So, yeah, it's woke. Female warriors, a Latino terminator, a Latina resistance hero, the works. No black guy this time (did Black people somehow got dropped from the identity politics grid?), no gay folks either (although apparently the androgynous vibe of the heroine from the future did register in some circles, so maybe that counts), but yeah, it is politically correct, as seems to be de rigueur in early 21st century educational cinema: all woke and, apparently, pretty broke.
But here's the thing: that's not even the problem. At least not the biggest one. Women had played various major roles in the Terminator universe before, Sarah Connor herself, obviously, there was a Terminatrix or two, so what's the big deal with a female leader of the "resistance"?
The real problem with this installment isn't wokeness, but simply that it's a lousy movie. It really is. The writing is dull and uninspired, the dialog for the most part plodding and unfunny (Arnold has a couple of lines that might make you chuckle, but that's it), the characters (especially the new ones) are vapid, uninteresting, and impossible to relate to, and the acting, especially by Reyes but also Davis, just really, really bad. And that's the long and short of it. The special effects were competent, the fighting well choreographed though ultimately predictable and largely pointless, but as a movie, it was just not a very good one, and also had been done much better almost thirty years ago.
Had the writing been funnier, smarter, more light-footed and ironic, perhaps self-deprecating now and then, had the acting been convincing, the plot been less predictable, and had the characters been more interesting and three-dimensional --- well, it would have been easier to look past the ham-fisted attempts at educating the public in goodthink a la Hollywood. Alas, it was a stinkfest, and a woke one to boot, and it deserves to become a major loss for the studio(s) that produced it, so all is well.
But here's the thing: that's not even the problem. At least not the biggest one. Women had played various major roles in the Terminator universe before, Sarah Connor herself, obviously, there was a Terminatrix or two, so what's the big deal with a female leader of the "resistance"?
The real problem with this installment isn't wokeness, but simply that it's a lousy movie. It really is. The writing is dull and uninspired, the dialog for the most part plodding and unfunny (Arnold has a couple of lines that might make you chuckle, but that's it), the characters (especially the new ones) are vapid, uninteresting, and impossible to relate to, and the acting, especially by Reyes but also Davis, just really, really bad. And that's the long and short of it. The special effects were competent, the fighting well choreographed though ultimately predictable and largely pointless, but as a movie, it was just not a very good one, and also had been done much better almost thirty years ago.
Had the writing been funnier, smarter, more light-footed and ironic, perhaps self-deprecating now and then, had the acting been convincing, the plot been less predictable, and had the characters been more interesting and three-dimensional --- well, it would have been easier to look past the ham-fisted attempts at educating the public in goodthink a la Hollywood. Alas, it was a stinkfest, and a woke one to boot, and it deserves to become a major loss for the studio(s) that produced it, so all is well.