Make it Stop - Terminator: Dark Fate Movie Review

On my way out of the advance screening for Terminator: Dark Fate, a man connected to the film's distribution was stopping people and asking for comments. He held a loose-leaf notebook and was jotting down notes as the audience exited the theater.

"How was it?" he asked me. "How did you like the movie?" 

"Make it stop," I said.

"Sorry?"

"That's my comment. Make it stop."

"Are you… being serious?"

"Absolutely," I said. "Make it stop. That's my honest and concise review of the movie and of the Terminator franchise continuing in any capacity. You can write that down."

 

I'm not sure he did. As a representative who was working on behalf of the film, he seemed to be looking for more of a positive take on the latest Terminator movie than what I was offering. Unfortunately, I really didn't have anything especially positive to say about the latest Schwarzenegger explosion-fest. The whole experience of sitting through it had been borderline excruciating. Now, I can't pretend I had high hopes for this film. I did not. I was never a huge Terminator fan, and the previous two installments in the franchise (2009’s Salvation & 2015’s Genisys) were especially obvious cash-grab attempts without much in the way of compelling storytelling.

 

The one detail about this new film that did give me the tiniest spark of hope was the inclusion of Tim Miller as director. Miller made serious waves a few years back with his feature film directorial debut Deadpool becoming the surprise hit of 2016, breaking box-office records and exceeding pretty much everyone's expectations. Deadpool wasn't perfect; not by any stretch. But it did have heart as well as a keen understanding of action beats, pacing, and it even managed to successfully land a couple of emotional payoffs.

 

Well, I'm here to tell you: The Tim Miller who made Deadpool is nowhere to be found in the jumbled mess that is Terminator: Dark Fate. With the barest imaginable amount of story and character development, this new Terminator film relies almost entirely on an onslaught of CGI gunfire, explosions, and a seemingly endless number of digital resurrections for the newest (and dullest) liquid metal Terminator, played this time around by Gabriel Luna. And don't get me started on Linda Hamilton or Arnold Schwarzenegger's contributions to this film. They both appear downright embarrassed in most of their scenes. Not to mention exhausted, as well as disinterested. 

 

Which is exactly how I was feeling as I left the cinema. Exhausted and disinterested in this film and any attempt to continue the franchise in any form going forward. I meant what I said to the man with the loose-leaf notebook in the cinema lobby.

 

Make it stop.