Terminator: Destino oscuro

La fusión de viejos personajes conocidos y nuevos está simpáticamente concebida aquí, y las frases de Arnold hacen cosquillas en el diafragma. Lo más frustrante es el exceso de acción, exagerada e innecesariamente digitalizada (sobre todo la del avión), que hace fracasar el ritmo decente del entretenimiento. Menos hubiera sido más, si no se pudo gastar otros 100 millones de dólares en un mejor digital. Y la nueva joven terminator, Mackenzie Davis, aunque es una malota, es poco interesante y asexual. (26.11.2019)

El primer pensamiento que me vino a la mente con este proyecto a ver el primer tráiler fue que no he visto efectos digitales de peor aspecto en una gran película de Hollywood desde hace mucho tiempo, y que ojalá fuera solo en los avances. Pero no fue así. Un CGI de mal gusto (¡hasta la ropa tendida es digital!) me molestó desde los primeros minutos y no me creí ni una escena de acción (y no solo esas). Lo único que podría haberla salvado era el guion, pero las opciones que los creadores implementaron desde el primer minuto me resultaron baratas y terribles. Por un lado, atraen con el regreso del productor James Cameron y de la actriz Linda Hamilton, como muestra de respeto por los dos primeros Terminator, pero desde los primeros minutos, reniegan tanto de Terminator 2: El juicio final que es para enfadarse. ¿Cómo no esperar a Eddie Furlong? Ha ha. Todo para que puedan reciclar sutilmente la exitosa premisa argumental de T2, esta vez con nuevos personajes anodinos y poco caracterizados, como es costumbre en las películas de franquicia hoy en día. La primera mitad de la película (es decir, el viaje de los personajes del punto A al punto B) es un aburrido lío digital con un mensaje increíblemente literal de «girl power». Gracias al regreso de Arnold Schwarzenegger en la segunda mitad, la película adquiere algo de chispa y empieza a ser al menos un poco entretenida, menos mal, pero no cambia el hecho de que todo es material reciclado un millón de veces nulo en ideas, un enorme escupitajo de las dos primeras Terminator. Claramente la mayor perplejidad del año pasado para mí, y aunque mis expectativas eran muy bajas, obtuve aún menos. Por el momento, solo me provocó consternación ver cómo en general el público aceptaba algo así. (01.02.2020)

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. (25.10.2019)

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. (16.01.2020)

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. (22.07.2020)