Terminator: Sötét végzet

A régi ismerős és az új szereplők egyesítése itt szimpatikusan van kitalálva, és Arnold beszólásai pedig csiklandozzák a rekeszizmot. Annál inkább bánt a túldigitalizált, feleslegesen eltúlzott akció (leginkább a repülőgépen), ami végzetesen megbuktatja a tisztességes tempóban elindult szórakozást. A kevesebb több lett volna, ha már nem lehetett újabb 100 millió dollárt költeni jobb digitális eszközökre. Az új fiatal terminátor, Mackenzie Davis ugyan vagány csaj, de egyébként unalmas és aszexuális. (2019.11.26)

The T-800 lives with his family in a cabin in the woods, is an expert at ladies' curtains, raises and pets a dog on the porch, and just out of the blue decides (programmed, unprogrammed, it doesn't matter) to do good. In short, Terminator as a soap opera. Add to that the nowadays fashionable girl-power element (a six-foot-tall teenage girl is a leader of the resistance) and the last half-hour of overstuffed digital crap. And there’s not a single action scene with the charge of anything by Cameron. Sadly, the best – and in fact the only good – thing about the whole film is the ageing Linda Hamilton, who, with how poor her career has been for the last 20 years, clearly enjoyed it and had fun. Otherwise, a terrible mess that completely fucks up all the careful mythology outlined by Cameron. And as I look at the four stars here, people have either gone completely insane or they don’t need much to be happy. And by the way, in the cinema, my friend and I were in an empty auditorium all by ourselves, in the evening, in Liberec, a city of 100,000 and four days after the premiere. That, too, says something about the decline of once famous franchises. (2020.01.16)

I have to say this out loud. This is the Terminator that I remember from my childhood. This is the continuation that I was wishing for after the second movie. Finally this is something that follows at least some logic and where Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton appear and all of that in combination with great action scenes makes sense. Tim Miller was a good choice and I’m glad that James Cameron was able to manage it from the financial aspect as well as the filmmaking one. Even though I wasn’t expecting anything or maybe just anger, at the end my eyes misted. This movie is as good as its upgraded opening song. It uses well-known Terminator motifs that are changed just slightly so that you can feel the nostalgia of the past emanate from it by adding just a few notes that were previously unknown to you. Moreover Arnold shows up less times that you would want but still it is enough for you not to forget him. (2020.07.22)

There is one more pleasant surprise this year after all. I wasn't really expecting it from the new Terminator, and it's all the more pleasant. Tim Miller delivers a lot of action (admittedly, a bit too digital at times), but, most importantly, the right Terminator atmosphere. At the same time, he's not afraid to try new things that are more suited to the twenty-first century. Terminator: Dark Fate does feel a lot like the first and second movies, it's more or less one long chase, but Miller doesn't try to cheaply reference the older films and instead fills the screen with a lot of simply great, quality action. And with interesting female leads, too. The main stars of the new Terminator are three ladies who looked god-knows-what in the photos. Fortunately, in the end, they are charismatic and interesting characters that the three leads portray more than well. And Arnold? Arnold is the king! Although a little different than you'd expect. In short, Miller and James Cameron made what fans have wanted to see since the second film, while not being afraid to throw in a few modern trends. If you're fundamentally bothered by women getting more and more space in the male-dominated genre, Dark Fate will convince you that when done well, it's not only okay, it's very good. (2019.10.25)

Uff The new Terminator is a huge surprise and the ultimate action flick! With a few exceptions, I consider this year one of the weakest in terms of horror and blockbuster films, but October kicks the whole year off on a more positive note. I don't remember enough of the older installments to compare, so I'm rating this one and this one only, and although I went to the theater expecting a seven, I left with an enthusiastic ten. From start to finish, it is an intense, raucous and uncompromising action inferno with a perfect cast. Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger were good, but the big surprise is Mackenzie Davis, who gets gave me adrenaline and erections at the same time during the action scenes, and praise must also be given to the indestructible Gabriel Luna, who played the bad guy with grace. There is plenty of action, it's very varied, each time very spectacular and the music makes you slowly catch your breath, especially during the final scene where M. Davis spins the chain, I screamed with relish across the cinema, because the last time I saw such a choreography was from Iko Uwais in The Raid 2. Apart from the action, I praise the visuals, the dynamic pace, some apt wisecracks, the juicy R-rating and a pretty dark atmosphere. Great entertainment that I always have served up with a smile and enthusiasm. 10/10 (2019.10.25)

