Review of Terminator Genisys (2015) by Andrew M — 15 Jun 2016

Following a mediocre follow-up to the legendary Terminator 2: Judgment Day in the form of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and a bland by-the-numbers prequel-sequel in the form of Terminator Salvation, the beloved franchise decides to go back as close to its roots as it can with Terminator Genisys. The problem here is, despite the many "wink wink" nods from the earlier movies (especially The Terminator), the movie once again proves that this franchise has no idea what it wants to be, and is aimless without its creator.

The film does have its merits, notably in the form of the callbacks to The Terminator. The plot calls for a recreation of the famous opening of that film, as Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 is transported to 1984 Los Angeles: the shot-for-shot nature, as well as an impressive CGI recreation of Schwarzenegger, is a delight for fans of the sci-fi horror classic, and is far and away the most compelling scene in the movie. Also harkening back to the Terminator movies of old is Emilia Clarke's performance as Sarah Connor. Clarke does a pretty good job of stepping into the large shoes left by Linda Hamilton, and while she obviously doesn't surpass Hamilton, her performance is second only to Schwarzenegger's. He once again steps into the role that only he can play, and his relationship with this iteration of Sarah Connor is handled pretty well. J.K. Simmons makes a minor appearance as well and is delightful in his limited screentime, despite adding absolutely nothing to the overall narrative.

With that said, everything else in the movie is a mess. Despite being a more conventional Terminator film, the script throws all coherence and logic out the window in favor of time-jumping across numerous decades and convoluted explanations of alternate timelines and general quantum exposition. The film even pokes fun at just how incomprehensible this story is, and yet the film continues ahead at full speed. The visual effects are hit-and-miss, with some sequences looking quite spectacular (the 2029 segment in the film's opening scene is the closest we've gotten to the future presented to us in the opening of The Terminator), while others are less impressive (anything involving the T-1000). While Emilia Clarke and Schwarzenegger's performances are fine, the other two main performances are horribly bland. Jai Courtney doesn't seem to understand Kyle Reese as a character the way Michael Biehn, and even Anton Yelchin in Terminator Salvation, did, and lacks the same impact of those two performances. Jason Clarke isn't bad per se, but this iteration of John Connor has no strong material for Clarke to work off of.

Perhaps it's time for this franchise to be terminated.