I get the sense that this seems to be more akin to the Halloween 2018 of the franchise than its Force Awakens
Terminator: Dark Fate || Review Thread
- Thread starter CaptainKashup
- Start date
Yeah this didn't do much for me at all. It's definitely better than the last 2 films but feels *so* cynical in how it deals with the fallout of T2 while basically rehashing most of its action sequences. Reminded me of a mix of Halloween 2018, Star Trek Into Darkness and The Force Awakens, more for worse than better sadly.
Pros:
+ It's better than the last two.
+ Linda Hamilton was great.
+ Enjoyed Mackenzie Davis as Grace
+ Sound mixing was strong, the impact of hits felt really chunky
+ First act was totally frantic in a good way
+ The tone is most consistent since T2. The humour is sprinkled lightly and there's no silly shit like in T3.
+ R-rated tone was good. They didn't overdo the swearing and Rev9 gets some nice violent moments.
Cons:
- How it follows up T2 is gonna piss a lot of people off. It's an interesting idea but just feels kinda sour as a huge fan of that film
- Arnie's placement in the film is very silly and as much as I love him, he didn't need to be in the film beyond fan service
- The script is very obvious and on-the-nose. Tons of exposition and shit just explained away lazily. Nothing as bad as the nexus point shit from Genisys but it all feels very convenient. How it deals with the film's more progressive themes is hilariously pandering
- A plot point concerning Grace
- Some cringe-worthy homages to T2, like the "I'll be back" from the trailer.
- Most of the action is extremely derivative of T2 - at least 3 scenes are straight-up homages to that film and I found it very patronising as a fan. There are literal moments torn straight out of T2
- Rev9 is pretty boring, doesn't have the intense stoicism of T1000 and the ability to split himself isn't really interesting.
- Film has an identity crisis of sorts - it wants to move on from T2 while constantly rehashing elements from it (as above). I would've much much preferred a more restrained, Logan-like film that's basically a western with a mix of practical + CGI...rather than blurry ridiculous fights in planes.
- Regarding Skynet
- Musical score was mostly forgettable, surprising considering it's JunkieXL.
- T3 was better overall, sorry.
- Some of the digital cinematography looked like crap, especially during daylight scenes.[/SPOILER]
Pros:
+ It's better than the last two.
+ Linda Hamilton was great.
+ Enjoyed Mackenzie Davis as Grace
+ Sound mixing was strong, the impact of hits felt really chunky
+ First act was totally frantic in a good way
+ The tone is most consistent since T2. The humour is sprinkled lightly and there's no silly shit like in T3.
+ R-rated tone was good. They didn't overdo the swearing and Rev9 gets some nice violent moments.
Cons:
- How it follows up T2 is gonna piss a lot of people off. It's an interesting idea but just feels kinda sour as a huge fan of that film
John Connor dies in the very first scene, and while it's suitably jarring, just saying "Fuck it forget John Connor here's a new resistance leader" didn't sit well with me
he's the T800 who killed John and is now domesticated with a wife/partner and stepson. It's really silly.
when it's revealed Dani is the new John Connor herself, Grace says "You're not the mother to some MAN who is gonna save the world for you"
she has a metabolic issue where she has to have drugs to keep operating. Feels mega-contrived and only flares up when it's convenient for easy tension
- Most of the action is extremely derivative of T2 - at least 3 scenes are straight-up homages to that film and I found it very patronising as a fan. There are literal moments torn straight out of T2
in the third act a dam takes the place of the steel mill and when they crash, we cut to a guy pressing the alarm and it's basically the exact same shot selections as T2
- Film has an identity crisis of sorts - it wants to move on from T2 while constantly rehashing elements from it (as above). I would've much much preferred a more restrained, Logan-like film that's basically a western with a mix of practical + CGI...rather than blurry ridiculous fights in planes.
- Regarding Skynet
Legion is such a shitty, generic replacement
- T3 was better overall, sorry.
- Some of the digital cinematography looked like crap, especially during daylight scenes.[/SPOILER]
Your Arnie criticism is also my weakest aspect of the film. It was kinda silly and hard for me to buy. that said, he was thr source of the humour of the movie, and that was very well done so I cant complain to much about that.
