WITH SPOILERS
Three years after eliminating the T-1000 (Robert Patrick) and destroying the machine-governed apocalyptic future, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) and her son John (Edward Furlong) continue to escape the remnant of assassins SkyNet sent to the past before To cease to exist. One of these T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) finally finds them in Guatemala and murders John. Twenty-two years later, in Mexico, a REV9 model (Gabriel Luna) is sent from the future to eliminate a factory worker named Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes). The young woman will be protected by Grace (Mackenzie Davis), an improved human with cyber implants sent from the future. Soon Sarah Connor will join them in their eagerness to eliminate killer machines.
Counted like this, it seems something already told, that we have already seen. If it can be. With James Cameron as executive producer and Tim Miller (Deadpool; Love, Death & Robots) in the direction, he appealed to the formula that gave his success and I remember the saga. Which T-800, on the metal structure put a piece of meat here and there to shape the finished model: and it did not go wrong. In a constant tandem between T1 and T2, with nuances of both, with winks to both.
The best, and most important of the movie, is in the characters, from my point of view. Dani Ramos, the target for killing and protecting in this installment, takes us back to Sarah Connor of The Terminator (1984). She needs to be protected, she is fragile, she is scared and she only escapes. Is she a new Virgin Mary whose blessed fruit must be saved for the good of humanity? She does not know, does not believe it, and it is something that will be known throughout the film, but in the meantime, her personal evolution will make her grow as a combative woman, closer to the Sarah Connor of Terminator 2 (1991).
SYNOPSIS
Grace, the human with improvements that make it faster, stronger and with more perception than any human being. While it is partly machine, and dazzles in action scenes, its human side is the one that shines with its own light. This character works as a pivot between the present and the future, through his eyes we see how Legion in three days makes civilization and humanity succumb, how they fight the REV9 minions, how he received his improvements. It is a mixture of the Kyle Reese of T1 with Arnold T-800 in T2.
The female trinomial is closed by Sarah Connor. After twenty-two years, after John's death, his purpose is revenge and alcohol. Live only to annihilate any machine that comes from the future, any remnants of SkyNet. As I said above, it is seen in Dani, but also in Grace. Blinded by revenge and hatred, at first glance it looks like a flat character, but it has its small arc of transformation when it must deal with its past, and especially with its future. In forgiveness you will find a new purpose. Beyond this, the film confirms that it was always Sarah, who is the most important character in the saga, it is she who spins the wheel, her story. If we have to talk about Terminator, it is not the muscular Austrian that is on all the covers. If we talk about Terminator, we talk about Sarah Connor.
Pretty woman is the one who fights, it is said, and these three women fight endlessly. Aggiornados to the times that run, position these women as warriors and not as ladies in danger that need to be rescued by man give an interesting freshness to the plot. Also the fact of racial diversity: the salvation of the future of humanity should not go to the United States, salvation is no longer in them, but south of the wall, south of the border, in Mexico. They are two issues that seem minor but that are very strong, and well, in history.
Returning to the characters, the new murderer played by Gabriel Luna is a model named REV9. What is it? I wouldn't know how to say it. It seems like the T-1000 of T2, imitates that (object or person) with which it comes in contact, when they shoot it it is rebuilt, if they explode the parts become liquid and complete it. Everything like that ear (yes, I said "El Orejón", fifteen years later I knew it was a T-1000) that we met in the 90's. Unlike this one, it can separate from its exoskeleton and attack like two people, and it seems be galvanized A minor detail is that now this model was implanted charisma. They updated a social app.
Finally, the character that gives its name to the franchise, the face of the brand: the T-800 played by the great Arnold. He is not the one we met in T2 (he sacrificed himself if they did not remember), but the T-800 that murders John in 1998. After fulfilling his mission, without objectives he drifts and integrates humanity, gaining awareness and forming a family It is no longer the T-800, but Carl, "interior designer." The comic relief of the film, a function that Edward Furlong served as John Connor in T2, a function that Arnold already fulfilled in Terminator Genisys. At the beginning its introduction seems forced, but as the minutes pass and more towards the end its presence is justified.
The sci-fi nightmare par excellence returned, with its classic T-800 models (and renewed and innovative models), with badass women, with temporary paradoxes, chases, shots, explosions, a lot of CGI and the captain who never shipwrecked: James Cameron.
How does the good of JC? Positioning this sixth installment as a direct sequel to The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), while Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), Terminator: Salvation (2009) and Terminator Genisys (2015) remain as in alternative timelines. In other words, Cameron says "forget them, they didn't work because I wasn't there." In the direction and script of the first two and away from those that followed and were branded failures, JC led the project as executive producer and script supervisor. I repeat that those who followed T2 were failures because each one sought to start a trilogy that in none of the cases occurred. With this new Terminator movie, Cameron has already confirmed that he plans a new trilogy, I hope it will be soon and not take twelve years as with Avatar. Will it be with Sarah Connor? Will the Arnold T-800 return?
Score: 07/10
Recommendation: Positive
Expectations: Underrated
I hope you liked it!