. It was Rambo in name only.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Rambo's last two movies, especially the last one, were a faded shadow of what came before. The law of diminishing returns at work. This last one was not even Rambo. It was Rambo in name only.

Agree to disagree, both were much better than Rambo 3 and I enjoyed them personally.

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

The only thing enjoyable that came out of Salvation was Bale’s tirade.

So true!

It became even funnier when it turned out the scene he flipped out over didn't even make it into the movie.

Ha! I didn't realise that!

 

[Milk Tray Guy]

Dark Fate is a fantastic Terminator film at times. The effects are great at times. One part of this film is this grim, Logan-style late sequel with a drunk Sarah Connor facing down her son's aged robotic killer. Another part is a lean action reboot with the old premise and new characters. Both of these could have worked fine on their own, but the film is downright goofy at times when these things cross-over. Ultimately, I think the film has tremendous balls opening the way it does, but fails to do anything interesting in its run-time to justify it.

Definitely agree with this.

 

[DarkKnight88]

Rambo's last two movies, especially the last one, were a faded shadow of what came before. The law of diminishing returns at work. This last one was not even Rambo. It was Rambo in name only.

Rambo 2008 is the best Rambo since First Blood.

Last Blood though... agreed.

 

[Vaibow]

Definitely agree with this.

I really wanted, in Dark Fate, or any sequel reintroducing Sarah, to show her as this homeless, ruined nut job, esp if she did lose her son. In my version he went off to fight the good fight and she was admitted again. They alluded to his quite well - her being this drunk, but it was very Hollywood and watered down. I wanted her to be this tin foil hat wearing looney who isn't up for it anymore, it throws a spanner in the works and the resistance have to forget her and move on.

 

[batfreakforever]

To me Dark Fate is the natural progression from T2 after all the other sequels.
I like them all in their own little way but those films didn't really do anything for John Conner. T3 was on the way to him becoming the leader we know and love but we should of got the future war we see in the Cameron films then have him blow up Skynet and sent kyle back which loops into T1 but the newer films were too busy in trying to put in plot twists and not a straight narrative like Cameron's films. Yeah he showed flash backs and dreams and the future but it wasn't confusing.
I see where the Dark Fate makers are coming from. Yeah the previous sequel films have milked john of his real potential but the series can be looked at as it maybe wasn't actually about him. It was Sarah.
But in the even bigger picture killing john in the past doesn't really change much. Humans rise up anyway. Be it John , Dani or whoever.
AI will rise too.
The concept of John is great but you can poke lots of holes in it within the bigger picture.
John really can be anyone. The fact that Sarah is told her son will be called John and in the original timeline Kyle wasnt Johns dad. He was a different John. Kyle is only John father because of going back through time. So with that I have no problems with Dani being the new leader of the resistance. It shows that winning this time may be even harder then before .

 

[KaijuDude1992]

I agree about Alien, Predator and Robocop being the franchises that haven't been done nearly as much justice as they should have been, but I actually really enjoyed the latest entries in the Terminator and the Rambo franchises, although I know the movies are far from perfect or even come close to what they were before. Dark Fate is definitely one of the better sequels in the Terminator franchise at least since T3 and Rambo 2008 is also my second favorite Rambo film in the franchise after First Blood.

Last Blood could have been better, but I mostly still enjoyed it for what it was.

 

[Vaibow]

I will never understand why in last blood his first attempt to get her backache just walks in and inevitably gets followed and left for dead... but his second attempt he gets in and gets the head of the main pimp... why didn't he just do that first.

Which is the same for Dark Fate, the t-800 did his job, why didn't he self destruct, or switch himself off or go walk into the sea never to be found again - how many other machines grew feelings and further more, doesn't this mean the AI is flawed and the drones/exo-skeletons will finally just realize 'this is dumb?'

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I agree about Alien, Predator and Robocop being the franchises that haven't been done nearly as much justice as they should have been, but I actually really enjoyed the latest entries in the Terminator and the Rambo franchises, although I know the movies are far from perfect or even come close to what they were before. Dark Fate is definitely one of the better sequels in the Terminator franchise at least since T3 and Rambo 2008 is also my second favorite Rambo film in the franchise after First Blood.

Last Blood could have been better, but I mostly still enjoyed it for what it was.

Agreed with all of this. I do get the criticisms of both Last Blood and Dark Fate, but would take both anyday over the last Predator and Alien movies.

Also agreed on Rambo 2008, 2nd best movie in the franchise for me.

 

[henzINNIT]

I think the series has been seriously knee-capped by franchise film-making. The great film I've long heard fans clamoring for is basically the logical conclusion: future war, sending Kyle back and closing the loop; but this would be a great last film, and all of these botched sequels had delusions of trilogy grandeur.

 

[henzINNIT]

Sorry to dig up an old thread, but I just played 'Terminator: Resistance' and was curious to see if anyone else had.

The game mostly sucks to be honest. A kind of ugly, bog standard shooter with light rpg mechanics sprinkled throughout. The devs clearly love the franchise though, with tons of references and details, and you can't help but root for them. It's the little game that tried. In one word, I'd call it adorable.

And I'll be damned if it doesn't cobble together a decent enough plot. It's much better than Salvation.

 

[Alien Anal]

So this is a commission piece I had a guy working on for me but unfortunately he bailed even though it was looking so good. Its Sarah in the future war

 

[batfreakforever]

Watching Dark Fate doesn't ruin T1 And 2 for me.
I'm actually happy I can call T1, T2 and Dark Fate an acceptable trilogy.
If we can a 4th then cool. Its highly doubtful but we got Salvation, Genisys and Dark Fate when each movie underperformed.
Cameron even came back for Dark Fate. Not directing but in a bigger way since he made T2 so anything is possible.
Terminator is never really dead. We've said it over and over and it keeps coming back.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Just watched this again for the first time since the cinema, and I actually enjoyed it even more, despite some mis-steps (Dani is still a mis-cast for me) it’s an enjoyable movie with some surprisingly emotional moments that worked as a good send off for Arnold’s T-800 and could have gone some interesting places in the sequels.

Unfortunately what came before really harmed the chances of that and while I liked most of this cast they should have waited longer after Genysis to do it. Tim Miller is a really Director though I hope we see him on another franchise film at some point. Mackenzie Davis was great in her first action role also, hope she does more.