Review of Terminator Genisys (2015) by Jonathan L — 13 Nov 2015

Terminator Genisys.

I was entertained!

I consider myself a Terminator fan. I loved the original, as well as T2, Terminator 3 is enjoyable in its own right, and Terminator Salvation was a big disappointment. Understandably, people were skeptical about a fifth Terminator movie, especially after the dud that was Salvation. I checked out Genisys with cautious optimism and simply put, this is just a really good action movie that I was thoroughly entertained by.

Right off the bat, Terminator Genisys practically erases the previous two films from existence and creates its own canon timeline in a sense. It's still very much set in the same universe as the first two films but at the same time isn't. It's all very complicated and hard to explain without spoiling what little information the trailers haven't given away so I'll leave it at that.

So you know the gist, Genisys picks up in the year 2029. The humans and robots have been at war for years. After raiding one of their headquarters, John Connor (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes's Jason Clarke) and his resistance find the time machine that was used to send the terminator back to the year 1984 to kill Sarah Connor, John's mother, thereby erasing him from existence. One of John's soldiers, Kyle Reese (Divergent's Jai Courtney), volunteers to follow the terminator into the past to protect John's mother from the encroaching assassin psyborg. What follows is essentially the plot of the original 1984 movie, for a few minutes at least, because as soon as Kyle lands in the past, the world we thought we knew in the terminator timeline is changed exponentially. Now that he's been thrown in a battle spanning three time periods, Kyle must join forces with the now gun toting badass that is Sarah Connor (Game of Thrones's Emilia Clarke), and of course the original terminator himself (Arnold Schwarzeneger, needs no introduction), to set things right.

First thing you have to understand when going into Terminator Genisys is that it is as much a sequel to the terminator movies as it is a reboot altogether. The movie's purpose is to reintroduce the terminator franchise while staying as true to the originals as possible. I thought Genisys accomplished this very well. One of the main problems I had with Terminator Salvation was what little it had to do with the previous three films. It tried too hard to be its own movie that it lost sight of what it was supposed to be. It almost felt like watching a video game that just happened to have characters named after John Connor and Kyle Reese. Terminator Genisys knows exactly what it wants to be, it has enough references to the older movies to pay homage to them while at the same time providing their own spin on the elements that made the first two such classics.

As far as the cast is concerned, I was very impressed. Jai Courtney doesn't do anything Oscar worthy but for the role he is playing here he was believable. Jason Clarke was really good as John Connor. One of the problems I have with the terminator movies is how they keep recasting that particular character. Edward Furlong is the original John Connor and therefore the best. They recast him in T3 with Nick Stahl, whom I wasn't particularly impressed with. Salvation's casting of Christian Bale in the role should have been the saving grace of the movie, and in some ways it was, but honestly, Terminator Salvation is better left forgotten. Jason Clarke is by far the best John Connor since Ed Furlong, and it's mostly because he's so different. That is all I'll say. Emilia Clarke replaces Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor and pretty much owns the role in every way shape and form. Emilia is a serious badass who captures the character's strength and vulnerability perfectly. And she has some pretty humorous dialogue with Schwarzenegger's T-800. Speaking of Schwarzenegger, let's just take a moment to appreciate the fact that we are seeing him in the role that made him famous for the first time in twelve years! I always thought Arnold was at his best as the terminator in T3. He captured the best qualities of the character from the first and second movies and added a genuine hilarity to the character in T3. He continues this trend in Genisys, while giving the terminator a sense of humanity that we haven't seen since T2. This is a very old terminator model, and the best part is that he is aware of it. It becomes sort of a sub plot having Schwartzeneger's terminator dealing with his aging joints and creaking hinges and it's very interesting to watch him play the character like this.

If I have one problem with Terminator Genisys, it's that it does tend to follow a recycled plot at times. You can only fight Skynet so many times before it finally decides to destroy everyone and every time machine in the process. But the way they handled Skynet in Genisys is original to say the least, and there are parts where it definitely adds to the story more than it detracts. If they do go through with a possible sixth terminator movie, I hope we get to see them take on something that is different from Skynet. Or if they do bring back Skynet then maybe have them fight something else along with it.

Terminator Genisys isn't the scifi classic that the original and T2 were, nor is it necessarily trying to be. Instead, it's a very good and solid action film, and as a fan of the series I had a fun time with it. It's eons better than Terminator Salvation!

****/5.