I come from a generational fandom of the Terminator movies. My dad loved 1984's Terminator, and took me to see it in the movie theater about a dozen times, where I fell in love with it too. My 11 year old son now loves the Terminator franchise. We have seen all the movies, and regularly tell each other "I'll be back" and "come with me if you want to live". Like the Star Wars franchise, Terminator has had its ups and downs. There are classic episodes, such as 1984’s T1 and 1991’s T2, along with the Terminator equivalent of Jar Jar Binks, such as T3, Salvation, and Genisys.
I say all of that to say this:
Terminator Dark Fate is a wonderful addition to the franchise, and is the true continuation of the story arc created by T1 and T2. After seeing it I am convinced that all of the negativity surrounding the movie has to be ideologically based, because it is simply not based in the quality of the movie. Like T1 and T2— and unlike T3, Salvation, and Genisys— Dark Fate includes compelling characters, wry humor, interesting plot twists, and a coherent backstory which is consistent with its own inner logic. Perhaps the only thing this movie does not answer (which none of the Terminator movies deal with) is how the human resistance was able to sustain the industrial base to create advanced weapons to fight back against the Machines. But other than that, the movie does a magisterial job of making even the weirdest plot points— such as a married Terminator named Carl, and a fight inside a crashing cargo plane— fit naturally into the plot of the movie. It is every bit as fun, and carefully crafted, as T1 and T2 without “jumping the shark” like the other movies.
My only guess as to why so many diss this movie is because the 3/4 of the movie‘s protagonists are women, most of the lead roles are people of color, and the central character is an undocumented immigrant. Thus the movie is panned as an attempt to be “politically correct” and “woke”. But maybe, just maybe, it’s good storytelling. For instance, remember how all the classic heroes of Ancient literature tended to be men of noble heritage, whether we are talking Divine heroes of Greek and Hindu myth, or Arthurian legends? And then remember how that pattern of noble heroes got predictable and mundane? And then we switched to heroes from non-noble backgrounds. This switch began a long long time ago in galaxy far away, when folks like Buddha subverted the image of the Noble Indian King who lives in luxury, and Jesus of Nazareth subverted the image of the Davidic Messiah and the Roman Emperor who rules by military might. Twenty centuries later, think of all the poor orphans who rose to save the world in literature and movies, from Luke Skywalker to Harry Potter to John Conner. Was this switch from “noble heroes” to “everyman heroes” in the 20th century because storytellers were trying to be “woke”? Or is it more a function of interesting storytelling that reconstructed conventional tropes?
And then we could write dissertations about the rise of antiheroes, and heroes of color, and female heroes, and LGBT heroes, and how this has both subverted and reinforced the hero genre. We could also go into how superhero comics and movies have deconstructed and reconstructed that genre a dozen times over. Are there socio-political messages in these hero transformations across our literature, media, and movies? Yes. Because every single human has a political agenda and it shows in their work. There is no such thing as a non-political story. But it takes more than a political platform to make a compelling story. This is why flat out propaganda— like the novels of Ayn Rand or Soviet Agitprop— are all so boring and banal. Instead, effective storytelling must recombine and remix elements of classic themes into something creative and innovative, yet recognizable and understandable. Dark Fate fits well into this hallowed tradition of deconstructing while also upholding the standard tropes of storytelling: Both of hero stories in general, and of the Terminator franchise in particular.
With all that said, I understand the shock and dismay that the opening scene held for so many, especially longtime fans like myself. But let's be honest: The plot trajectory of the characters in that scene has been played out over and over in the increasingly uninspired sequels of T3, Salvation, and Genisys. It was time for that trajectory to die. And sometimes an old hope has to die for a new hope to be born, as we witness in the character development of Carl and Sarah. If this movie can overcome its lackluster box-office performance thus far, it could lead to a bright future for the franchise. I sure hope so. Regardless of what the future holds, if you are a Terminator fan, Dark Fate is well worth the price of admission and the two hour runtime.
No comments:
Post a Comment