Terminator: Dark Fate Review - 5 Ups & 5 Downs

4. The Intense First Act

The opening one-third of the movie is the easy highlight, as it's the part which truly harkens back to the urgent chase film atmosphere of the first two films in particular.

Within just 10-ish minutes of the film starting, the plot is set in motion and the battle to save or kill Dani (Natalia Reyes) kicks off - there's minimal fussing around with what we already know, and the pacing doesn't really let up until the end of act one.

It also helps that the first act of the movie is fairly scant on expository dialogue, which avalanches down on top of the movie shortly afterwards, and from which the film never really recovers.

Had the entire movie followed such a breathless tenor, perhaps it might've felt like a worthier successor to the first two movies.