“Terminator Dark Fate” is not a great movie, and ultimately doesn’t live up to the attention and box office expectations. 

There are  six movies to the “Terminator” series, but “Dark Fate” is set as a sequel to the second Terminator movie “Terminator: Judgement Day”. For a bit of background the first Terminator and it’s sequel both follow similar formulas when one Terminator, a robot with human skin, that was sent by Skynet, a corporation taken over by self aware AI, coming from the future to kill a target that threatens Skynet. “Terminator Dark Fate” follows a similar plot, which is interesting only because in the second movie, Sarah Conner, her son and his protector work to stop this apocalypse from ever happening.

Despite Connor’s efforts, another company by the name of Legion starts an AI apocalypse and Sarah, after learning that her attempt to stop the death of humanity failed, has very little reaction, which is surprising. In cinema, there is a rule of rather than telling the audience, through dialogue or text, you show what you wish to communicate. Allowing the audience to put the pieces together themselves. Sarah Conner’s statement that she drinks goes against this rule. Alcohol is a common coping mechanism for people who have gone through trauma, but the movie does not show this, it doesn’t put any effort into demonstrating this unhealthy coping mechanism.

In dark fate we meet the new trio of Dani, who is a threat to Legion much like Sarah Conner was to SKYNET, her human-cyborg protector Grace and a new terminator named the REV-9, who has been sent to kill Dani. After the loss of Dani’s father and brother, Grace and her are rescued by Sarah Conner who says the famous line “I’ll be back”, which is done as a fan service. 

In the first “Terminator”, Sarah Conner acts as a threat to Skynet by having a son in the future, who leads a rebellion against them. This plot basis is a bit sexist, making Sarah into just a mom. But in “Terminator: Judgement Day” she becomes an important part of the story, a well rounded character, a fighter, which is quite progressive for 1991. But this is ignored in “Dark Fate”, she even has a line in which she reduces herself into nothing but a baby carrier. The inclusion of women is lovely, but that does not change the fact that the movie is poorly written.

After ending the first apocalypse, Sarah Conner has “lost” purpose, so she begins hunting Terminators that she finds by encrypted text messages. 

Back to the movie in order to stop the new terminator, the female trio sets off for coordinates taken from the texts Sarah has received. Here they find Carl, a wonderful beam of light in this movie. 

Carl, an original model Terminator T-800 who has developed a conscious, causes tension with Sarah. She is in reasonable disbelief of his drastic change, from a murderous Terminator to a caring father figure. Who listens and cares for a woman and her son, without any reward but the fulfillment of helping them.

A subversion that is actually symbolic and done well is just before Carl, Sarah, Dani and Grace are about to set off to kill the new Terminator, Carl peers over sunglasses. The classic sunglasses seen in Terminator One and Two, he picks them up, I could feel my dad’s excitement without even looking next to me, and then puts the sunglasses back down, he’s changed, and he’s left that life behind him. 

In the end the obvious subversion set up is paid off along with a few deaths of primary characters, these twists and endings are not as impactful as they should be. The subversion is meant to be progressive, and the death is meant to be emotional. Neither of them serve their intended purpose.

Grace and Dani’s dynamic is intriguing, but the characters aren’t developed very well in this movie. Looking at their relationship through the lense of Queer Theory, may make their relationship seem potentially romantic, until Dani is revealed to be a maternal figure to Grace. 

With decent action and a reasonable plot, the issue truly lies in the theme. “Choose your own fate” which is in a way, contradicted by the actual movie. Sarah Conner chooses her own fate in Terminator: Judgement Day, but that hard work is undone by the inevitable AI apocalypse and the loss of her son.

Although this movie has many mistakes, there are a few gems that make it worth a watch. Don’t see it if you don’t want to, if you want to see it, watch it for Carl.