The best Terminator film since the first: Terminator Six reviewed

The first Terminator film, which came out in 1984, was a high-concept sci-fi serial killer thriller. You can just imagine its director, James Cameron, pitching it to the suits: ‘Arnold Schwarzenegger arrives from the future. He’s naked. We haven’t decided why, but he’s definitely going to be naked. And there’s only one thing on his mind, which is to tear some chick to pieces.’

Yet as sequel followed sequel, it became clear that this franchise about a dystopian war between humans and machines was really a metaphor for the war taking place within Hollywood itself. The machines won. Cinematically speaking, we now inhabit that post-apocalyptic landscape so often glimpsed in Terminator films. The grim perma-dusk is streaked with laser gunfire. Red-eyed CGI robots stalk the rubble, crushing underfoot the skulls of obsolete film stars. But some small pockets of resistance still hold out.

And against all expectation, Terminator: Dark Fate is one of them. Don’t be put off by the feeble subtitle, which sounds like a phrase you might use to describe a long weekend with the in-laws. The sixth Terminator film is the best Terminator film since the first Terminator film.

Much of this is thanks to the strongest ensemble cast of the franchise. The plot, as often, is almost identical to the original. For barely sensical reasons, the machines have sent an assassin back in time to kill a human who will otherwise be responsible for their defeat. In this instance it’s Dani (Natalia Reyes), an unassuming Mexican factory worker, who is targeted by the scariest Terminator yet: a Rev-9 (Gabriel Luna), which as well being able to turn its arms into scorpion-tail spikes, can divide itself into two. Which can be handy in a scrap.