1/19/2020 - Terminator: - 5/10

I expected much worse, but this is an ‘OK’ flick. No, it isn’t good, in fact there are a few times it is incredulous, but the Termy bar is quite low. This would robo-fight for that 3rd spot; a futuro bronze of some damnation. But it does what it tries to do, with pace, a lack of crap, and both a marriage to but spiced invention to the Terminator trope. It came off well, or at least better than I expected.

The action was pretty continuous, from minute one, which helped. The story is succinct and the streamlined pace doesn’t allow it to fall into the poor storytelling traps that its predecessors did. Its tight, which papers over its simplicity and lack of upper end quality.

I appreciated the female Reese/Terminator mix, especially with the Davis. She was very strong, both in her active martial acting and in her emotionality. It also jumped on board with the Halloween (2018) trend of erasing previous sequels and placing a female dominant cast, kicking ass with a female older protector, subverting the previous formula. While it does come off as gimmicky, somewhat the same way Halloween did, but it used the last shred of goodwill to its advantage.

Now, look; this movie isn’t good, but it also isn’t awful. It is pretty average on its own, and it certainly seemed better in comparison to all of the other atrocious Terminator sequels. If you are like me, and keep seeing these flicks, this one won’t make you wish for true Judgment Day.