A Dark And Confusing Fate

“Expect a big ping, brother. My whole body’s a weapon.” ~ Rev-9

“Two days ago, I had this nice, simple life. And now it’s a nightmare.” ~ Dani Ramos

“Come with me or you’ll be dead in thirty seconds.” ~ Grace

“I won’t be back.” ~ T-800

“My name is Sarah Connor. August 29^th, 1997 was supposed to be Judgment Day. But I changed the future. Saved 3, 000, 000, 000 lives. Enough of a resume for you?” ~ Sarah Connor

The Terminator franchise has returned to theatres with Terminator: Dark Fate, the sixth in the series and seventh if you include the television series The Sarah Connor Chronicles. It’s deemed a direct sequel to Terminator 2, as everything that’s come after that is now deemed as happening in alternate timelines. Confused yet? You will be. The film reunites Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger, gives us a healthy dose of girl power along the way, brings up the latest in a long line of cybernetic terminator baddies, and even brings back original director James Cameron as a producer. All this under the direction of Tim Miller (Deadpool).

The film opens with a flashback to 1998, years after the events of T2 and the aversion of the end of life as we know it by Sarah Connor (Hamilton), her son John, and a rogue T-800. Sarah and John are living a quiet life, but Skynet sent back more than one Terminator through time before getting annihilated, and one of them, a T-800 (Schwarzenegger), catches up to them. Twenty two years later, another Terminator, designated the Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna), comes back in time to murder Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes). As before, a protector from the future comes back to defend her. Grace (Mackenzie Davis) is a cybernetic enhanced soldier from 2042, taken in by the adult Dani, a commander of the human Resistance. It’s not long before Grace and Dani come face to face with an older but no less formidable Sarah Connor, and then that same T-800, who has developed a conscience, integrated into society, given himself a name, and even aged.

The Terminator franchise as a whole is a paradox- people from the future coming back into the past to prevent the inevitable. Can timelines be changed? Or as is the case, do multiple timelines spring out of a single moment? It’s a headache when you try to sort out what happened to who in which timeline, and this adds onto the headache. Skynet’s been destroyed, but that doesn’t mean threats from the future are done. This film gives us another AI called Legion, still sending its machines back in time to do its dirty work and stack the deck in its war against humanity. The film rose out of some disappointment in the recent Genisys chapter of the franchise. Producer David Ellison asked Cameron to come back on board in the same role, and recruited Miller as a director. The story chooses to retcon the three sequels that have come since T2 into alternate timelines, and acts instead as a follow up to that film. Multiple writers are involved in this, some with ties to the franchise.

The story starts out creatively, with a shock for the audience. From there it weaves the convoluted paradoxes of time travel and science fiction with good characterization. We see character growth in more than one way, which I liked. It starts with an antagonist who has more personality than others of his kind before. It carries on to a young girl who has no idea what destiny has in store for her when her world comes apart. And it continues to a warrior from the future who is part human and part machine and must reconcile that. Some of the strongest characterization comes from the two leads- a robotic assassin from the future without a purpose who experiences personal growth by having free will and developing a conscience, and a fierce woman who’s suffered tremendous losses and must find her way back to her own humanity. That sense of depth among these characters is a great asset to the film.

Miller has already proven with the first Deadpool movie that he could handle action, and that continues here. There’s more than a fair share of action set pieces in this film, with violence and mayhem and futuristic nightmares come to life. Miller doesn’t get lost in that, which is another good thing. The new angle on the Terminator antagonist Rev-9 and his shifting abilities is rendered well, with the CGI believable. But the CGI serves the story, as opposed to the other way around, a distinction that would be lost on some directors. As the story goes long, it weaves between the themes of hope and despair, redemption and revenge, and the inevitability of what is to come. All while the audience still tries to figure out how convoluted all of that time travel can be.

As I’ve mentioned, it’s the characters who ground the film, and serve as the strongest asset of the film. Gabriel Luna steps in as the latest Terminator antagonist, the Rev-9. I’ve only seen him before in the series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. as the Ghost Rider. Unlike those who have come before him, the Rev-9 is programmed with more of a personality- this being an asset in infiltration. Rev-9 appears in more than one way, proves to be a formidable adversary, and Luna makes the most of the part, exuding a cold sort of charm that conceals the lethal weapon just lingering under the surface.

Natalia Reyes has a sympathetic role as Dani Ramos, whose world is shattered with the deaths of her family, an attempt on her life, and the revelation that she is meant for greater things in a dark world of war against machines. She rises to the occasion as events go along- not unlike Sarah Connor in the first of the films. Starting as a young woman just getting through her day, she becomes more as the film goes along, and the actress plays to that in a strong way.

