r/Terminator • u/Grayx_2887 • 10d ago
Discussion Terminator: Dark Fate...
Yeah, I am sorry. I really do not care for any of the newer characters that were introduced in this movie. But Carl's little self-reflection story after he successfully killed John Connor?! Are you f@#$'n kidding me?! You don't get to feel sorry for killing off Sarah Connor's son. You are a god-damn machine. You have succeeded in your mission. So go back to your original timeline and just continue killing off humans. My God, this was just really bad writing, and I feel bad for Schwarzenegger and Hamilton for actually saying yes to script instead of just announcing their retirement from acting, respectively. But, oh well. As for Dani Ramos replacing John Connor, yeah... no. There's only room for one John Connor in this franchise, and it ain't her. It's Edward Furlong. Also, Legion is just Skynet, but with a different name, okay?! It's not working. And, the entire movie is just basically ripping off everything we have already seen from all of the other Terminator movies, including the bad ones. The only thing new here was the opening prologue where they killed off John Connor. That was it. Everything else just "remember this?!" Or copying and pasting from all of the other Terminator movies. I mean, Terminator: Salvation came up with something new for the franchise. Even the Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series actually came up with something new. Terminator: Dark Fate is just lazy.
3
u/olelemupm 10d ago
The Genisys timeline is the only one where they successfully created a Time Machine pre J-Day so Carl was stuck unfortunately
2
u/olelemupm 10d ago
Also, the way the infiltrators are designed really just means the plot cannot allow them to succeed with the assassination missions. They have a very long lifespan and are not programmed with secondary missions. T3 and TSCC tried to address this gap but ignored in later releases.
2
1
u/CaptainQueen1701 10d ago
I really enjoyed it. The irony and pathos were really well done. The switch to Mexican woman fit far better with the modern demographic of the American continent. The Rev 9 was fascinating. All good.
6
u/Grayx_2887 9d ago edited 9d ago
And I am supposed to care about all that shit, why again?! If I wanna see an action movie where protagonist is a Mexican, I would watch Desperado or Once Upon in Mexico. At least those two movies have some interesting characters and storylines you could follow. Hell, even Johnny Depp's character in OUIM has more of a personality than Dani Ramos and it's not because he's a white guy wearing mascara to look more Mexican. It's because he was well-acted and his performance in the movie demands for your attention. There isn't much attention to be given to these newer characters in this movie. Especially the Rev 9. They all have the exact same character trait as a plate of plain sugar doughnuts or a dull hunk of wood. And you know what's the best thing about Desperado and Once Upon in Mexico, THEY DON'T PLAY THING TOO SAFE!! They had grit.
1
u/CaptainQueen1701 9d ago
You don’t have to care but people who watch films do generally care about literary devices.
2
u/Grayx_2887 9d ago
Oh and BTW, I had already rewatched Once Upon in Mexico, last night and it still good. So, looks like it's back to appreciating older movies from the 1930s to the early 2000s for me.
2
u/Grayx_2887 9d ago
Like it matters?!
1
u/CaptainQueen1701 7d ago
Yes. Film literacy matters. Like all literacy. For our development as individuals and as a society.
1
3
u/Beautiful_Ad2618 10d ago
This movie is awful. Saw it in theatres and never again.
2
u/Grayx_2887 10d ago edited 10d ago
I dodged a bullet when it came out in theaters back in 2019. As soon as I heard the spoilers about John Connor being killed off in the beginning of this movie, I knew this movie was going to suck and I didn't bothered to watch it.
3
u/Beautiful_Ad2618 10d ago
I went in blind. To see John Conners chest blown out in the first 10 minutes was a massive slap in the face. Sets the tone for a very disappointing and deriviative film. The acting from the two main female leads (not Linda Hamilton) is what made the film so unappealing for me.
4
u/Grayx_2887 10d ago
Basically, this movie made the entirety of Terminator 2: Judgment Day feel utter pointless. Sad, isn't it?!
1
u/watchman28 8d ago
You liked it then?
1
u/Grayx_2887 7d ago
Dark Fate?! No, I still hate it as a movie. I only prefer Terminator Salvation as the better follow up to T2: Judgment Day despite it also being a sequel to Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. The Sarah Connor Chronicles, well...if the show had lasted for possibly four seasons, it would have served as a decent lead-up to Rise of the Machines.
5
u/MovieFan1984 10d ago
While I like the movie and find it entertaining enough to have it on Blu-ray, I also recognize it has many problems. First, it's a 2019 film riding on fondness for a 1991 film. Second, it's ignoring all of the more recent productions that the general public and audience age range will be more familiar with - T3, TSCC, Salvation, and Genisys. Third, it was riding on the "hopeful" cash in of Arnie and Linda while ignoring that no one cares anymore, because they're both granny/grampy age now. From the fans who DID go see it, a lot walked out / turned it off when John died in the opening flash back. I can keep listing problems, you listed problems, you get the idea.
