James Cameron defends Terminator: Dark Fate… Do you agree with him?

The Terminator franchise has had a rough go ever since T2: Judgment Day. Terminator 3 had its moments like the crane chase, but Salvation and Genysis did virtually nothing to enhance the flailing series. So what about Dark Fate? That at least reunited Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton! Well, if you ask James Cameron, 2019’s Terminator: Dark Fate is the only standout outside of his own movies.

Speaking with Empire as the original Terminator turns 40 this year, James Cameron leant his defense to Dark Fate, which he called “cracking” although couldn’t help but note that it still doesn’t match the first two movies. Even still, he does put it in an easy third place. Still, he knows there are issues with Dark Fate – which he served as producer on – that may not have been anticipated going in. “We achieved our goal. We made a legit sequel to a movie where the people that were actually going to theatres at the time that movie came out are all either dead, retired, crippled, or have dementia. It was a non-starter. There was nothing in the movie for a new audience.” As such, the box office numbers were a disappointment, at least compared to what James Cameron is used to. “Our problem was not that the film didn’t work. The problem was, people didn’t show up. I’ve owned this to [director] Tim Miller many times. I said, ‘I torpedoed that movie before we ever wrote a word or shot a foot of film.’”

This echoes something Cameron said in a previous interview, where he described Dark Fate as “a movie for granddads.”

Directed by Tim Miller from a screenplay by David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes, and Billy Ray, Terminator: Dark Fate only acknowledged the events of The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, ignoring the other sequels. The film found that Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Connor was a grizzled lone wolf who must team up with a mechanically enhanced female soldier to protect another young woman targeted by Terminators. 

Linda Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger (playing an older, bearded Terminator who goes by the name Carl) were joined in the cast by Natalia Reyes as new heroine Dani Ramos, Mackenzie Davis as cybernetically enhanced soldier Grace, Diego Boneta as Dani’s brother, and Gabriel Luna as the latest villainous Terminator.

As far as Terminator sequels go, yeah, Dark Fate isn’t all that bad. But when you’ve got Salvation and Genysis out there, that’s not exactly the highest compliment. Still, its high points greatly outshine those in its previous two predecessors and we do have to admit that we dug it upon release, giving it a 9/10.

As for more recent Terminator fare, Netflix put out anime series Terminator Zero this past summer to wide acclaim. Meanwhile, 1984’s The Terminator received a 4K release which came with its own set of issues…

Where do you place Dark Fate in your ultimate Terminator movie ranking? Do you agree with James Cameron’s assessment?