Rotten Tomatoes: 59% (29 reviews) with 5.28 in average rating
Critics Consensus: Terminator: Dark Fate represents a significant upgrade over its immediate predecessors, even if it lacks the thrilling firepower of the franchise's best installments.
Metacritic: 56/100 (20 critics)
As with other movies, the scores are set to change as time passes. Meanwhile, I'll post some short reviews on the movie.
Dark Fate does offer a fair bit of pleasure to those wanting a 21st-century retread of T2. But it suffers greatly from obeying the imperative the first sequel established: Trying to blow minds and up the ante the way that FX-pioneering adventure did, this one offers a series of action set pieces that go from big to huge to ludicrous, even as the script's additions to fear-the-future mythology underwhelm.
-John DeFore, The Hollywood Reporter
It’s nice (and perhaps unavoidable) that the “Terminator” franchise has finally reached back into the past to remind us that tomorrow is always up for grabs — that the future belongs to anyone willing to fight for it. When the present is this dull, however, it can be hard to remember what anyone is supposed to be fighting for.
Despite Sarah Connor’s previous attempts and sacrifices, humanity’s fate is once again at stake — and with it the future of the franchise itself — in Terminator: Dark Fate. Tim Miller’s film deftly builds upon what worked in the first two James Cameron-helmed entities while bringing in a new host of characters and circumstances to challenge the course of humankind. While there’s definitely some frantic leap-frogging involved in terms of accepting why some characters have evolved the way they did, Terminator: Dark Fate ultimately succeeds in serving as both a suitable closing chapter for the original two films and a possible gateway to exciting new chapters ahead.
-Jim Vejvoda, IGN: 8.0 "great"
Linda Hamilton makes a welcome return in a ‘true’ T2 sequel that doesn’t skimp on the action. But Judgment Day this ain’t.
-Jordan Farley, Total Film: 3/5
Easily the third-best Terminator film, which is more of a compliment than it sounds. It’s great to have Hamilton back in this role, but she’s ably matched by Reyes and Davis.
-Helen O'Hara, Empire: 4/5
Dark Fate doesn’t offer any of its characters even that most temporary, and deluding, of comforts. It’s all bad. It always has been. And, quite gloomily, always will be.
"Dark Fate" earns its favorable judgment by cleverly and effectively adding to that legacy. The only drawback is that accomplishment merely makes it more likely that in one form or another, sooner or later, yep, they'll be back.
It’s good to see Hamilton getting a robust role, although, sadly, she has to concede badass superiority to Davis. This sixth Terminator surely has to be the last. Yet the very nature of the Terminator story means that going round and round in existential circles comes with the territory.
-Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian: 2/5
“Deadpool,” which I’m a huge fan of, is his only previous feature, and Miller’s mastery of the physics of action reverie in that movie — to the point that he could dazzle you with the ballistics of combat and deconstruct them at the same time — was rather awesome. In “Dark Fate,” he doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but his weaponized clashes are gripping, never more so than when they’re on wheels, or (at the climax) on a dueling set of jumbo planes. What has changed in the 28 years since “T2” is that the rise of comic-book films has made the battle of borderline indestructible titans something we see in the movies more weeks than not. “Deadpool” was technically part of the “X-Men” universe (though the title character’s satanic-bitch sense of humor was a superior force to almost any power possessed by those mutants), and “Terminator: Dark Fate” could almost be about an evil offshoot of the X-Men — stalking robots who convert to metal and back again. But “Dark Fate,” if anything, comes close to being the “Logan” of that series. It’s a heavy-metal fantasy with a heart that, astoundingly, isn’t made of tin.
Whether “Terminator: Dark Fate” is the last chapter in this story or the first in an all-new franchise is, for now, irrelevant. The film works either way, bringing the tale of the first two films to a satisfying conclusion while reintroducing the classic storyline, in exciting new ways, to an excited new audience. It’s a breathtaking blockbuster, and a welcome return to form.
These movies have always been Sarah Connor’s continuing story, but the past movies either tried to exist without her or, once, reboot her. But with Terminator: Dark Fate we finally have the third chapter to her story, which at its essence is the Terminator franchise. Though, yes, by nature the story does have to be a little convoluted after the events of T2 (and this time, it’s basically just a whole new evil entity), but Linda Hamilton is Terminator. And that’s why Terminator: Dark Fate is the best Terminator movie since T2.
DIRECTOR
Tim Miller
SCREENPLAY
David S. Goyer & Justin Rhodes & Billy Ray
STORY
James Cameron & Charles Eglee & Josh Friedman & David S. Goyer & Justin Rhodes
STARRING
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Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor
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Arnold Schwarzenegger as T-800
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Mackenzie Davis as Grace
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Natalia Reyes as Daniella "Dani" Ramos
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Gabriel Luna as Rev-9
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Diego Boneta as Miguel Ramos