How did a horrible movie like Terminator Dark Fate ever get made?

*Spoliers

For some background I watched this movie the other night and knew that it bombed at the box office and had bad reviews, but wasn't prepared for just how bad and offensive it would be. Even though they got bad reviews I still enjoyed the other Terminator movies that have come out since T2 and have enjoyed other movies that didn't do well and were panned by critics. So I thought this would be similar and was excited to have the original Sarah Connor back as well as Arnold.

Not only was this movie horrible, but it seemed like it was made to intentionally annoy fans of the previous films. It didn't seem like you can make a worse Terminator film if you tried! Did they do any kind of focus group testing? Who looked at the script and thought this sounded like a good idea? It was like they were trying to insult everyone who has supported the franchise. Wouldn't the people who invest in these films want to see that they are making a film that people want to see? It almost seemed like they were pushing a political agenda and not trying to make a good movie.

I've still yet to watch my copy of it (I collect Terminator movies). But, it can't possibly be worse than Genisys?

Everyone keeps saying the movie pushes some sort of agenda, but, maybe it's because it's the sixth installment of a franchise that's gone stale about 4 movies ago? I think the only reason this was made because it was the first movie since James Cameron got the rights back to the franchise. But it really didn't seem to help matters much. Maybe it's time to let this franchise just go.

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Everything needs to be "woke" these days. It seems as long as they hit all the right woke points it doesn't matter to them how horrible their product is - just look at what they did to the walking dead. It's like they're purposely trying to kill the entertainment industry.

I stopped going to the movie theater. I won't pay to rent these films or shows. Half the time I won't even watch them if they're freely available on one of my streaming services - like HBO's wokemen which I managed to watch for all of 20 minutes before tuning it out.

It's a little infuriating actually.

Perhaps if you elaborated on what you didn't like about it there would be more to discuss.

I dunno, I liked it.

Not yet watched it, judging by those mentioning, they could have a thing against change and see anything with what looks like equality as a problem, or the movie could simply be pushing it down peoples throats.

The Rev 9 was pretty badass. Although they changed the story/canon the idea of a combo T800/T1000 was something they explored in the comics, including the ability for them to separate and act independently. Like the liquid metal part could slip under a door and unlock it from the other side for the solid portion. The Terminator from T3 was supposed to be a similar idea but they didn't go very far with it.

I enjoyed the movie. What was so bad about it?

@Maxpowers_32:

Your view is something I've been seeing a lot of about the movie too. At least in my opinion, it was a decent movie. The action was enjoyable and the fight with the terminator vs Arnie's T800 was still pretty badass. My only real issue was that it was pretty much more of the same plot-wise. 6/10 for me.

"Get woke, go broke" in action, ladies and gentlemen.

Sounds like a lot of people that actually saw the movie thought it wasn't bad (not great, however), but unfortunately people have been told there is an agenda and are giving it extra shit.

So what if it has an agenda. Ignore it.

@Maxpowers_32: Which part of the film did you find offensive? What part did you think annoyed fans and what sort of political agenda do you think they were pushing for?

The movie just felt lackluster for me.

and also spoilers.

Killing off John Connor in the beginning was a slap in the face to the fans.

Commercial movies. Aimed to gain money from the masses.

The series is an inferior Terminator 2 over and over with some gimmick attached each time, barring Salvation which was just straight up bad and looked nothing like T1/T2's future.

Nowt to do with "woke", the series had a strong female from the start, and nobody back then complained because she was well written and believable and we didn't have idiots on The Verge, Polygon and similar idiots on youtube all having a pretend fight riling people up when all they are really after are internet-bucks.

It's like a big circus where they think the other-side is the only one under the tent.

What I mainly found offensive was killing John Connor in the beginning. The whole point of the 1st 2 movies was protecting him and he was also instrumental in the more recent ones. I really enjoyed the Terminator TV show and remember them talking about "what would future John would do". So it almost made it feel like the most of the franchise had been for nothing since they've been protecting him for all the movies and then they kill him with no fanfare or anything. That really hurt. Who would greenlight that idea? I'm sure others have pointed this out, but if they stopped Skynet where did this Terminator that killed John Connor come from? In T2 it was clear they only sent back 1 Terminator and 1 protector.

