Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Terminator: Dark Fate

January 29, 2020

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The first Terminator movie was a relatively low-budget horror movie where the unstoppable killer was a Sci-fi robot instead of some supernatural force. Its sequel was the most expensive movie at the time and a pure action film with cutting edge special effects. What they had in common were stellar reviews and massive profit margins. Unfortunately, the films rapidly got worse in terms of reviews and when it came to box office returns. Terminator: Dark Fate had the worst financial performance in the franchise. Is it also the worst movie? Or were moviegoers unwilling to see it, because they were burned too many times in the past?

The Movie

The film starts with clips from Judgment Day with Sarah Connor talking about Judgment Day to the doctor in the mental hospital where she was being kept. We hear in a voice over how she stopped Judgment Day and now she was living in Costa Rico with her son, John, only to have a T-800 kill him shortly afterwards.

We flash forward to the present day in Mexico City where we see the telltale electrical events of someone arriving from the future. We don’t learn who she is right away, or what she is, but we can tell she’s not fully human, not the way she survives the initial fall. She is initially helped by a man and a woman, who are in turn stopped by the cops, who don’t believe the couple’s story about a naked woman falling from the bridge. This strange woman saves the couple from the cops, only to steal the man’s clothing and their car. Meanwhile, we also meet Dani Ramos as she’s going off to work with her brother, Diego. Shortly after they leave for work, there’s another electrical event and this time a man arrives. This man talks to Dani and Diego’s father. We don’t see what happens to him, but we can assume it’s nothing good, as the “father” shows up at Dani and Diego’s job to try and kill Dani, only to be saved by the mystery woman at the last second.

The trio get away, temporarily. It’s long enough to learn some names. The woman is Grace. She’s from the future and was sent to protect Dani. Meanwhile, the man is a Dev-9, a robot with a shape changing form around a durable metallic body and this makes it a lot tougher to deal with. Sadly, Diego doesn’t make it and it looks like Grace and Dani are going to die as well, until they are saved at the last second by … Sarah Connor.

Shortly after this point, the action slows down and we get some exposition / plot to deal with, but we also get a lot of spoilers, so the plot summary ends there.

Terminator: Dark Fate is the Bumblebee of the Terminator franchise. That is to say, it is a much better movie than its box office numbers would indicate, but it struggled in theaters, because people were burnt out after being exposed to so many substandard sequels. I don’t think it is controversial to argue that Dark Fate is the best sequel since Judgment Day and I would go so far as to say it is closer to Judgment Day than it is to Rise of the Machines. I truly believe if none of the post-Judgment Day movies existed, then this film would have earned not only a lot more at the box office, but it would have earned better reviews. It does everything you want from a revival of a franchise by combining new elements with callbacks to the old. This includes major themes, like a woman being forced to confront the reality that she is the key to the future and the loss of autonomy as a result, to smaller callbacks, like Sarah Connor saying to Grace and Dani, “I’ll be back.”

Terminator: Dark Fate also works on its own as a kick-ass Sci-fi action film. Linda Hamilton still has what it takes to be an action star and the first time she comes in to save Grace and Dani was such a fist-pumping scene. I wasn’t expecting to get sucked into the movie that easily, but I was. Furthermore, Mackenzie Davis was outstanding in this movie. I haven’t seen her in much, although I thought she was great in The Martian. I had no idea she had it in her to be an action star, but now I want to see more of her in similar roles. Natalia Reyes doesn’t get as much screen time in kick ass mode, but she’s just as good there as she is in the earlier moments.

On the other hand, if you are a hardcore fan of the later Terminator movies, then Terminator: Dark Fate might make you angry. It is a reboot and ignores the events of every film after Judgment Day. I’ve even seen people argue that Dark Fate disrespects the post-Judgment Day movies and I can see where they are coming from. Since I’m not a fan of these later films, I don’t see ignoring them as a bad thing, but others might disagree.

The Extras

There are two substantial making of featurettes, A Legend Reforged and World Builders, and two much shorter making of featurettes, Dam Busters: The Final Showdown and VFX Breakdown: The Dragonfly. They have a combined running time of over an hour and are quite in-depth. There are also nine minutes of deleted / extended scenes. The overall running time is good, especially compared to its box office struggles, but the lack of an audio commentary track does hurt the overall value.

The Verdict

Terminator: Dark Fate is a damn fine action film in its own right and a great way to end the franchise. It is also time to end the franchise. While I wouldn’t mind seeing Linda Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis, and Natalia Reyes in more leading roles in action films, they should be in other franchises. That said, the DVD / Blu-ray / 4K releases are worth picking up and a good way to end the franchise.

C.S.Strowbridge

Filed under: Video Review, Terminator: Dark Fate, Terminator, Edward Furlong, Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Diego Boneta, Mackenzie Davis, Gabriel Luna, Natalia Reyes