Reviews for this film have been mixed and the box office has been terrible, but for me, this represents a proper return to form for Terminator. Of course, box office business is not an accurate measure of a film’s quality - Blade Runner 2049 is evidence of that. Public interest in this series appears to have waned, after a trio of average-at-best sequels. All of those films had decent moments and ideas in them, but they were mostly executed poorly, on a watered-down PG-13 basis and with moments of silly humour that undermined the credibility of Schwarzenegger’s Terminator. This is a shame, as people will miss a genuinely good instalment in the series in Dark Fate.
Dark Fate, which picks up after T2 and ignores the non-Cameron films since then, does borrow elements/ideas from all of the previous films. However, thankfully it only cherry picks ideas from 3-5 and then does them better - the tone is much closer to Cameron’s original two (more so T2). There are humorous moments, but they are not cheap laughs - no novelty sunglasses, inflatable Terminator boobs or goofy smiles in sight here.
Danger and peril make a welcome return here - none of the characters feel safe as you go through the film. This is one of the things that has divided opinion on the film (without giving away any spoilers), but for me, it is one of it’s strongest points - it’s ballsy in its decisions and is not afraid to make changes, without resorting to the ‘Nexus point’ convoluted plot points seen in Genisys.
Overall, this is a damn fine film - is it as good as the first two films? No, but those are near perfect and beloved examples of the genre. Dark Fate isn’t perfect, but it is a worthy and satisfying follow-up to the story, if you are prepared to have that story evolve. It’s a solid 8/10 in my view.