When Sarah Connor prevented Judgment Day, she changed the future and re-wrote the fate of humanity. Two decades on from that fateful day, a young Mexican woman called Daniella Ramos has her life upended when a ruthless new Terminator travels back in time to hunt and kill her. Luckily, she's got some help in the form of an augmented human (who has also travelled back in time) and Sarah herself...
Directed by Tiim Miller (Deadpool) and with a story co-written by James Cameron, there was anticipation that Cameron's return to the Terminatorverse would provide the much-needed spark to lift the franchise from the doldrums it's found itself in. Honestly, I saw the film more than a week ago and it's taken me this long to formulate what I think about it (and muster up the required enthusiasm to write about it). That should tell you something.
The first third of the film is strong, well-paced, and intermittently thrilling (a few very obvious CGI moments aside). Mackenzie Davis gives a decent turn as Grace, the augmented human from the future sent back to protect Dani. There's a couple of interesting choices made with Grace's character- such as her needing a cocktail of medicine to survive- even if it's a bit predictable as to how she is the one to be sent back. Natalia Reyes is also pretty strong as Dani, starting off as a normal girl whose life gets thrown into chaos (and I'm glad the script didn't go down the expected route that Dani is the mother of the next hero, reducing her agency and character to that of an incubator). Also, there's a great thrill in seeing Linda Hamilton back as Sarah Connor - battle-hardened, haunted, but still a bad-ass. So far, so good.
But, ironically, the wheels fall off it once Arnold Schwarzenegger makes his appearance as the retired T-800 who now goes by the name of Carl. When the uneasy alliance between him and the trio forms, that's when the film loses its shine and becomes another painfully generic middle-of-the-road actioner.
Schwarzenegger is serviceable, even if the backstory that 'Carl' has been given is all sorts of ridiculous. I was bothered less about that than others (hi, Rhys!) as there's a bizarre kind of narrative sense to it (at least, the beginning of it). But once he comes into the film, it devolves into set-piece after set-piece, and also the CGI starts to get really dodgy and really noticeable. Characterisation seems to go for a burtons as well, and the tension between Sarah and T-800 isn't played to its full strength.
When we talked about it, Matt joked that the film could have been called Terminator: The Force Awakens in that there's the passing of the torch to a new generation (with the old guard in the background). With the film bombing at the box office, it's unlikely that this will now happen. This is the fourth attempt to reboot/restart/reimagine the Terminator franchise and none of them have been successful (which is a shame as Salvation is a pretty strong start). Maybe they should leave it alone?
In conclusion, I realise it's damning the film with faint praise, but I went into the cinema with incredibly low expectations (after the dumpster fire that was Terminator: Genisys) and came out pleasantly surprised in some respects. There were bits I liked, but overall it's just very bland.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Tez
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