By Susan Granger
Special to WestportNow
“Terminator: Dark Fate” is the sixth film in the franchise and a direct sequel to “T2: Judgment Day” (1991), returning Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, the role she originated almost 30 years ago, and reuniting her with Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800 cyborg.
To recap: Sarah Connor trained her son John to become a warrior to prevent a sentient computer called Skynet from igniting a nuclear holocaust, referred to as Judgment Day; in that endeavor, young John was killed by the T-800. (Forget the other three intervening sequels.)
So after a brief, digitally de-aged flashback, “Dark Fate” introduces Grace (willowy Mackenzie Davis), an “augmented, enhanced human,” who arrives from 2042 to protect Daniella “Dani” Ramos (Natalia Reyes), the young Hispanic woman who holds the key to humanity’s survival against a new technological threat.
Dani is the target of another time traveler, a menacing Rev-9 Terminator (Gabriel Luna), whose liquid-metal body is capable of shape-shifting. Dani works on an auto factory assembly line in Mexico City, and this mean machine shows no hesitation killing her brother, father and co-workers while relentlessly tracking her down.
Just as they’re cornered, Dani and Grace are saved by badass waitress-turned-warrior Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), who was alerted to their predicament via a mysterious text message and growls: “Come with me if you want to live.”
As for Arnold, he’s now living a quiet life as “Carl,” selling draperies in the backwoods of Texas and enjoying an adoptive family. Although Sarah, understandably, loathes him, his core programming has been changed to save the humans he once hunted.
Scripted by David Goyer, Justin Rhodes and Billy Ray, it’s directed by Tim Miller (“Deadpool”) and executive produced by James Cameron, who originated the franchise. While there are a multitude of high-octane chase sequences, filled with fast editing and complicated CGI, it’s too bad there’s not more humor.
FULL DISCLOSURE: My son, Don Granger, is one of the executive producers.
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Terminator: Dark Fate” is an action-packed 7, a sci-fi spectacle.
Separating fact from fiction was one of the primary challenges facing director Kasi Lemmons and her co-screenwriter Gregory Allen Howard in “Harriet,” because so much mythology surrounds Harriet Tubman, the former slave who became the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad.
In 1849, when Maryland plantation owner Edward Brodess (Michael Marunde) denies Araminta “Minty” Ross (Cynthia Erivo) and her enslaved family the freedom they were rightfully owed under the Will of his great-grandfather, she decides to run away, particularly since her husband, John Tubman (Zachary Momoh), is already a free man.
Sensing trouble, Brodess ‘abusive son Gideon (Joe Alwyn) puts Minty up for sale, which necessitates her acting quickly, aided by Reverend (Vondie Curtis Hall) whose local church serves as a hideaway.
For years, deeply religious Minty has suffered incapacitating fainting spells in which she has ‘visions’ of God’s voice speaking to her. “I’m going to be free or die,” she tells her father (Clarke Peters).
Miraculously, courageous Minty makes the 100-mile journey, navigating by the stars through swamps and woods from Dorchester County to Philadelphia, where she’s welcomed by William Still (Leslie Odom Jr.) of the Anti-Slavery Society.
He encourages her to choose a ‘freedom name’ and introduces her to Marie Buchanon (Janelle Monae), an educated, free-born black woman who offers her a job.
Now known as Harriet Tubman, she is determined to go back to Maryland to find her husband and rescue her family. Although surprises and disappointments await her, embattled Harriet makes the trip so often that she acquires the nickname ‘Moses,’ eluding bounty-hunter Bigger Long (Omar J. Dorsey).
As the abolitionist heroine, Cynthia Erivo delivers a passionate, powerful performance, heavily propelled by Terence Blanchard’s overly sentimental score, concluding with Harriet Tubman as the first black woman to lead a Union Army raid during the Civil War.
FYI: President Barack Obama planned to put Harriet Tubman’s face on the $20 bill but that’s been stalled by the Trump administration.
On the Granger Gauge, “Harriet” is an inspirational 7, hampered only by its simplified, conventional storytelling.
There’s an odd phenomenon involving young leading men like Daniel Radcliffe (“Harry Potter”) and Robert Pattinson (“Twilight”) who follow popular acclaim with some strange, absurdist fantasy.
Daniel Radcliffe played a pliable corpse in “Swiss Army Man,” while Robert Pattinson is “The Lighthouse” keeper who goes crazy on a desolate New England island in the 1890s.
His strange, sinister story begins – and ends – in dense fog as inexperienced Ephraim Winslow (Pattinson) arrives to assist old-salt Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) maintain a lighthouse off the coast of Maine. Known as a “wickie,” newbie Winslow contracted to work there for four weeks.
At dinner, loquacious Wake ominously reveals that Winslow’s predecessor went insane and died. And when he first lies down on his cot, Winslow notices a hole in the mattress containing a small scrimshaw of a mermaid. Her image will come to haunt him as days/nights pass.
Wake demands that younger, stronger Winslow perform the most arduous tasks: shoveling coal, carrying heavy kerosene containers and cleaning chamber pots. Yet only Wake is allowed to tend the precious Fresnel lens with its tiny concave mirrors.
When Winslow is tormented by a one-eyed seagull, Wake warns him that it’s bad luck to kill sea birds because they’re reincarnated sailors.
Weeks pass and the day before his tenure is to end, taciturn Winslow releases his rage on the hapless bird. Sure enough, that afternoon the wind changes direction and a ferocious nor’easter batters the island.
The next morning, the expected ferry from the mainland does not arrive, although the body of a mermaid (Valeriia Karaman) washes up on the beach. Because the food supply is limited, there’s rationing and the men are drunk most of the time.
Filmmaker Robert Eggers (“The Witch”), who co-wrote the screenplay with his brother Max Eggers, obviously envisioned it as a psychological horror story, filming in atmospheric black-and-white on Leif Ericson Park in Cape Forchu, Nova Scotia, Canada.
On the Granger Gauge, “The Lighthouse” is a turgid 2 – a miserable, homoerotic dirge.
(Editor’s Note: Westport resident Susan Granger grew up in Hollywood, studied journalism with Pierre Salinger at Mills College, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism. In addition to writing for newspapers and magazines, she has been on radio/television as an anchorwoman and movie/drama critic for many years. See her reviews at www.susangranger.com.)