Mackenzie Davis has an eclectic resume that includes the recent Blade Runner 2049, and here she gets a lot to do as the warrior from the future sent back to thwart a cybernetic adversary. Grace exists on the edge between human and machine, enhanced with cybernetics to save her life, and able to go toe to toe with a terminator. There’s tension between her and Sarah- understandable, as Sarah distrusts her machine aspects and views her as inexperienced. And interestingly, there’s more of a common bond she has with Schwarzenegger’s T-800, something the actress plays to through the film.

Schwarzenegger himself has been playing this role for awhile (well, several different T-800s, to be precise). But this is something of a new take on the character. In the first film we’ve seen a merciless killer, programmed to come back in time and kill the mother of the leader of the Resistance. In subsequent films we’ve seen a reprogrammed terminator who’s been programmed by others to protect. Here we have a terminator who comes back in time to carry out his programming… and then finds himself cut adrift and in possession of free will. It’s of his own free will that he develops a conscience, comes to terms with the consequences of his actions, learns to be better, and integrates himself into human society, even taking a name. This new take is an intriguing one, as is the tension that exists between he and Sarah, as he knows those consequences are going to catch up with him sooner or later.

It's Linda Hamilton who really owns the film as Sarah Connor. She’s older than when we last saw her, more bitter, angrier, more cynical, but still as fierce a survivor as ever. She has reason to be bitter, and yet still we sympathize with her. We understand what drives her to do what she does. Sarah has spent years on the run, wanted by the law, but has spent that time hunting terminators of one variety or another sent back in time. It’s what she’s had to live for, and her journey through this film is one of coming back to the world, letting herself feel human again, to start to trust- even those she would have reason not to.  Hamilton’s performance is compelling to watch, once again, and is worth the price of admission alone.

I do think that this franchise should have stopped with the third film, Rise Of The Machines. It made sense, even with a bittersweet, dark ending, for the narrative to end there. Subsequent films, including this one, have made the timeline so convoluted that it gives you a headache just trying to figure it all out. And yet taken on its own merits, Dark Fate works better than Genisys, which was nonsensical. Its actors are its best strength, and that really shows itself in how the characters progress as the story goes along.  

Unleashing The Merc With A Mouth

“Crime’s the disease, meet the cure. Okay, not the cure, but more like a topical cream to reduce the swelling and itch.” ~ Deadpool

“Just promise you’ll do right by me, so I can do right by someone else. And don’t make the super suit green. Or animated.” ~ Deadpool

“Wow, this is such a big house, but I only ever see the two of you here. It’s like the studio didn’t have  enough money for any more X-Men.” ~ Deadpool

“I had another Liam Neeson nightmare. I kidnapped his daughter and he just wasn’t having it. They made three of those movies. At some point you have to wonder if he’s just a bad parent.” ~ Deadpool

Back in the day, writer Fabien Nicieza and artist Rob Liefeld (who’s established a well deserved reputation as one of the worst comic book artists of all time) created an unlikely character named Wade Wilson, otherwise known as Deadpool, a mercenary with a smart aleck attitude, a healing factor, and an ability to understand that he was a comic book character, thus breaking the Fourth Wall. The character has been around the Marvel universe ever since, annoying pretty much anyone he’s come into contact with, proving to be an antihero with mileage. Now the character has hit theatres with a solo film of his own, starring Ryan Reynolds, who played at least a version of the character previously in X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

Wade (Reynolds) is a mercenary in New York, a former special forces operative with a motor mouth and shaky ethics. Vanessa Carlyle (Morena Baccarin) is the woman in his life, but life throws him a bad loop and he ends up diagnosed with terminal cancer. This being a comic book adaptation and not My Life, the story of course will not involve long vigils at hospital bedsides and a teary eyed fiancée watching her guy waste away. Wade is given a chance at a secret program, with an experimental cure dangled in his face.

The program includes one Francis Freeman (Ed Skrein), aka Ajax, who has a formula meant to trigger mutant genes, though there are of course other agendas involved, including torture for the sake of torture. Ajax and his right hand Angel Dust (Gina Carano) aren’t nice people, and Wade’s experiences in the program lead to a cure of sorts, an accelerated healing factor, not to mention a wee bit of a disfigurement soon requiring a red and black mask and costume.

