Yes! After 12 years away, Arnold Schwarzenegger is finally back where he belongs! The T-800 might be looking like he's ready for the scrapheap but there is still life left in the old cybernetic organism. Set on a new mission in this new Terminator summer blockbuster, Genisys is the set up for a new line of Terminator sequels being released by Paramount within the next three years. Why such a quick turnaround in the demand for Terminator sequels? Have the fans been pounding the studio door down demanding this? Not really. Legendary director James Cameron will reacquire the rights from Paramount for the Terminator franchise in 2018 and as a result causing the studios to milk the cash cow, earning as much cash as possible before their adopted child gets reunited with daddy. Makes sense from a business point of view. But will they make enough effort and get their creativity in top gear to present a quality Terminator film, something which in my view hasn't been the case since Terminator 2: Judgement Day. Or in other words since James Cameron decided to quite literally jump ship and move on to make Titanic. However to my eye-opening surprise, Cameron did get me excited for this new sequel. In an interview with Yahoo he explained his opinion of the new film:
"I start to see things I recognise. It’s being very respectful of first two films. Then all of the sudden, it just swerves. And now I’m going on a journey. I feel like the franchise has been reinvigorated, like this is a renaissance."
High praise indeed from the man who created the first two Terminator films, timeless and original sci-fi/action classics. But even before I went to see the new film there was a problem. The trailer. It's possibly the most spoiler heavy trailer I've seen in a long time. Any plot twists or swerves in the story that were planned were obliterated carelessly by the marketing team. And that's such a shame and I don't think that's fair on director Alan Taylor who has publicly expressed his frustration at the marketing of the film.
Terminator Genisys is situated in the timeline between the first two films in an attempt to freshen up and reinvent the franchise to create a new timeline specifically for these new sets of sequels. As in the first film a T800 terminator is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) and Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) is sent back by her son John Connor (Jason Clarke), the leader of the resistance to rescue her. However in a new twist to the story, Arnold's terminator has sent back earlier than previously explained and has trained Sarah Connor to be the ass kicking solider we know from Terminator 2 and this new team have to stop a billion dollar corporation from launching a new app "Genisys" which connects to everyone's electronic devices causing them to blow up and destroying all human life. That's the best way I can describe the plot without giving away any spoilers (unless you've seen the trailers).
The stand out in Terminator Genisys comes as no surprise, Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was brilliant. He was the glue that held the film together. The quick one liners, the humour that he brings to the role and how he embraced his own age with an older terminator character was clever. I just can't imagine a Terminator film without him. There was plenty of well shot action scenes which entertained me and you can have plenty of fun whilst shoving popcorn in your face. The acting throughout is fine, it's not horrendous by any means. But fine is as far as the film goes.
I wouldn't try and attempt to follow the story of the film because it is so confusing and mind boggling hard to understand. Even when I got home I tried to piece together certain plot points and still it made no sense. How many times can Sarah and John Connor be in the same timeline?! Surely there must have been another event that occurred during the rise of Skynet and the destruction of mankind. Even when the actors are trying to explain the timeline changes that the film introduces, you can clearly tell they're concentrating hard to get to grips as to what they are actually saying. I don't think my brain has the capacity to explain that amount of ridiculous exposition. The mythology behind the new Terminator timeline is a mess and it lacks any feasible intelligence. I didn't think the actors were cast very well either. Jason Clarke isn't that military tough, gritty leader that John Connor is and he had to overact to the point of sounding like Christian Bale's Batman. Felt awkward. Emilia Clarke was serviceable as Sarah Connor even though at first I felt like she was doing a parody of Linda Hamilton but her character grew on me as you began to learn about her new rebooted past. Jai Courtney gets plenty of criticism for being a rubbish actor but I can't help but feel sorry for him especially because the script is so bland and boring. Safe and secure. And because of that the film won't be particularly memorable. Just another summer action film to pass the time on a rainy day. This shouldn't be the case because it's Terminator!
Terminator Genisys is OK. It's neither a masterpiece nor a train wreck. You can enjoy having a mind numbing time watching it. However trying to make sense of the story is like a heavy session on the booze at the weekend. Mediocre isn't what Terminator should be about but the idea of having these new planned sequels was never about satisfying fans, only for Paramount Studios bank account. I think these new sequels have already found their level, average. It is disappointing but when a marketing team decides to spoiler 90% of the film in the trailer it's not a surprise either. Oh well, I'll always have the first two Terminator films at home with me. They'll never be forgotten about unlike this one.
5/10
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