At the beginning of this truly new and standalone contribution, it ends up being too similar to the classic first one, with new characters who are insufficiently appealing or simply poorly drawn. I was fearful for Sarah from the first minutes, and for me Dani was practically irrelevant until the end. Nor was this helped by the strangely undefined mood, which didn't keep me in suspense with any proper ending. In fact, it has no choice but to save the two most famous faces of the brand as a whole, where I just smile knowingly at their ultimate confrontation, but without them who knows if I would have stayed in the cinema to the end. The twist from the opening scene seems fatally wrong to me. To come up with such a retcon in a film that doesn't have a story set up by James Cameron himself, should result in a rating at least a third lower, because that kind of trampling is simply unforgivable, not to mention that the plot formula, which is ultimately followed, doesn't deviate from the original template in anything, it just voluntarily subtracts one original timeline paradox. I'm sorry that the long-awaited Terminator: Dark Fate remains unequivocally the weakest Terminator chapter for me, but I would really rather return to the bleak future of Terminator: Salvation or the action-comedy of Terminator: Genisys, even though that one alone deserves the subtitle "Legends" for how it messes with the history just to make it clear that the original saga is no longer being told here. But I would gladly watch the originally planned trilogies for both of these worlds even today, while I would never want to see more of Dani or Grace. The third star is saved by the infinitely diverse finale, which bravely replaces almost all environments and means of transportation. Which is a good outcome for a regular sci-fi film, but not for the brand of one of the most famous ones. (2019.11.11)

A solid action romp and probably to best sequel to Terminator 2, but it still smacks of yesterday’s mashed potatoes with a few added ingredients. In terms of story, it doesn’t bring anything new apart from the mysterious Carl and friendly Grace. The action and the special effects are fantastic, especially in the opening scene. Sarah is a bit too much of a caricature and the rescued girl a bit bland. Miller put together the next sequel that we wanted, but the only thing that it proves is that Cameron did the same, but much better back 1991. It’s raining naked ladies again. (2019.11.03)

James Cameron's directorial genius and precision shines through beautifully when watching Tim Miller's Terminator Dark Fate. It doesn't matter if we're talking about the building up of story dynamics, the iconic moments and catchphrases, the dark vision of the future, or perhaps the action scenes. The steel mill scenes from Terminator 2 are two orders of magnitude more impressive than the dam scene in Dark Fate, which feels tiresome, sterile and above all too digital after a few minutes. It's not that the last Terminator lacks its good moments, which revolve mostly around the genuineness of Mackenzie Davis and Linda Hamilton, but it's still the same generic template of two robots chasing each other, they're just more imaginative, or more breakable, and every now and then Arnold shows up to prove he can still kick some ass and deliver some of his classic one-liners. It's hard to see where anyone got the idea that Dark Fate is the best since T2 and the only relevant sequel. Terminator 3 had more impressive fights and Salvation was pumped up with stunning visuals and a superb post-apocalyptic feel – pity about the finale. We can therefore safely classify the last film as a second-rate contribution, certainly not above the others. (2019.11.02)

The Terminator has become a kind of second Columbo – every time he comes back, you're a little less glad (in the case of the Terminator if you're a viewer, in the case of Columbo if you're a killer). This movie... it's off to a promising start. In fact, its opening scene was the best ever, because it surprised me and made me feel something, which I can't say about the rest of it. The whole weirdly unfolding story failed to make me feel like there was really something going on, that I should be worried about someone. I guess it's also because it's a repeat of what we've seen before, only this time the "new Sarah" isn't interesting at all, the "real Sarah" is mostly a decoy to the fans, and Arnold's terminator gets a terrible beating because by the time the finale comes, in which he finally finds himself, he's acting more like he's in an SNL sketch than the movie James Cameron supposedly had something to do with. The heroine sent from the future, played by Mackenzie Davis, is likeable and reminded me of Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, except that although she points out several times that she is human, I didn't feel any humanity from her and she acted more like a machine. Then again, I hardly know what to write about her antagonist – except perhaps that the repeated shots of his reassembling head/body got old so quickly, as did almost all of the action scenes, which were great but boring. It's the same, maybe a little better than Terminator Genisys... but on the other hand, Genisys at least tried to do the unexpected sometimes (even if it was stupid afterwards). (2019.11.01)

I didn’t mind it at all. Those two hours go by with a satisfactory terminator pace, locations (and their escape action) that alternate with a frequency that Greta Thurnberg can only envy from her yacht, Arnold dropping wisecracks and Linda Hamilton enjoying herself a lot. Miller pays homage to the first two parts and ignores reason defying stumbles like Genisys and Salvation, and the viewer can have some good fun. That’s it. There is absolutely no added value that would fully justify the existence of this redeeming sequel or that would make the audience fall on their collective asses. I surprisingly liked the new dimension of the relationship between humans and terminators (the only progressive element) and I enjoyed Arnold’s cameo to the extent that the established logic of that world would allow (so, from the point of view of the predecessors, I had to shake my head in disbelief when he started talking about curtains and changing diapers). The action itself is alright, but it’s missing Cameron’s drive and controversy, and overall, most of the new stuff and characters, when compared to the first two, feel like a quite unoriginal but top-shelf and entertaining compilation. 70% (2020.01.21)