Then to make matters worse they basically replaced him with some Mexican girl who I found really annoying. Since they did so much in Mexico they put a lot of movie in Spanish with English subtitles, which also got really old really fast.

What I think annoyed fans was that instead of Arnold being this awesome Terminator like in the 1st 2 movies he had this weird relationship with some woman and her kid and was designing drapes! I know he supposed to be a different Terminator, but if you watch the way the Terminator is portrayed in the 1st 2 films can you picture him designing drapes if he's not going to be a killing machine? Seems like they took the robot chicken sketch with Arnold being an adopted dad to John and put it in the movie.

This is not a political forum so I don't want to do too much on the political side, but they seemed to be attacking the very notion of motherhood (womb conversation), borders (they smuggled the Mexican John Connor replacement across the border in incredibly boring scenes), and men (basically an all female cast). If they were going to have a female protector character, why not have one like the one from the TV (I think Cameron was her name) or T3? The other movies all had a balance, this one was like the all female ghostbusters and I wasn't expecting it.

On top of all that, I couldn't see anything in the helicopter/water scenes because it was so dark. I have an 82" QLED TV and rented the movie in 4k and it was still difficult to make out what was happening.

The abilities of the new Terminator were cool, but the shapeshifting were underutalized. I also like the idea of an augmented person (I'm a huge Deus Ex fan), but it seemed weird to send someone back that could pass out without getting drugs. There were a few interesting fight scenes, but the acting was bad and the plot was just horrible. How could anyone read the script or watch the movie and think a Terminator fan or the general public would like it?

I thought it was good but I did not watch all of it. Just the first half

@mrbojangles25:

"unfortunately people have been told there is an agenda and are giving it extra shit."

- I think it's like the vegans with organic foods. If you tell them it's organic, they're going to treat it like it's the best thing ever. Suddenly it tastes better and everything about it is more fresh. They start seeing things that aren't actually there because they have the thought put into their minds. It works that way with a lot of things. If you tell yourself you're going to hate something, you're going to hate it.

When I watched this movie I hadn't been told that there was an agenda. All I knew going in was that it had the original Sarah Connor and Arnold and that it had been a disaster at the box office and had bad reviews. I didn't know why it got bad reviews.

@Maxpowers_32:

Regardless, the bad reviews and "agenda" seeking complaints were mostly hyperbole. It was decent at least. Obviously no one's opinion is wrong but DF didn't really do anything different that we'd never seen in an action movie. It was a pretty run-of-the-mill Terminator flick. You've seen 1 and 2, you've seen them all. There was still a John Connor that needed protection and had guardians making sure they survived.

1 and 2 were the best of course but this one was better than the last three films by a mile. The biggest complaint about it is its yet another retread of the same plot.

@Maxpowers_32: You have really thought about this!

But think about it from this view. John Connor and Skynet are opposites. Skynet does not exist because of the events in T2. Allowing Skynet to exist is to make T2 irrelevant. With Skynet out of the picture, then JC is no longer all that relevant. There is a new enemy, therefore there should have a new saviour. Plus the history of Edward Furlong is hardly an attractive idea.

Having the setting in Mexico does make sense since T2 was partly set in Mexico. Sarah Connor most probably did go back to Mexico since she is wanted by the US for blowing up Skynet. And having a female saviour is a welcome change from all the male saviours in so many movies.

The same thing for the strong kick-ass female cast. It's a welcome change in my opinion. Since I have a 12-year-old daughter, I welcome strong female kick-ass characters. I thought Grace was a brilliant character, if there are more sequels, I really hope she will be in it, perhaps to replace Arnie.

But I definitely agree with you on the Terminator selling or designing drapes and having a non-sexual relationship with a woman. It is a little far fetched. I think he would be better off living as a reclusive in the woods. But it does raise some good points, what would a killing machine do if it had completed its mission? Perhaps he should have become a surgeon instead.

Finally, I saw it at the Cinema but you're right, the ending parts, the dam, the helicopter were quite dark.

But I enjoyed the movie.