Why Terminator: Dark Fate Failed

so recently there was this article on bounding into Comics James Cameron claims Terminator dark fate failed because they made your granddad's Terminator movie said including Arnold Schwarzenegger was a problem well dark fate suffered from several serious problems that contributed to its ultimate failure Arnold Schwarzenegger's involvement in the movie wasn't one of them now I'm personally of the belief that the original ending of Terminator 2 Judgment Day should have been maintained and the franchise should have ended with that second film The subsequent Terminator films contributed nothing to the series and in fact just did more damage to the legacy of The Saga especially films like Terminator Genesis and Terminator dark fate so the article says in a wide-ranging interview with deadline in the lead-up to the release of Avatar the way of water Cameron was asked what he thought about the outcome of Terminator dark fate Cameron who was the producer on dark feet and had a story by credit replied I think I'm actually reasonably happy with the film Tim and I had our battles and we've both spoken about that but the crazy thing is we're still Pals which is weird later in the article it says Cameron then revealed what he believes was one of the major problems with the film I think the problem and I'm going to wear this one is that I refuse to do it without Arnold Tim didn't want Arnold but I said look I don't want that Arnold and I have been friends for 40 years and I could hear it and it would go like this Jim I can't believe you're making a Terminator movie without me it just didn't mean that much to me to do it but I said if you guys could see your way clear to Bringing Arnold back and then you know I'd be happy to be involved he continued and then Tim wanted Linda I think what happened is I think the movie could have survived having Linda in it I think it could have survived having Arnold in it but when you put Linda and Arnold in it and then you know she's 60 something he's 70 something all of a sudden it wasn't your Terminator movie it wasn't even your dad's Terminator movie it was your granddad's Terminator movie and we didn't see that this is a very strange explanation for the failure of the film in my opinion as I say there was no need to make another Terminator film I don't think fans were all that interested to be honest but that's not to say a decent film couldn't have been made but Terminator dark fate was anything but decent the reason it failed is because it was woke mediocre and dull it had a boring and uninteresting storyline action sequences that failed to excite and the film also made the star of the franchise Arnold Schwarzenegger a secondary character and furthermore in my opinion the film presented a hideous anti-motherhood and anti-feminine message and also the film killed off John Connor the central character of the franchise around whom the entire overarching storyline had been based thus utterly disrespecting the mythology and this was done so that a young diverse female could take his place as the savior of mankind these are actually some of the reasons it failed but I have already gone into detail about all of this and More in my review of Terminator dark fate what you're about to watch is a significantly remastered version of my review of Terminator dark fate to a far higher Fidelity and I've also heavily re-edited it with new visuals making it a much Superior cut when compared to the original well the film opens with some archive footage of Sarah Connor in the Asylum from Terminator 2. then it cuts to 1998 where judgment day has been stopped the timeline follows from Terminator 2 and ignores the subsequent films she's on a beach with her son John Connor a T800 comes out of nowhere and shoots Jon killing him Sarah is devastated there's some very impressive CGI to make all three actors look young again but putting that aside this is an egregious opening sequence John Connor was a central figure in the franchise since day one it was bad enough that they made him a villain in Genesis but this time they kill young John as a boy completely eliminating him do you remember in Aliens when they established the character of Dwayne Hicks played by Michael Bean of course Michael Bean would also play Kyle Reese in Terminator one well anyway Dwayne Hicks survives at the end of the film but in Alien 3 they just kill him off right at the start to me this felt exactly the same it's a massive disservice to the development and Legacy of Edward furlong's version of John Connor after spending all of Terminator 2 trying to protect the boy they just kill him off in a frivolous cynical Cavalier fashion at the beginning of this film yeah like that's gonna go down well with fans but of course the key to the Salvation of mankind can't be a white male character anymore in these days of political correctness so the film moves forward to present day in Mexico Grace and augmented human and soldier from the future travels back through time she beats up some cops and then of course does the requisite stealing some random person's clothes thing that's been a staple of Terminator movies this time the incredibly masculine Grace takes the close of a male character as opposed to a female