I saw Terminator Dark Fate at my local IMAX in Enfield, smaller but a hell of a lot cheaper than those in central London (BTW this is a non spoiler review, but has notes on visual fx and production) the good news is I found this sequel quite thrilling and very enjoyable.
All my friends know how much of a Terminator fan I am, I love the original film, but T2 Judgement day is up there with the greatest sequels of all time and set the bar for action films and vfx in general after 1991, every sequel after T2 for me personally has been a bitter disappointment, the only sequel that had some action and a story I remotely enjoyed was Salvation.
I have to admit I have been very harsh with Tim Miller, as much as I loved Dead Pool, I really hated the first Dark Fate trailer and just thought he has made another misfire like Genysis, he has made me eat my words, he a finally broke the rubbish sequel curse with this franchise.
Now don't get me wrong and too excited at my review just yet, this is the third best film, it is no where near the brilliance of the first two films, but it is a very solid sequel, I was only interested to see this because of the return of Linda Hamilton, but the whole cast is on point, even Arnold is back on form, but the stand out casting for me is Mackenzie Davis as Grace, she is absolutely superb as a resistance footsoldier.
The new target Natalia Reyes as Dani Ramos is pretty good, but Gabriel Luna does his best as the new villain The Rev 9, very good but he's no Robert Patrick as The T-1000.
Tim Miller has total command of how to make an action film and pacing, he used to work in visual fx, so I am happy to say the alot of the fx work is great and well rendered, but some of it does fall short of the mark, but I found it forgivable because of how much vfx is in this film.
I liked this film, but I know this new story which is actually co-written with James Cameron may be marmite for some people, because without giving to much away there is a massive change to the Terminator timeline, anyway if you are a big Sci-fi and Action film fan as I am, I implore you to give it a chance on the big screen, and one last thing that iconic Terminator music is back! 💗😎🎥