Watchmen and Terminator: Dark Fate have landed on opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to dusting off old IP and tinkering with it for a present-day audience.
Whereas Watchmen was able to successfully honour the source material while managing to tell an interesting new story, Terminator: Dark Fate was like a rehash of the franchise’s greatest hits (again).
But there’s one thing the two have in common: the older leading ladies.
Watchmen has largely revolved around a new cast of masked vigilantes led by Regina King’s kickarse Sister Night. Now as great as the new characters are, re-introducing the character of Laurie Blake from the comics is a stroke of genius.
Not only does this forge a stronger link between TV show and source material, Laurie Blake brings in a conflicting yet equally compelling point-of-view to the narrative. She’s the older and wiser character who has seen and done everything the new crop of vigilantes have done so far, and she has no time for any BS that goes on.
They say with age comes wisdom and boy does Laurie embody that sentiment. She’s clearly the smartest person in the room whenever she’s onscreen butting heads with people, she manages to make them all seem inferior, including Sister Night, this iteration of Watchmen‘s protagonist.
But underneath that tough exterior is some serious character work at play that ties into Laurie’s history. She’s undergone a lot on her time on Earth and yet there’s still a well of rich stuff to dig into even if she’s almost at retirement age (hellooo giant blue dildo).
Equally impressive as Watchmen‘s re-introduction of Laurie Blake is Terminator: Dark Fate‘s handling of Sarah Connor.
The film is a messy yet entertaining romp to put it nicely, but Sarah’s character arc manages to play the “honour the source material while telling a new story” card quite well. Plus it’s never not a pleasure to see Linda Hamilton wielding a bunch of big guns and kicking Terminator arse.
Terminator: Dark Fate recycled many plot points from previous entries but the decision to have Sarah become a protector this time around as opposed to the damsel in distress was an inspired move. Not only does it show the development of the character after all these years, it helps give Dark Fate an emotional grounding that has been sorely lacking in the series for many years.
It’s almost a shame that Terminator: Dark Fate completely bombed at the box-office because a series of films revolving around an older Sarah Connor would’ve been epic.
Perhaps it’s time to let the grannies have their crowning moments of awesome onscreen because Watchmen and Terminator: Dark Fate have demonstrated that it is more than possible to craft compelling stories involving older women.
After all, age is just a number.