Hasta La Vista, Terminator
When John Connor gets shot and killed by a “new” Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in the first minute of Terminator: Dark Fate, it was the only thing I could think of. Even if another “new” terminator (Gabriel Luna) is sent to kill a total nobody, Dani (Natalia Reyes), as she will grow up to lead a resistance that will eventually kill the “Legion” robots and save the world (No more Skynet, jan, but we’re still recycling Judgement Day in the sixth installement of a franchise that seems to be going nowhere as it keeps continuously being rebooted) and another quote, unquote “terminator” (Mackenzie Davis) is sent to protect Dani to kill the “Rev-9” terminator, all I could think about was the film’s opening sequence — in which one of the most iconic film characters of all-time, John Connor, is shot and killed like a total pussy, as if it didn’t matter anymore if Edward Furlong’s Connor is to survive and evolve. There was no reason for him to die, and the film then rubbed me in the wrong way, as it keeps continuously justifying itself for doing so, but you know there’s no reason for Connor to have been killed like that, let alone be killed.
We’ve been through so much trying to protect Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) in James Cameron’s The Terminator, as she was being hunted down for her assassination, and then trying to save John Connor (Edward Furlong) in Terminator 2: Judgement Day. One year after Judgement Day is prevented, you can’t make me possibly think that a Terminator will just show up and shoot him in the chest, while Sarah doesn’t do anything. This is the #1 reason why Terminator movies should’ve stopped at Judgement Day, we’re stuck in a creative dead-end and we can’t possibly figure out what do to next. This is likely what happened with James Cameron and Tim Miller.
J. CAMERON: You know what? Let’s just kill John Connor in the first minute of the film, it’ll be fun!
T. MILLER: Why? Why would you tarnish John Connor’s arc for a pussy kill?
J. CAMERON: I’ll tell you why! WHY FUCKING NOT! I’M JAMES CAMERON! BITCH, I CAN DO WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANT! LIKE 4 AVATAR SEQUELS NOBODY ON THE PLANET EARTH WANTS EXCEPT FOR ME!
T.MILLER: But wasn’t John Connor the sole reason of the prevention of Judgement Day? Wasn’t John Connor literally the plot device of Terminator 2: Judgement Day? Wasn’t the future of the human race depending on Judgement Day? Now, because Judgement Day is prevented you want to throw all of that away and give no future to John Connor?
J. CAMERON: Yes.
T. MILLER: WHAT THE FUCK? THAT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE!
J. CAMERON: Who cares? Here’s 10 million dollars.
T. MILLER: Oh….em….sure, I’ll see what I can do.
You can’t possibly kill Edward Furlong’s John Connor like that, only to give Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor a resting bitch face for the entire time and make her depressingly mopey. Yes, it’s great to see Linda Hamilton back as Sarah Connor, but she really isn’t as great as people make it out to be. The best performance out of all of the actors is, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger as T-800, named “Carl”, in which Connor replies, brilliantly, “I’m never gonna fuckin’ call you Carl”, probably the best line in the Terminator franchise. Yes, better than the overused and overparodied “I’ll be back” and “Hasta la vista, Baby.” Schwarzenegger has the amazing ability of keeping it cool, being incredibly badass in the film’s numerously fantastic fight sequences, and funny. He’s the best written character, compared to the absolutely atrocious Dani, played by an awful Natalia Reyes. She isn’t no Sarah Connor, or Grace (Mackenzie Davis), she always acts out of impulse and screams incessantly until you’ve had enough of her cheesy acting and horrible non-progression as an “empowered female character” some beta-males in an echo chamber like Jeremy Griggs might qualify as “woke”, “NPC” or “SJW”. I just thought Reyes gave a bad performance with a poorly written character that does not scream “Future of Terminator” or even “Leader of the Resistance!” Once again, they killed John Connor for her to lead the resistance?!?!? Maybe some will say “Get woke, go broke”, but I’ll be the one to still think about the way they killed Furlong’s Connor and being as royally pissed off as the man who yelled WHAT THE FUCK sitting next to me as everyone tried to comprehend what happened.
Nevertheless, the film has some fantastic action sequences that harken back to the Cameron days. The bullet sounds of guns firing sound exactly like in Judgement Day, which made the R-Rated action sequences so much fun to watch and, honestly, quite kickass (especially in IMAX). The “future flashbacks” of Grace’s arc as we see the fight against Legion is probably the best staged action sequence of the film and the most exciting to see, visually. Some of the CGI looks absolutely terrible, especially on Gabriel Luna’s invincibly boring Rev-9. Luna was alright, but his character literally cannot be beaten, until an improbable plot device beats him. The terminators keep getting more advanced, and more boring, because it requires more complicated sci-fi/underdeveloped garbage mumbo-jumbo to actually make you care and become invested in the film. Yes, the film looks quite good visually (even if it has some bits of unfinished CGI here and there), it has great performances from Schwarzenegger (even if he’s not in the movie for the first hour) and Mackenzie Davis, it has fantastic action sequences that are, in my opinion, some of the franchise’s best and most fun to watch. It’s a shame that the plot is an absolute travesty and the story decisions made here shits all over Judgement Day and for what? Now, my only hope is that the Terminator franchise is finally terminated, once and for all.
✯✯
