Terminator Dark Fate

Back in the 80’s and early 90’s Arnie and Sly were the giants of action films Rambo, Rocky, Terminator and Predator all of which in one form or another have made comebacks including potential final outings. Now it’s the turn of Arnies Terminator to make a return hot on the heels of the frankly dreadful Rambo Last Blood, is Terminator Dark Fate.

In my opinion one of the big differences between Stallone and Schwarzenegger is their on-screen personas, Stallone’s characters more serious while Arnie’s had a lighter touch and he was always happy to have a quip and a gag in the middle of the killings and violence .

That difference is evident in spades in Dark Fate. It is a bit of a film of two halves, an intense first were we meet our new Terminator prey Dani with her super human protector Grace, much of what we see from the first film is here as a young woman is hunted by a relentless killing machine. In the second we see the return of the T-101 Schwarzenegger model a wise cracking killer robot and family man all rolled into one and although it changes the tone of the film the action doesn’t slow down.

I’ve never been hugely invested in Terminator and i’m sure there has been a host of films in the last 20 years I’ve never watched and there maybe plot holes all over but, to be honest, I didn’t care. I really enjoyed this, in comparison to the dreadful plodding nonsense of Rambo, this was action packed, well paced and with a lovely “buddy” movie turn from Arnie and Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor, well supported by Mackenzie Davies and Natalia Reyes.

If Arnie is never too “be back” in this role then it seemed a pretty fitting and enjoyable farewell.