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Is he only used as a joke or does he have some emotional weight in his character ?
Man, Junkie XL sucks. Don't know why he keeps getting work. His score for Mortal Engines was literally the same like 4 notes played over and over again. Garbage composer
Well, we certainly don't get an equivalent of "I know now why you cry" or a thumbs up moment.
That quote in one of your spoilers is so cringy, lol.
As bad, if not worse, than a similar one from the last X Men movie.
Question.
How is the young John Conner CGI ? Does it look convincing or do they try to keep his face obscured with behind-the-back shots so you never really get a good look at him ?
Actually pretty good, Linda Hamilton and Arnie too in that scene. You don't see much of John's face to be fair but when you do see him it was fairly well done
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So, I know that John dies at the beginning of the movie, even if I don't know how exactly. But I was wondering, why did Furlong said he had a small part in the movie ?
I'm assuming that he's either referring to his face being scanned, or more likely he voiced John and then they pitched/digitally altered it for that scene. He doesn't appear as an adult at all
After reading that I think I'd rather have T3.
Then again, I have always liked T3. It was always in a tough spot following up, what is considered, one of the greatest action films of all time and with a different director to boot. I have always felt like it was a fairly competent film.
Genisys is terrible but a guilty pleasure.
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Yikes.
T2 was always the last Terminator film in my mind. Seems like its going to stay that way.
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Ouch 2 stars in the guardian.
I'm pretty pleased with the mixedness of reviews tbh. To me, that means there's SOMETHING there. The last film I adored that got mixed reviews was Alita, so fingers crossed.
The few things that have been spoiled for me don't bother me thus far, so.
The few things that have been spoiled for me don't bother me thus far, so.
You know, I always wondered what would happen after
a Terminator completes its mission. What would it do? Shut itself down? Destroy itself? Go to a designated location and wait for instructions? Settle down and start a family isn't what came to my mind lmao.
The average rating is rising up too, it's almost at 6.0 average(now at 5.83).
I'll see it, but they really need to stop rehashing T1 and T2. there are only so many ways you can do the time-traveling robot assassin premise
I'd like the next movie to explore
Legion hunting down the survivors of humanity and the desperate struggle to form the resistance.
But something tells me it will be about
stopping judgment day 2.0 from happening and destroying Legion before it is created instead
even Era is divided lmao
I find O'Hara and the rest of the Empire crew in general to be a great barometer for movies and TV critique. They straddle a fine balance of professional criticism and fandom. It's why their podcasts are always so good.
I'm hoping we'll get a spoiler discussion podcast/interview with the Dark Fate production team. I can see them getting Tim Miller at least.
I just checked the Empire site for her "review" and the printed opinion isn't even a review. Is it more of a video review?
Lol I don't want to be rude but why do you care that much about its review scores?
I care because if this movie succeeds we'll actually get a follow up.
$40 million OW on a movie with a $200 million budget? Not likely...
All the more reason positive word of mouth and reviews helping the movie matters.
There's usually a printed review based on a star rating, and then later in the week there's an audio podcast that goes further into discussion of the film. For bigger movies, they'll have a separate spoiler-filled episode, which really gets into the nitty-gritty.
The printed reviews can admittedly be light on content, which is why the podcast versions are so much better.
This is not getting any positive word of mouth after how they handled T2's aftermath.
Like regardless of whether I think the movie has decent parts of not, I am never advising any T2 fan to go see this.
That's like paying to get kicked in the balls.
Sure it is. I'm recommending it to friends, at least one is now going to see the movie because of it. Literally when I was in the cinema right as the credits rolled a guy sitting behind me was saying to who he was with that that was great and he was going to see it again and take someone who he thinks will love this. I have literally already witnessed positive word of mouth.
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I will personally take you accountable if it ever goes back to Rotten again, you monster.
Honestly I legit can't comprehend how this movie could go to rotten. Makes no sense the movie is legit good.
The movie is getting positive word of mouth right now though, can't really say it's not going to happen...when it's already happening.
T2 is my favorite action movie of all time but the way they deal with the aftermath makes complete sense.
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One of the biggest and most spread-out journal in France gave it a really glowing review, so it'll help a lot around here.
