'Terminator Zero' review: Defies franchise fate to blaze its own trail

'Knock, knock! – wait, is that the wrong Arnie movie reference? Sorry, Skynet's archives of this era are sketchy at best.' Photos: Handout

Humanity is threatened yet again in Terminator Zero, a pretty bold step for the saga that takes the attention away from the Connors for once.

This anime, written by Mattson Tomlin (Project Power, Mother/Android) and produced by Japanese animation studio Production I.G (Ghost In The Shell, Blood: The Last Vampire among many others), takes place half a world away from Los Angeles, where most of the terminating has been set in previous entries.

It's also in a different time zone, with much of the "present-day" action taking place in Tokyo on the fateful Judgment Day of Aug 29, 1997 – only 17 hours ahead of Skynet triggering Armageddon.

Obsessed scientist Malcolm Lee (voiced in the English dub by Andre Holland, Moonlight, Castle Rock) is racing against the clock to bring his own artificial intelligence creation Kokoro (Rosario Dawson) online to counter Skynet.

His motives for doing so are deep in spoiler territory, so let's just say that he is doing this for the world's sake – at the expense of quality time with his three children, left in the care of their eager-to-please nanny Misaki.

And yes, it wouldn't be a legit series entry if a time-travelling Terminator (Timothy Olyphant) wasn't closing in on the Lee family. Or if a similarly time-displaced human warrior, Eiko (Sonoya Mizuno, House Of The Dragon), wasn't trying to protect them.

(Side note: Even with the star power of the English dub voice cast, the production's anime heritage might be better served with the Japanese audio track on.)

You don't need to be a keen-eyed viewer to notice some significant differences in this particular 1997 from what we're used to.

Malcolm couldn't be sure if he had conjured up the proverbial ghost in the machine, or the one in the shell.

It's all part of Tomlin's clever reimagining of franchise lore, an endeavour that will certainly take the saga in wild new directions if this particular branch of the timeline doesn't get pruned (more seasons, please).

And while we may not have an Ancient One around to explain time-travel paradoxes and pitfalls to our central scientist, at least there is an ancient one (lower case) in the war-torn future who tells Eiko she is the perfect choice for this mission.

There is no shortage of mystery to be unravelled over this initial season's eight episodes, and there's plenty of carnage too, in both the story's present and future. If you're squeamish at even the sight of animated guts 'n' gore, well ... be warned.

'If you listen to the English dub, you might recognise me from that soap opera with dragons. Though I usually let my guns do the talking here.'

Terminator Zero also gets into deeper philosophical territory than most other series entries (even T2: Judgment Day) as the nascent AI Kokoro raises pertinent points about humanity's inherent inhumanity while deciding whether or not we're worth saving.

I found this to be one of the show's more intriguing elements that could have benefitted from further exploration, instead of having the pace bogged down in the middle by focussing on the children and their misadventures.

Sure, both Eiko and her foe then have ample opportunity to show what badasses they are, but ... if we didn't get that already from the initial episodes, maybe the machines have the right idea after all.

Pacing issues aside, Terminator Zero stands as one of the better franchise entries to date, choosing to retain a few familiar beats (even from Brad Fiedel's original score) without going over the same tired terrain. That new ground is still strewn with skulls, of course.

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All eight episodes of Terminator Zero are available on Netflix.