Review of Terminator Genisys (2015) by Adrian W — 06 Dec 2015

The film started off great showing John Connor and Kyle Reese fighting the machines in the future. This leads me to believe that they should have just continued the events of Terminator Salvation, but I seem to be in the minority of people who enjoyed that film. The movie peaks the moment John Connor gets in the machine to be sent back to the past and then it's all downhill from there.

They desperately try to make everything make sense by having the characters constantly explaining what's happening. It's almost comedic how much exposition there is in the dialogue. The action is constant, but sometimes a bit too over the top. Sometimes the overuse of CGI took me out of the film. The 1984 T-800 and the T-1000 are wasted character and are disposed of far too easily. It almost seemed like a slap in the face of the first two films. The ending was so ridiculous that it actually made me laugh.

The acting wasn't very good for the most part. Some actors were miscast and just didn't belong in this movie. Jai Courtney isn't charismatic enough to pull off the Kyle Reese character. Emilia Clarke does her best Linda Hamilton impression, but never really feels like Sarah Connor. Arnold is typical over the top Arnold, but despite the fact that they aged his character, he still feels a bit too old to still be playing this role. Jason Clarke is decent as John Connor. Matt Smith absolutely shines in his role, but is barely used. J.K. Simmons does well with his limited screen time, but seems a bit wasted in such a small role.

It's not exactly terrible, but fans of the franchise expect much better. It's sometimes so over the top that it almost feels like poorly written fan fiction rather than a big budget Hollywood film script.