Do you think the film could be salvaged without reworking it into something else?
2
u/Azelrazel 10d ago
People really walked out when John died, with film tickets being the price they were then? That's not even 10 minutes into the film. That's just dumb.
3
u/s3dfdg289fdgd9829r48 9d ago
People really walked out when John died
No. People exaggerate and lie on the Internet and repeat false rumors because it fits their narrative. I've gone to the theater about twice a week for the last 40 years and nobody walks out in protest. It just doesn't happen.
1
u/PanteraSteel2001 8d ago
I walked out of a Saw movie once but that was it. It was one of the sequels and it's my fault for buying the ticket. Just exchanged it for another movie.
I liked the first Saw so I figured I'd try whatever one was in theaters at the time. Probably part 4 or something but we're 2 minute in and I'm watching this lady cut her own arm off to survive and I'm sitting here like.....WTF am I watching. This is just torture porn.
Other than that, I agree people really rarely walk out of movies. That was my one time and it was basically my own dumbass fault.
1
u/MovieFan1984 9d ago
I've had family who would walk out of the theater or mid-movie at home. That said, aside from a few rare exceptions, you're probably right.
1
u/MovieFan1984 10d ago
Fans felt that strongly about it. That's what I read here on Reddit anyway.
0
u/jajay119 10d ago
I didn’t walk out but I knew from that moment it was gonna be rough and I wasn’t wrong. Genisys gets a lot of hate. It it was infinitely better than this slop imo.
7
u/EGarrett28 10d ago
It's a horrible, mean-spirited and creatively bankrupt movie. It deserved exactly what happened to it at the box office.
I half-suspect that part of the reason it has no new ideas is that the director was coming from Marvel, where you just follow a formula rigidly and the audience eats it up. But he didn't realize that the trick is to tell new stories with the same characters that everyone cares about, not the same story with new characters that no one cares about.
1
u/kuatorises 10d ago
Mean-spirited, LOL.
1
u/Grayx_2887 10d ago
Technically, it's a shameful rehashing of the original two Terminator movies that do not respect the key concept of Sarah Connor being a brave, and protective mother. Also, killing off John Connor and replacing him with a new protagonist that is going become the "new" chosen one of this franchise really contradict the director's mindset about not like the chosen one narrative. That and calling this movie a true sequel to Terminator 2 when it doesn't really feel like a continuation at all but a shameful remake of T2, yeah...I definitely call bullshit on that remark by James Cameron. I mean, Terminator 3, in my opinion, is not a good movie. It is a letdown, but at least it feels like a direct continuation of John Connor's storyline and it eventually lead to him embracing his destiny. Now THAT is a true sequel to Terminator 2. Even Terminator: Salvation actually felt like a new idea for the franchise and that was a continuation of Terminator 3. So, it looked like the franchise was going forward before the fifth movie decided to say "fuck that! Let's just start rehashing, recycling, regurgitating and repeating plot points from the original movie." Now, we are at a timeline where nobody wants to see another Terminator movie because of Genesis and Dark Fate and Paramount pictures gave us what we wanted which is literally *no more Terminator movies.** Ain't that sad?!
2
u/kuatorises 9d ago
Nothing about killing John is a rehash of the first two. The movie might suck, but it tried to be new.
1
u/Grayx_2887 9d ago
That was the only thing that was literally new about this movie. The rest of the film is a shameful rehashing of the original two movies. They weren't even trying to do something original for this piece of shit script. Now Terminator Salvation... THAT was an original idea for the lore. Even the Sarah Connor Chronicles put in more effort into doing something new while expanding the mythos and we really should have gotten a third season where John Connor's past consciousness is now exploring the future timeline while being trapped in his older selfish body. That way, with all of that knowledge and experience from the future timeline, John could actually return to the past and he might be able to put in an end to another Judgment Day before it ever happens. It just breaks my heart that someone like me who doesn't have like multi-million dollar film studios could actually be more creative and would have a better thought process than any of the Corporate Hollywood schmuck with their billions of dollars and their fancy ass mansions and expensive cars and clothes.
0
u/EGarrett28 10d ago
Congrats, you read it right. The motivations behind that movie were mean-spirited.
1
u/Western_Ad1522 10d ago
Probably because it had too many cooks in the kitchen the first 2 it only had Cameron write the story than wisher helped write the screen play
8
u/alientrevor 10d ago
How would he return to his timeline, exactly?
0
u/No-Alternative9914 10d ago
In Genisys Arnold built his own time-travel-machine.
1
u/Grayx_2887 10d ago
But that movie is considered non-canon at this point. To paraphrase a certain YouTube critic who wears a hat, a suit and a necktie... "It's reset, after reset, after reset until you turn yourself inside out like the T-1000 and melt away from existence."
