There is always hope surrounding a new Terminator release returning to past glory, but with the cooperation of many of the original cast and crew who made the first two so great, Dark Fate seemed primed to make good on this elusive promise. Then they chose Tim Miller to helm it, immediately tempering these expectations. Still, I was excited about this film for a number of reasons.

And, surprisingly, it succeeds in a lot of ways: the action scenes are great fun, Hamilton and Schwarzenegger are everything you could hope for, and its more than 2-hour runtime flies by in a flash. Good news, right?

The problem is that there was absolutely no originality to this film; it’s a mixed bag. We’ve seen everything before, so no matter how fun it is or good it seems while you are watching it, when it ends you’re left with the realization that it added nothing to the mythos or to filmmaking in general.

It wasn’t confusing and all but one or two aspects make perfect sense according to the world of the movies, so that was good, but it doesn’t make you think, either. Rarely has a completely average movie been entertaining as this one is, but this doesn’t change that it is still just that, an average, slightly disappointing, fun, and rewatchable film.