Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Directed by Tim Miller. Starring Mackenzie Davis, Natalia Reyes, Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Luna, Diego Boneta, Enrique Arce, Tristán Ulloa, Fraser James. [R]

Sixth entry in the Terminator franchise brings back James Cameron (only in co-story and co-producer capacity, though), which explains why the narrative disregards everything that came after the first sequel and posits that even though Skynet was obliterated and Judgment Day was prevented from coming to pass, that didn’t stop the powers-that-be from creating a different kind of artificial intelligence that eventually proved to be a catastrophic threat to humanity. Augmented human Davis is assigned to protect future savior Reyes against a deadly hybrid Terminator (Luna); she’s assisted by Hamilton (making a satisfying return to the series after an onscreen absence of almost thirty years) and Schwarzenegger, playing another in the line of “old school” T-800 models. Director Miller delivers the big action sequences with enough skill to satisfy (even if only a few moments, like the final showdown, can come close to competing with the best bits from the first two films), but characterizations and rooting interest are limited, and the most intriguing parts of the story, like sorting through the tangle of alternate timelines, are too often shrugged off in favor of rehashing story beats and doomsday despair that have already been done to death in these pics. A more apropos title would have been Terminator: Déjà Vu. Warning: die-hard fans of Terminator 2 are likely to be outraged by what happens in the opening scene.

47/100