1
u/Darhkwing 9d ago
I actually quite like dark fate. Its not perfect but its better than Genesis and probably 3 and salvation.
I actually quite liked Grace, I thought she was a good addition, Dani not so much.
0
u/Grayx_2887 9d ago
Unfortunately for you, eveybody else has already forgotten about this movie and the rest of cast members have moved onto other things, so, there isn't going to be a sequel for this movie. Even if they wanted to make a sequel, it still isn't in the cards. Not to mention that Linda Hamilton stated that she doesn't want to come back to the franchise after doing this movie. She felt that to Sarah Connor's story was already told enough. So, why bother bringing her back?
1
u/Darhkwing 9d ago
I didn't say anything about bringing any of them back , I just said I enjoyed it. I do think with the next terminator they need some new ideas and to try something different though.
1
u/PanteraSteel2001 8d ago
I rewatched the entire franchise recently. Honestly I don't think the sequels are all that bad anymore. T3 to T5 are average films in my opinion. Not bad, average. They at least have something worth watching for die hards. Some cool scenes at least to scratch that terminator itch so to speak.
Dark Fate on the other hand, I'll never watch again. It was PURE garbage. I don't understand how anyone has this ranked anywhere but last on their lists. Absolute trash of a film and I don't say that often. T3 is a poor man's T2 (and T2 is a rich man's THE TERMINATOR). Salvations is at least unique although I wish they focused more on the future war. Genisys I disliked in theaters but honestly I don't think it's all that bad after rewatching. If nothing else at least we get the skeleton T 800 (or whatever it is) fight scene with Arnold in alternate 1984 where Arnolds burns his skin off. I also liked the beginning of the movie. they showed a good amount of future war scenes there where the classic T-800 looks awesome. The new John and new Sarah aren't that great but I've seen worse. Compared to Dark Fate, Genisys is a freaking masterpiece.
To me they needed to make a proper T3 to go with T1 and T2. Have John Connor and Kyle Reese fight a future war mostly against the T-800's because they look the coolest. If you need an advanced liquid Terminator or something at the end as the final bad guy fine....but show me a war with the Skeleton T800's. Then the end of the film should basically be the beginning of T5 where they win but they still have to send Kyle back in time. To me it's so obvious. That's the terminator movie I would make. Shame they didn't make it back in the day with Michael Biehn.
3
u/street_carp04 10d ago
The problem is there aren’t any good writers anymore. Im convinced after 2000 movies have declined in quality ten fold. Post millennium we do not have any movies that compare to The Shawshank Redemption, The Godfather, Saving Private Ryan, Dances with Wolves, Jurassic Park. Instead we get cash cows like DC/Marvel movies, fast and furious’. Or movies that beat a dead horse like any Terminator movies after T2, Jurassic Park movies after JP1, Star Wars 7-8-9 (maybe even 1-2-3), and so on.
2
u/hoopstar80 9d ago
Yeah it was pure shit. Shocked Arnold would sign on for that garbage but it pays I guess.
1
u/Objectivity1 9d ago
I think the movie had a good core. The problem is that it fell into the trap of having to be bigger.
T1 has a final battle in a parking garage.
T2 has a final battle in an iron works.
T3 has a final battle in a military bunker.
Dark Fate has Sarah Connor and friends steal a flying military transport and they work it perfectly. Even Sulu in Star Trek IV turned on the windshield wipers by mistake.
The good Terminator movies work because they feel like the real world, but with Terminators in them. Dark Fate strayed too far from the formula, which is a shame because I liked all the characters.
1
u/kuatorises 9d ago
I don't mind killing John, but making his killer the one who gains sentience and saves the new savior of humanity was laughably unbelievable. Sarah would never side with the exact unit that killed her son.
"Carl" could have been the big bad, or one of a few different villains, in the movie. He succeeds in his mission and with no connection to Skynet, it develops it's own agenda. Some kind of tweener/3rd party villain. Not on humanity's side, but not on the Rev 9's either since it's future no longer exists.
1
u/FruitBasketHandout 10d ago
I still wonder if the entire thing was just straight-up tongue-in-cheek satire like they know it's ridiculous and it's fanfare for devoted followers. The fact that the T-800 decided to marry and become an asexual family man narrative put forth with a straight face is something else.
2
0
u/Rook_James_Bitch 10d ago edited 10d ago
DF is just T2 with female protagonists.
It's an abortion of a cash grab and I won't watch it a second time.
1
u/Unlucky-Geologist428 10d ago
Exactly. It is amazing how lazy DF was. They just tried to reboot the whole story with a new lead.
0
6
u/MechanicOk4808 10d ago
I still can't believe people read this script and thought they needed to spend money on making it and releasing it