one this is important to symbolism that I believe forms part of the Sinister political themes of this film and I'll expand upon them later anyway a young happy feminine full of life Danny Ramos and her brother are going about their day when rev9 shows up in her workplace as her father and tries to kill her but Grace shows up and rescues both her and her brother Dany isn't exactly the brightest most intelligent character in the movie despite the fact that Grace keeps telling her how amazing she's going to be one day Dany literally Witnesses the rev9 posing as her father trying to shoot her and then when Grace attacks she sees the rev9 damaged with liquid metal exposing the endoskeleton underneath and yet she still calls him poppy thinking that it's her father when it's so obviously not her father they escape her brother dies Sarah Connor shows up she hunts Terminators now she often receives encrypted text messages from someone who tells her where to find Terminators who are about to show up around the world and that's how she knew where Dany and Grace were going to be long story short they have to make it to Texas to find this mysterious sender of these texts this individual is of course Arnie's T800 the one who killed Jon at the beginning of the film now what I've found absolutely absurd is that Dany never asks Grace why the Rev 9 wants to kill her it takes a long time until Grace finally begins to explain to Dany why the Rev 9 wants to kill her and even then she doesn't go into all of the details until later I believe there's an anti-natalist anti-feminine theme in this film that I find absolutely abhorrent and I'll explain it in detail and I think you'll see what I'm talking about while on top of a train Bound for the U.S border Sarah deduces that Dany is being protected for her womb because someday she's going to give birth to a future male leader of the resistance like she did Skynet may have been defeated but a new AI called Legion is basically the same thing in the future anyway Grace remains tight-lipped refusing to confirm or deny this Theory her silence is very contrived I mean why doesn't she just explain the whole thing to everybody well because this is a film and it's more dramatic to reveal everything later on despite the big reveal being extremely obvious of course now we all know that men can't be the heroes of anything anymore so it's obvious that the future leader of the resistance is not a male child that Dany is going to have one day but it is in fact Dany herself but the film doesn't reveal that obvious plot point just yet the first thing that bugs me is how cynical Sarah Connor is about this she suggests that Dany isn't a big deal it's just her womb they want to protect a situation she found herself in in Terminator 1 but no one suggested that Sarah wasn't a big deal because she was just carrying the future savior of mankind Sarah still had to be brave in that film and more to the point her womb her child was the thing that meant everything to her so much so that she would risk everything to protect teenage John Connor in Terminator 2. Terminator 1 was made at a time before feminist wokeness had infiltrated Hollywood so motherhood and maternal instincts were still celebrated and respected but it doesn't seem to be now mothers are are just incubators they have no real important function according to this film motherhood is denigrated as being nothing important despite the fact that women literally choose who gets to pass their genes On to the Next Generation The Mating choices of women shape the entire future of mankind every great man or woman who has ever existed every great philosopher world leader entrepreneur inventor scientist war hero they all came from a woman and were likely raised by a woman with the values she imparted to them being a mother and a protective loving nurturing mother is the most important job anyone can do you can't get heroic John Connors without heroic and loving Sarah Connors willing to give everything to help them survive the idea that a woman is no big deal just because she's a mother of a future male leader is not only a truly despicable notion but it completely contradicts Sarah's own story arc and personal Journey there's some historical revisionism going on here it's the idea that Sarah now retroactively looks back at the events of Terminator 1 and doesn't really believe that she had all that much significance until such time as she became an ass-kicking warrior in the second film perhaps the writers have forgotten that Sarah's story arc was only made possible by the noble sacrifice of a human man Kyle Reese who laid down his life for her and who was of course the father of her child It's Curious that Sarah is so schizophrenic in this scene on top of the train because her story has become about her mourning the death of her son and becoming an angry bitter enraged vengeful Terminator Hunter as a result but at the same time she's downplaying the possibility of Dany herself one day becoming the mother of such a heroic child as if there is little to no honor in that role Beyond some utilitarian function but motherhood is in fact an honorable responsibility John pejo has previously talked about how there is a current political agenda in Hollywood films to