The character had been in the works for a film treatment for years. Reynolds first became interested in the role after a comic book reference by Wade comparing his appearance to “Ryan Reynolds crossed with a shar-pei.” Wade turned up in the aforementioned Wolverine film, carrying some of the character’s habit to irritate everyone around him before ending up in a very different state than when he began, but this film pretty much feels like it’s ignoring that film- with the odd exception here and there. One wonders as an aside, with the time altering events of the most recent X-Men film, did that movie even happen?

The story is squarely set in the X-Men cinematic universe though, with the appearance of one of the team as well as a trainee with a really weird name, as opposed to the Marvel cinematic universe of the Avengers films. The script by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick is strongly influenced by the comic history, but even more by the tone of the character. Deadpool (often referred to as the Merc With A Mouth) has long been the sort of character who understands he’s in a comic book and frequently breaks the Fourth Wall, something that’s done in the film as well. It’s a meta sort of film where the protagonist knows he’s in a film and riffs on that, and the writing plays to that in a hilarious way, tweaking the conventions of action, comic adaptations, and even romance in various ways. The previous take on Wade in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, as well as Reynold’s role in the ill fated Green Lantern, as well as Spider-Man, the X-Men, Batman, and much more all become targets for the humour of the film.

The script gives us a protagonist who’s not that sympathetic- Wade’s ethics as a vigilante are shifty to say the least, and he’s not out to save the world. He’s crass and thoughtless at times, tends to lean towards selfishness at times. The villains are suitably nasty- and prone to getting very quickly irritated by the protagonists. The writers play to those elements, and give the script a funny, demented, and skewed tone that fits Deadpool perfectly.

Director Tim Miller comes from a background in animation, short films, and title sequences for other films. This is his first feature where he’s helming the whole thing as a director, and yet he seems well suited for it. Filming was done in Vancouver (which so often fills in for American cities), and Miller’s use of the urban environment makes up for the relatively low budget of the production. Miller does well with working on action sequences, and gives the film a gritty feel in the way he films things.

The cast are relatively well cast. T.J. Miller plays the role of Weasel, Wade’s friend, an import from the comics where the character is a long suffering support to Deadpool. I wondered where I’d seen him before- it turns out he played the most obnoxiously annoying member of the cast of Cloverfield, an oaf handling a camera through that monster film. Leslie Uggams plays the part of Blind Al, also a transfer from the comics, an elderly blind woman who ends up having the exasperating mercenary as a roommate. The X-Man Colossus turns up as well; previously played by Daniel Cudmore, this time it’s a performance of several actors taking on voice, motion capture, and facial expression. Colossus is pretty much bland no matter who plays him, but putting the character opposite Deadpool makes him a good foil and subject for Wade’s snarkiness. The X-trainee with him is played by Brianna Hildebrand, taking on the name Negasonic Teenage Warhead (proof that X-students have no business choosing their own codenames). The character is rooted in the comics as well, and the actress gives the mutant the right kind of attitude.

Gina Carano has a background in mixed martial arts before moving into film. Her take on Angel Dust is very different from the comics- the character has gained powers through experimentation, and she’s a good deal crankier than her comics counterpart. She brings the physicality to the role that the film requires. Ed Skrein, who’s spent time on that whole Game Of Thrones series (spoiler: in the end, everyone’s going to die) has the primary antagonist role of Ajax to play. As required, he plays the scenery chewing sociopath well, and as expected given who he’s up against, he tends to get irritated quickly and often.

Morena Baccarin first came to my attention as a cast regular in Firefly (it’s a crime that the show only lasted a season), and these days she’s a regular on the comics adaptation series Gotham. She’s likeable and sympathetic as Vanessa, a character who’s quite different in the comics. The actress has good chemistry with Reynolds, and where the film takes her, the reactions that she has make sense, particularly how she feels about revelations that play out.

Ryan Reynolds has a ball playing Deadpool, to the point where it’s impossible to imagine anyone else playing the character. He conveys the sheer sense of anarchic lunacy and snark that’s so central to the character, a mix of self loathing glossed over with sarcasm. His performance is subversive, hilarious, and self-aware; with his tendency to break the Fourth Wall, Reynolds plays Wade rather like an updated Ferris Bueller- albeit one with a hideous face, lack of moral center, and fondness for weapons. It’s a delight to watch him in action or to listen to him speak, and you can tell that the actor is enjoying himself thoroughly throughout the film.

Deadpool is a blast, blowing the lid off the conventions of the superhero film in a big way, providing plenty of laughs and thumbing the nose in many ways. It’s thoroughly entertaining, with lots of nods towards the genre (one will have to see it more times to catch all of them). I look forward to more of the Merc With A Mouth- and it seems that movie going audiences agree.