A classic movie will have an orthodox sequel nearly 30 years later. What will it look like?
"Blade Runner 2049" made a good example.
Dennis Villeneuve’s main creative team found a little gap in the previous work and successfully opened a brand new space.
Under the newly expanded worldview shell, core issues such as human nature and memory have been further explored and extended. With the beautiful and magnificent audiovisual effect, the return of the old version of the role is reasonable and reasonable to be recognized by the audience.
"Terminator: Dark Fate" wants to replicate the success of "Blade Runner 2049" in word-of-mouth, and it needs to do similar things.
First, retrieve the theme core;
Second, find the "gap" of the previous work;
Third, the old role returns.
James Cameron personally supervised the production and it worked.
Before "Terminator 3," "Terminator: Genesis" lost core " dark fate " finally looking back, and loaded into the role of the body.
In the opening part, James Cameron fulfilled his promise, and the teenager John Conner and the young Sarah Connor appeared together. CGI "face-changing special effects" once again showed its magical powers, allowing the story to follow immediately after the ending of "Terminator 2" .
For diehard fans of the Terminator, the first few minutes are not to be missed. Please do not be late to watch the theater version.
Tormented by fate, Sarah Connor finally saved the world, but was once again hit by a psychic crit. She needs to become stronger before she can fight back again.
The main story time is set in 2020, and the target of the Terminator's hunt has become Dani Ramos, a Mexican girl who works in a factory.
Dani Ramos encountered the same nightmare as Sarah Connor back then. She had her family destroyed overnight, feeling helpless and forced to embark on the road of escape reluctantly.
Sarah is a person who came over. She knows what it's like to be chased by a Terminator, so her return has a substantial effect. With her help, Dani can overcome fear more quickly.
Through the role connection between Sarah and Dani, as well as the oppressive feeling and atmosphere of the film, the audience saw the shadow of "Terminator" in 1984 .
Dani's initial character is very different from Sarah in "Terminator" . The character creation of " Dark Fate " is pretty good. Dani's bravery has already appeared before the crisis. She is more like a combination of John Conner and Sarah, with the potential to influence the future of mankind.
It's just that when the "Terminator" story is set on her, the emotional impact is not as great as Sarah's. The shadow is just the shadow, just click on it.
Because she didn't take much effort to grow up, she was not cowardly, and with Sarah, the spiritual mentor, it became a matter of course to stand up and fight the Terminator.
Sarah started from being a weak waiter in a restaurant, faced with fearful siege, and gradually learned to fight back on the way to escape, and finally transformed into a female soldier. Her growth is even more commendable.
The female warrior Grace sent to protect Dani is not the successor of Arnold Schwarzenegger in terms of role positioning. She is more like Kyle Reese of "Terminator" , traveling from the future back to the past in order to repay the benefactor. Complete your own salvation.
The connection between her and Dani is basically a re-enactment of Kyle and Conner.
Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to play the T-800 "classic" Terminator robot, and he is responsible for bringing back the memory of "Terminator 2" .
The T-800 in "Dark Fate" has experienced more than the T-800, who had adventures with the teenager John Conner. The screenwriter retains some of the settings of "Terminator: Genesis" , T-800's skin will age, and then things become like the old Rick Deckard in "Blade Runner 2049" .
It is a pity that the "human awakening" part of T-800 is only brought through lines, rather than undergoing changes in the movie like "Terminator 2" .
With T-800's character growth, the ending of "Terminator 2" is very tragic and moving.
Through the "iron windows" of T-800, Conner's mother-child love has been vividly displayed. T-800 was a cold machine at first, only knowing how to perform tasks. It often made judgments based on "reason", but watched John Conner lose "reason" for his mother again and again, it began to think and explore human emotions strength.
So it became him.
He understood why human beings cry.
"When the thumbs were up, tears filled our eyes."
However , the T-800 in "Dark Fate" is no longer human, and it is difficult for the audience to quickly enter his emotional world, which makes the ending of the tragic and heroic degree somewhat discounted.
Only audiences who have watched the "Terminator" series can feel the consciousness of a robot fighting for humans, and passers-by audiences may feel that Arnold Schwarzenegger was forced in by the screenwriter to save the scene.
But if Arnold is still willing to make a sequel, it's okay to make a prequel "T-800 Wandering Story".
In addition to "Terminator" countering fear, "Terminator 2" machine learned the return of the two theme elements of human nature, "Dark Fate" also inherited the characteristics of the series of close-range action dramas.
When the camera is placed very close, the fighting scene will be more shocking.
Tim Miller, a director who is good at making action movies, has completed the scheduling of multiple chase scenes . He really brought the refreshing feeling of the fighting scenes in "Deadpool" .
Unfortunately, he failed to find a "gap" in the two old films, and the discussion on the core issues is just copying, rather than continuing the discussion.
Therefore , the overall quality of "Dark Destiny" is somewhat inferior to "Blade Runner 2049" .
Audiences all want to watch new things, and a series of movies with repeated roles needs more creative support.
"Blade Runner 2049" has a grander worldview, and this alone can make old fans full of imagination for the entire series.
The Terminator series tried to play a big format in "Genesis" , but unfortunately the complex plot is still inseparable from the shooting routine of popcorn, and the film's reputation is not as expected.
"Dark Destiny" learned the lesson and returned to the simple and crude "chase plot". The original flavor of the series is there, but after all, it is not 30 years ago. Bringing all the old things back into a movie can bring a lot of feelings to the old fans.
For the non-fan community, it can only be a popcorn movie that lacks innovation.
If "Dark Destiny" can become popular at the box office, it proves that this sci-fi IP still has a certain vitality, even if the creativity is lacking, it can survive.
But when the soul character Arnold can no longer shoot, the story is still the same "routine", and it may not work.
"Dark Destiny" reveals the willingness to restart. The story of "Skynet" has officially become a thing of the past. Now that it has been replaced by a "legion", it is still the same way to deal with the human rebellion. Is it possible that the Terminator can only play through the stalk ?
"I won't be back."
Arnold said such a sentimental line. When the movie was released, he was 72 years old. Given the physical condition of his old man, it shouldn't be a big problem to shoot a similar sequel within 5 years. He has such an iron body to help the entire series survive when the Terminator is going downhill.
He has done his best. Even if this is not a farewell, one day, he will still be like Wolverine and Iron Man.
The "Terminator" series cannot rely on him to continue this way. If there is no subversive story idea, then the Terminator will usher in a true dark destiny in the future.
If James Cameron, who is procrastinating and lacking in his doppelganger, wants to continue, he must find a director who dares to write and shoot.
If you don't want to, "Dark Fate" is the best ending for the Terminator.
Human nature has a tendency to self-destruct. ——"Terminator"
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