Terminator Genisys Review

Terminator Genisys Review

I’m a giant fan of the Terminator franchise. The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day are among the greatest films in the science fiction , action, and horror genres, and I even find the inferior sequels, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation, watchable and not without merit.

Now here we are with the latest installment, which messes with the timeline, gives us an elderly T-800, a new T-1000, and lots more. If you’ve seen any of the trailers, then several major scenes and big plot twists have already been spoiled for you. I will avoid any spoilers not detailed in the trailers or give a spoiler warning prior.

If you’re a big fan of the Terminator films, then chances are you’ve already seen the new one. If you were on the fence about seeing Terminator Genisys or curious about it, I’m here to tell you, as a fan of movies in general, to not see it.

The movie starts with voiceover explaining everything we already know about Skynet becoming self aware, Judgment Day, the war against the machines, etc. We see the future as glimpsed in Terminator and Terminator 2—not the different looking future from Salvation. I actually loved this opening. There was some cool action, visual effects were decent (but not perfect), and we finally get to actually see the time travel equipment that sends the T-800 and Kyle Reese back in time. We don’t get an explanation of how it works, but hey, at least we get to see it working. The lore of the first Terminator remains consistent as we know it in the opening—Kyle sent back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor—but as soon as Kyle arrives in L.A. ’84, the movie starts to suck. Badly.

Scenes from the first film are literally re-created shot-for-shot, before old Arnold fights cgi young Arnold, in a fight that lasts about two minutes. It quickly becomes apparent the timeline is screwed up, because the T-1000, which doesn’t show up until T2 in 1991, is suddenly present in 1984 and trying to kill Kyle. There’s no explanation for this. Then Sarah Connor shows up, and instead of being a vulnerable waitress, she’s a badass like she was in T2, and with her is an elderly Terminator that was sent back in time to protect her back in the 70’s. Who sent him? Don’t know, never explained. Now Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor must try to stop Skynet in this new timeline, and in order to do (spoiler alert) they must time travel to the future in 2017, where Skynet is an operating system called Genisys that’s been created by Miles Dyson’s son (the guy who worked at Cyberdyne in T2 and created Skynet) with the help of...John Connor? (spoiler over)

As the trailers indicate, John Connor has become a nano-bot Terminator that’s gone back in time to stop Sarah and Kyle and the Terminator Sarah calls “Pop”. I won’t try to explain the rest of the plot from here because it gets way too confusing and convoluted to try and rearticulate. If you’re really curious, just go see it, or better yet, read the synopsis on Wikipedia.

Terminator Genisys looked bad from the first trailer, and going into it, I could not have had lower expectations. To be fair, it was not as bad as it could have been, nor was it as bad as I thought it would be. Does that mean its good? No. It’s as if the writers went, “What ideas do we have for a new Terminator movie?” and they dumped all the ideas they had into this one script and went with it. This movie is all over the place, both in regards to plot and the timeline. There are alternate timelines, which are sure to confuse those not well versed in heavy sci-fi time travel plots (fans of Fringe might have an easier time, but even then, it still doesn’t make a lot of sense) but it becomes so convoluted by the end there are severe plot holes that cannot be repaired.

As much as I did not like this movie, there were some things I actually did like. By far the best part of this movie is Arnold Schwarzenegger. It’s a shame he couldn’t have made a return to the franchise in a better film. The explanation for why he’s old works, and most of his humor works—better than it did in T3, for the most part. He’s as good as he’s ever been, but his co-stars don’t fare as well. Emilia Clarke looks good as Sarah Connor, but she has poor dialogue and material to work with, and as a result, does not make for a good Sarah Connor. But it’s not her fault. She does become more likable by the end, but ultimately is inferior to Linda Hamilton. Jai Courtney, who was in another poor action sequel in a once proud franchise (A Good Day to Die Hard) is once again, emotionless and boring. He’s not as bad as I’ve seen him in other movies, and he’s not as bad as I thought he would be, but he is still just not Kyle Reese. Perhaps even worse is Jason Clarke as John Connor. Not only does he not look like John Connors of the past, he is bad in nearly every other aspect. The whole idea of a nano-Terminator feels desperate, and once again, is still inferior to a liquid metal T-1000. This nano-Terminator is sensitive to magnets, and even though it’s far superior to Arnold’s T-800, it still struggles to fight him, even though it should, in theory, be able to destroy him without a hassle. But I can’t really fault the movie for that.    

The action in this movie is unremarkable. By the end, there is so much cgi flying at the screen, it becomes too much to process (I can’t imagine what it would have looked like in 3D). The cgi ranges from good to poor, but the young Arnold looks much better than in Terminator Salvation. Somehow, the liquid metal Terminator still doesn’t look quite as good as it did back in 1991, which blows my mind. Like Jurassic World which came out last month, the visual effects are not consistent throughout the movie. One scene looks incredible, the next looks like a cartoon (for the record, Jurassic World had much better effects overall than Terminator Genisys)

The best analogy I can think of to describe this movie is it’s like a bad rollercoaster. You get on, dreading it, then as you start out, it’s kind of fun, shows the promise of greatness, then once you go down the first big hill, you realize how not fun it is, then it’s a series of ups and downs—fun moments, glimmers of hope, followed by dumb moments, glaring failures—and long before the ride’s over, you’re wondering how much longer is left, and you feel like the ride’s been going on too long. Then you get off, and forget about it ten minutes later. No one wanted this movie to be good more than I did, but it simply was not a good Terminator movie. I would hate for people who have never seen any of the original films to see this one first. Do yourself a favour if you are new to the franchise: watch the first two films at home and avoid going out to see this new one.

Is this the end of the franchise? I sincerely hope not, and highly doubt it. If they continue with the planned sequel to this film, they could, theoretically, fix a lot of the issues that came up in Genisys and make a much superior sequel. I still believe we could get a good Terminator sequel that isn’t Judgment Day. If they can get a better script, that isn’t such a mess with too many ideas and a lack of focus, bring back old Arnold, give Jai Courtney some acting lessons (or just re-cast him), and patch up as many plot holes using time travel paradoxes and alternate time lines as possible, then maybe, just maybe, I can face the future of this franchise with a sense of hope.