After preventing Judgement Day, Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) has kept herself sharp throughout the years. Hunting the spare Terminator already en-route to various time periods from a defeated SkyNet program( that no longer exists) (it’s less complicated than that seems, I promise)) has become Sarah’s all-consuming purpose since she saved the world, but lost her son John Connor in the process, so many years ago. Her tinfoil hat lifestyle is thrown its biggest challenge in decades when two denuded future beings arrive in shimmering blue balls; one an enhanced human named Grace (Mackenzie Davis), the other a highly advanced Terminator, a Legion Rev-9 series played by Gabriel Luna.

Both Grace and the Rev-9 seek Dani Ramos (Natalia Reyes); one deadset on tearing her limb from limb, the other equally committed to saving her no matter the cost. Fans of the Terminator franchise (and let’s be honest, there really is no need for anyone to be checking out this movie if they’re not already at least lukewarm Terminator fans) know this plot device well. After all, it’s been retread in just about every version of the franchise’s six films, except for perhaps Terminator: Salvation, which suffered its own issues of creative stagnancy.

What Terminator: Dark Fate manages to accomplish that the second, third, and (most especially) fourth sequels to James Cameron’s 1984 sci-fi action classic could not is simple: it finally makes Terminator fun again. Following T2, which is largely hailed as a sequel that surpassed the original (and for good reason – its action sets were bigger, Arnie’s dialogue was funnier, the plot was twistier, and the story had more depth and heart), the splurge of failed sequels fell short blending the dark genre elements in with the sense of reckless, full-spirited enthusiasm that made Cameron’s films so indestructible. Though Dark Fate is far from a perfect film, and relies very heavily on the narrative groundwork laid out in 1984’s Terminator and 1991’s Judgement Day, director Tim Miller’s movie checks all the boxes for a mid-Winter action sci-fi spectacle.

Miller brings with him a sense of over-the-top bombast, a zany, give-few-fucks style honed behind the camera with Deadpool, and he manages to stage some of the year’s most brash and blown-out set pieces. The highway blowout that re-introduces Linda Hamilton’s Sarah Conor is sure to illicit exactly the fan excitement that the screenplay from David S. Goyer, Justin Rhodes, and Billy Ray so clearly hope it does and manages to be an equally exciting display of the antagonist’s new capabilities, whereas an airplane fisticuffs sequence seems to openly mock those hoping for their stuntwork grounded in any sense of gravitational consistency.

By and large, the action is kinetic and crisp and grows in scale until its final extended standoff at the Hoover Dam, and the effects team find new ways to explore the vast carnage inflicted by the film’s titular killing machine, though mostly through CGI with sorely little reliance on practical effects. The thing is it’s easy to overlook the more ridiculous and unbelievable aspects of Dark Fate’s plot, mechanics, and abilities if we’re able to sit back and enjoy the ride and thankfully, Miller and his team are able to create just that.

As the newest version of the malevolent threat, Diego Luna can’t convey the same unstoppable menace as the best iterations of the franchise machines, namely Schwarzenegger’s unstoppable T-800 or Robert Patrick’s icy T-1000, but at the very least his take is unique, the Rev-9 a more socially adaptable creature than any of its killing machine predecessors. The rest of the cast takes the chaos in stride with Hamilton really stealing the show as a chiseled and more badass than ever version of the character we’ve come to know and love.

For her part, Mackenzie Davis’ Grace is the best new addition to the franchise and Dark Fate makes good use of a character that is part-machine part-woman, experimenting with the in-between that separates the historical enemies. The mark of the film, Dani, is also probably its weakest point with Natalia Reyes proving largely unconvincing in her transformation from doughy target to leader on the offensive. Reyes is by no means awful, unlike Genisys’ Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney, but she also fails to capture a character that I have any interest in revisiting.

For those wondering how the film works in the tongue-and-cheek ham and winking one-liners that the franchise has built its cybertronic spine upon, let’s just say that some of the hammy dialogue feels, well, extra heavy on the ham. The script feels a need to check all these familiar boxes with a plentiful dose of fan service and tips of the hat to the memorable moments we’ve had to re-endure every time a new Terminator film hits market. As can be expected, some of the cheese lands better than others, with thankfully few moments crashing like the thud of a T-800 hitting the bottom of the ocean. And though Schwarzenegger, who enjoys a pretty glorious return to form here, is tasked with some of the film’s most garble-mouthed dialogue, he still sells it like a snake oil salesman in a slick leather jacket and 90s shades.

CONCLUSION: A head and shoulders improvement over ‘Genisys’ and easily the best ‘Terminator’ since the 90s, ‘Dark Fate’ celebrates the reunion of Linda Hamilton, Arnold Schwarzenegger and producer James Cameron in style, its bonkers and bombastic go-for-broke approach to retooling the formula both familiar and fun, if excessively noodle-brained at times.