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A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 24 OcTOber 2019
'Terminator: Dark Fate' is no triumphant comeback

By LINDSEY BAHR another bad "Terminator" Sarah Connor back not as
Associated Press movie in a string of bad an ingenue but a woman
Who will save the "Termina- "Terminator" movies (al- in her 60s who has lived a
tor" franchise from itself? though better than "Geni- life — has been reduced
Not "Deadpool" director sys"). And yet like the cy- to a lousy one-note carica-
Tim Miller, producer James borg invention behind all of ture imagined by a group
Cameron or even Linda this, they keep coming and of men. She simply growls
Hamilton, it turns out. are really hard to kill. her awful one-liners like "I
Yes, despite an A-list roster This time it really seemed hunt Terminators and I drink
of talent, including people promising with Cameron till I black out. Enough of a
behind the scenes who back on board for the first resume for you?"
theoretically should know time in almost 30 years. This Is this team of all-male
how to resurrect this brand film was going to erase all screenwriters to blame?
and move it forward, "Ter- the confusing timelines set This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Arnold Perhaps. This film is a per-
minator: Dark Fate " is just by all the sequels that fol- Schwarzenegger in "Terminator: Dark Fate." fect representation of
Associated Press something that thinks it is
lowed and just pick up but dreadfully underwrit- being feminist simply be-
where "T2" left off. It was ten auto factory worker cause the camera is point-
also to be centered on a who lives in Mexico with her ed at three women most
group of women, including dad and brother and takes of the time. But really, Dani
Hamilton, Mackenzie Davis quite some time to grasp is not much more than a
as an augmented soldier the life-and-death situation plot device and Sarah is a
named Grace and Nata- she's in. reductive stereotype of an
lia Reyes as Dani, the inno- Thankfully she's got a pro- embittered woman. Even
cent being hunted. tector in Grace, an aug- Grace, who thanks to Davis
Simple, right? Not when mented super soldier, also rises above the rotten script
there are three screenwrit- from the future, who is part unscathed, has coded "fe-
ers and five people with human, part Terminator male" limitations — she's
"story by" credits involved. and has been sent to make powerful, sure, but she has
Like many of the semi- sure Dani stays alive for emotional and physical
sequel, semi-reboot films reasons we won't learn until weaknesses too.
populating the multiplexes, much later. Arnold Schwarzenegger
"Terminator: Dark Fate" is at "The Terminator's" origi- adds a dash of life and
least partially a rehash of nal damsel-turned-warrior much-needed comedy
the original, with a Termina- Sarah Connor joins their when he makes his late-
tor (Gabriel Luna) emerg- ranks too and it gives me movie entrance. Without
ing naked from thin air no pleasure to report that giving too much away,
(and the future of course) it's not an enjoyable come- the original Terminator has
to kill an unsuspecting back. Poor Hamilton — been leading a surprisingly
young woman. This time who looks as fierce as ever normal life for the past few
said young woman is Dani and was rightfully excited decades and it's a rare de-
Ramos, a nice-seeming to get a chance to bring light in "Dark Fate." q

Queen Latifah receives Harvard black

culture award

Queen Latifah and six other
recipients on Tuesday, ac-
cording to the Cambridge,
Massachusetts, school's
Hutchins Center for African
and African American Re-
search. Other honorees in-
clude poet and educator
Elizabeth Alexander, Sec-
retary of the Smithsonian
Institution Lonnie Bunch III,
poet Rita Dove, co-found-
er of Black Entertainment
Television Sheila Johnson,
artist Kerry James Marshall
Music artist and actress Queen Latifah receives the W.E.B. and Robert Smith, founder,
Dubois Medal for her contributions to black history and culture chairman and chief execu-
from Glenn H. Hutchins during ceremonies at Harvard University, tive of Vista Equity Partners.
Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2019, in Cambridge, Mass. The award is named after
Associated Press Du Bois, a scholar, writer,
Associated Press by Harvard University for editor, and civil rights pio-
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) their contributions to black neer who became the first
— Music artist and actress history and culture. black student to earn a
Queen Latifah was among Harvard awarded the doctorate from Harvard in
the honorees recognized W.E.B. Du Bois Medal to 1895.q