Terminator: Dark Fate review

I actually liked a couple of the movies in this franchise since the consensus high water mark T2. Terminator 3 is a great action flick, and yes I thought Genisys was alright. Only Salvation was a dud in my eyes. 

But most people seem to agree the franchise has been bad since T2. So now they have taken the Halloween route, by going back to the best movie in the series, and creating a direct sequel to that film, while basically pretending all other sequels never existed. 

And it works. Dark Fate is a really good, crafty reboot/continuation of the franchise. It has great action, and perhaps due to James Cameron coming back to produce and work on the story, it has the heart and gravitas that helped make the first 2 films so iconic.

It does adhere to the formula of the first 2. Once again both a terminator and a protector are sent back from the future, this time to find a young woman whose survival is essential to surviving a future war with machines.

The whole first act is just a relentless and thoroughly gripping chase film. This is not a film that eases you in. The protector, Grace(badass Mackenzie Davis), a human who has been given a sort of Wolverine upgrade, just barely saves the woman, Dani(appropriately plucky Natalia Reyes), from the Rev-9(Gabriel Luna), a terminator that makes the T-1000 look like a Beta Max,  and they take off running.

Soon they are joined by Sarah Conner, who in the 20 some years since T2 has been hunting down the other terminators that had been sent back to kill her son. Yeah it's a T2 retcon that you kinda have to just go with. But it's cool seeing Linda Hamilton back in badass mode.

And it's no secret that along the way they encounter Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes, there is a logical reason he can be in a post-T2 film. I loved everything they did with Arnold in this movie, presumably his last Terminator movie barring another reboot.

There's some really top notch action in the film. The big opening chase is especially outstanding. There is one sequence in a plane that's shot poorly, but that's the only big set piece to not deliver (it is also the most CGI'd of the bunch).

I also really liked how, even though this movie erases 3 whole movies from canon, they kind of poached some of the better ideas from those movies and wove them into this one.

It does leave off in a place that could lead to more movies. I feel like the franchise is probably past the point where they'll just crank out a bunch of new sequels. But if nothing else this one should at least sort of restore the franchise's reputation.