push more women into prominent action roles effectively replacing male archetypes but he also mentioned that feminine qualities are being denigrated the feminine is no longer celebrated our media tells us that all of these strong female characters are great role models for women and girls but they're not because they're just female actors playing very Macho masculine characters there is no representation of femininity the feminine the Beautiful the compassionate the loving caring and nurturing qualities of the feminine are not valued in these films and so the female characters are stripped of their femininity but you can't have Humanity without both sides of the coin the masculine is only one side of the human story The Feminine is the other side and it's equally important in Terminator dark fate not only are the women given the overwhelming amount of screen time as action heroes but Arnold Schwarzenegger is reduced to be being a cameo in his own franchise despite being the primary star of four out of the last five Terminator films and the big star draw for Cinema audiences it takes about an hour before he's finally introduced in his role and his role is more like Captain Kirk's role in Star Trek generations there's not much screen time for Arnie this time around and to be honest I got the impression that the film could have played out without him it's as if the filmmakers realized reluctantly that they'd have to have him in the film because most Terminator fans just wouldn't go to see it if he wasn't involved this time the T800 has become more human he's integrated into society after his primary objective had played out he has obvious conflict with Sarah Connor of course he did kill her son but he's become perhaps more human than any of the other characters in the film he's raised a family he's become a father figure he develops and builds a life learns to move on from his original programming and finds a way to seek Redemption for killing John making a conscious choice to become more than what he was built for if the story had centered around this older more noble and evolved T800 the film might have had something here now in dark fate the feminist and PC left-wing themes are on clear display as I've mentioned let's break it down the future savior of mankind is no longer a white male it's now a young female Mexican illegal immigrant Grace talks about how one day Dany will save her and will help her become the person she is today now we witness a future scene where an older Danny shows up and beats up some guys who are like twice her size who are about to attack a young Grace it's completely ridiculous the actress playing Danny is very small and she also convinces another guy to back down and join her side and she leads Humanity to rise up and Fight Against the Machines of Legion she becomes a kind of John Connor figure but it's just not believable in any way but this version of Dany is a very different person she began the film as a beautiful feminine girly girl but the future Dany is masculine devoid of any real Humanity she's Street wise tough hard-boiled she dresses like a man she's in military clothing her hair is very short and in cornrows she looks like a man for all intents and purposes it's as if she's transitioned she's tough very assertive adversarial domineering aggressive she's lost her innocence her female identity has tragically been erased like a young woman who just did a year in a gender studies course the character is essentially vandalized and of course there will be those people who will defend this by saying well Dave the future is oblique dystopia of course everybody is going to have to become a badass to survive but this simply isn't true and has never been the case throughout human history the strongest masculine men will simply rise to protect the children elderly and females and the females will only mace with with the strongest masculine men they can find anyway if you're at war with a physically Superior adversary Only The Strongest Man would be in your army to begin with the women will be at home with the children because they'd be a weak Link in your army otherwise and it's not like there's going to be a lot of cushy air-conditioned offices left for them to work in when the cities have been reduced to Rubble women won't stop being feminine in such a Time on the contrary the distinctions between genders would actually become more pronounced as the men in society would out of necessity have to become more masculine as a result of the Hostile and dangerous environment around them even today in the safest period of human history women still expect and rely upon male protection in emergencies in such a dystopian future they would require it even more in addition when was the last time you can remember three primary female protagonists in a film never mentioning any kind of romantic relationship with a male character all of the previous Terminator films had some romantic relationships or references to them Terminator 1 obviously had Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese Terminator 2 had a deleted scene which was a dream sequence with Sarah and Kyle Terminator 3 had the romance between John Connor and Catherine Brewster Terminator Salvation continued this romance