Terminator: Dark Fate
It’s been over thirty years since Sarah Conor (Linda Hamilton) originally disrupted Skynet, a computer system destined to destroy life on earth. Now, driven by the loss of her son, destroying every terminator threat on earth is her mission. So, when a new breed of future cyborg soldier (Mackenzie Davis) appears to protect a human (Natalia Reyes), Sarah’s radar is on high alert, but who is the new liquid robotic threat (Gabriel Luna)? 
Directed by Tim Miller and Written by James Cameron assisted by a team of writers, this resetting of the Terminator franchise sits closely to the first two Terminator installations, i.e. before things went too far off the rails. To that end, it’s hard to fault the film for delivering the goods exactly as expected in action and character development, no surprises there. But, what is apparent and unusual from the get go is the director’s clear choice to shoot the film at a higher frame rate than what audiences may be accustomed to, ultimately creating the “soap opera effect,” think The Hobbit, or Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk– a chancy move to say the least; although, two minutes in and that distraction is replaced by a few questionable CGI renderings of robots. But, past some of the initial visual nuttiness, fans of the franchise and James Cameron’s original vision will definitely find enough to feast on this go round. Solid action, a splash of humor, putting the women up front strong while letting Arnold Schwarzenegger do his thing, the boxes are checked. Terminator: Dark Fate is rated R.