The very first thought that occurred to me in connection with this project after watching the first trailer was that I hadn't seen worse-looking digital effects in a big Hollywood movie for a long time, and perhaps it just seemed like that from those few samples. But it wasn’t just a few samples. The whole movie is filled with disgusting CGI (even the clothes hanging on a line to dry is digitally rendered here!), which bothered me from the first minute, and I didn't believe a single action scene (and not only them) so I couldn’t take the movie seriously. Only the screenplay could have saved it, but all the choices that the creators of this movie decided to make from the start were cheap and just terrible. On the one hand, they lured the audience with the return of producer James Cameron and actress Linda Hamilton, as if they wanted to show how much they revered the first two Terminator movies, but straight away in the first few minutes they take a big dump on T2 - were you also looking forward to Eddie Furlong? Ha-Ha. All this is just so that they can inconspicuously recycle the successful plot premise of T2, this time with indistinct and in no good way characterized new heroes, as is simply the case with most franchises these days. The first half of the movie (aka the characters' journey from point A to point B) is a tediously boring CGI mess with an incredibly literal "girl power" message. Thanks to Arnold Schwarzenegger's return in the second half, the movie gets a twist and praise God is at least a little bit fun, but that doesn't change the fact that it's all just padding with zero ideas that have been recycled now about a million times and spits all over the first two Terminator movies. For me, it was by far the biggest WTF of the last year, and although my expectations were really very low, I got even less than I expected. At the moment, I'm just dismayed that this disgrace is generally accepted by reviewers. (2020.02.01)

It took twenty-eight long years for the "immortal" Arnie and the grizzled Linda Hamilton to reunite in a sequel to one of the most memorable franchises. I welcomed the return of the original Sarah Connor, and her weathered look added a realness to the film that was sometimes lost under the CGI overload. Arnie a.k.a. Carl provided again some humour, but otherwise the film is pure action, interspersed with some exposition to make it all make sense. Aside from the old faces, the film offers a mostly mediocre cast, with Mackenzie Davis standing out the most (not just in height), while Natalia Reyes didn't impress me much. Gabriel Luna wasn't bad as the unstoppable killing machine, but Arnie and Robert Patrick were a class above. I don't think there's another Terminator to match the second installment, which is still breathtaking to this day, and better than Salvation and Genisys. (2019.11.03)

"Finally, a full-fledged follow-up to the cult second installment", part three. The usual representative of the digital action movie trend, with centuries of deserving actors and constant annoying quotes. I know we can't ask Linda Hamilton (who looks so worn out that I had to look it up to see if she'd had a heart attack) to jump out of a helicopter at her age, but does even a burning car that just lies there motionless have to be added in post-production? Halfway through the calm force of Mr. Schwarzenegger's elbow thrusts is a light reminder of his charisma in the first (and best, get over it) installment, but the way he's injected into the plot is such screenwriting strangeness that you'll end up wondering if you just misheard (and makes the character of Alicia the most un-savvy character since Libuše Šafránková in Waiter, Scarper!). I'd like to see an end to this trend where every movie like this has to have more characters than a gym after New Year's. Out of every Terminator: Genisys I’m putting every Terminator: Genisys on a scale from Terminator: Genisys to Terminator: Genisys. (2020.01.30)

I expected it to be much worse, to tell you the truth, but surprisingly I had a pretty good time. Watching the movie, I was nostalgic for the original Terminator, which James Cameron gave a unique atmosphere. Director Tim Miller certainly didn't disgrace himself, and came very close to the overall mood of the 1984 movie. Unfortunately, however, the writers didn't do much with the story, at times it runs out of breath. (65%) (2022.06.20)

Definitive proof that the Terminator brand is dead. If this were some no-name movie instead of a direct sequel to Terminator 2, I wouldn’t say squat and give this a high rating. But no. This constant going back in time and rescuing the leaders of the Resistance is getting tedious, repetitive, and borderline ridiculous. There are no interesting characters or plot. Some might get offended, but sorry, Linda Hamilton just can't act (when I look at her work over the last 30 years, it's trash next to more trash). The whole plot about destroying Skynet and replacing it with Legion is as moronic as replacing Snoke with Palpatine in the last Star Wars movie. And most importantly, despite the absurdly high budget, the result is yet another soulless CGI, which, especially in direct comparison with Terminator 2 from 30 years ago, does not even come close. I can understand the favorable reception, but I just consider it to be a sign that expectations were so low after the pathetic promotion that even a few good scenes and jokes were enough to keep this from becoming an epic fail. (2020.01.29)