Genesis once again focused on the romance between Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese but in dark face none of the primary female leads even mentions any kind of romance with men I mean honestly what exactly are they fighting for if not for the people they love I recently read that by 2030 45 of working women in the U.S between the ages of 25 to 44 will be single that was a CNN article discussing research by Morgan Stanley perhaps films are now being produced to reflect this tragic reality where female Independence and this idea that everyone is an island on their own is considered something to Aspire to as a consequence of these women never discussing men and relationships dark face successfully passes the feminist bestel test Dany played by Natalia Reyes is not a believable Action Hero she's miscast in my view no matter how the makeup and costume Department tries to make her look tough and formidable she just looks like a short teenage kid and when she holds a gun it's like a child holding a gun I mean she's 5-1 she doesn't really hold a gun convincingly and she doesn't look like she has much upper body strength she's very small and petite and I don't believe she has the kind of strong on-screen presence to make her believable as an action hero let alone the savior of mankind when she says she's gonna stand and fight it's incredibly cringy and unintentionally amusing I'm Gonna Stand and 5. speaking of amusing the film does have a few noteworthy moments of humor mostly from the character of the T800 who goes by the name Carl the humor comes from Schwarzenegger's deadpan delivery and the idea of a fearsome killing machine now living a normal mundane Life as a family man and running a drapery business so anyway we began the film with two hard-nosed masculine tough chicks in Sarah Connor and Grace and we had one feminine character in Dany and we conclude the film with three masculine tough chicks Grace herself is a male action archetype and a product of our politically correct age director Tim Miller claims that she's tough and strong but very feminine and I would question his definition of feminine this kind of character and her deliberate masculine appearance is likely a reflection of our age where gender confusion and gender fluidity are being pushed the masculinization of women no wonder a point is made about her choosing male attire when she arrives lives in the past now in this film the anti-natalist sentiment is that a woman doesn't need to have a child to feel fulfilled or be significant in any way and so therefore it shouldn't be something to aim for think about it for a second in 1984 a Terminator film is made about protecting an unborn child a future savior the birth of a child is a symbol of Hope in this case a future Liberator of humanity this is a Biblical theme of course children are our future it's the idea that new birth can create renewal and salvation and hope for a better world that Humanity can be saved by not only a child but a male child who will become a heroic man one day because in the real world real Warriors tend to be men not much suspension of disbelief required there in 1991 a Terminator film was made about protecting this young boy but in 2019 a Terminator film is made about this boy being brutally killed and made Surplus to requirements in a throw away opening sequence and it's likely because of the cultural Zeitgeist we live in where women are told to have careers and not families and where they're depicted as being successful when they're behaving like men in many films and television series nowadays there's all these independent ass-kicking tough chicks who don't need no man essentially they're all male characters but cast with female actresses this is not natural gender Dynamics it's not what women aspire to be and it's not what men are attracted to it's not empowering to women this is disempowering to women Sarah Connor may have become a tough warrior in Terminator 2 but she never stopped valuing the importance of her role as a mother in fact in the final deleted ending scene of that film we see that she's returned to being a well-adjusted happy feminine woman in her latter years she's a grandmother now that was the original story until the franchise changed Direction This deleted ending is for me the true ending of the series it completely ties up the story quite beautifully and in a very satisfying way and gives the character of Sarah all the closure she needs the war is over it gives her some peace and allows her character to come full circle but the message of dark fate appears to be that the future is not saved by a woman fighting to protect her unborn child and giving birth to a boy who will become a male hero the future is saved by a woman not having a child but instead becoming a man acting like a man and no longer valuing her femininity or maternal qualities the message has changed from being about personal responsibility and Noble sacrifice for an offspring to being about self-serving individualism and feminist identity politics foreign [Music]

Channel: The Dave Cullen Show

Views: 94,854

Keywords: Dave Cullen, terminator: dark fate

Id: KahqSWHl2Jo

Length: 21min 34sec (1294 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 15 2022