Review of Terminator Genisys (2015) by Mark F — 14 Nov 2015

Terminators 1 & 2 were intelligent, revolutionary and iconic. The latter can rightly be considered in any countdown of history's best films. Of course, what followed were Terminators 3 & 4, and they succeeded in pretty much wrecking the mythology and leaving many fans wishing they'd never happened.

Along comes Terminator Genisys and it's like in trying to fix the mess the series is in, they are now making it even worse. With all this time travelling over the previous four films, the whole thing has got incredibly complicated. Terminators have been sent back to protect people who have then died, but then not really, who have then had a son, who had a dad, who were then sent back to a time before the time they originally existed to protect a mum who already knows he's coming because another terminator came back before that point...the beauty of the simplicity of the early movies has now been lost. And the bottom line of it all is that with Terminator Genysis they have effectively decided to completely erase the legacy of 1-4 and begin again. A new alternate timeline has now been created, and thus this movie represents something of a reboot.

That's the problem. In trying to fix 3 & 4, or at least rendering them obsolete, they have also rendered the classic 1 & 2 obsolete. All that stuff about saving John Connor that we were so invested in...turns out none of that matters anyhow because John Connor isn't even the saviour of the human race like we've been thinking this whole time. What's more, this movie plays like 3 & 4 so the new alternate timeline doesn't even fix anything. In this one, the machines aren't machines anymore, they don't kill so readily, so there's not as much tension. There's no way Kyle Reece and Sarah Connor survive that bus flip. No way. And where did John Connor get his helicopter from to chase them anyway? Why in 2017 is everyone so enamoured with device syncing? We can do that now! Why is it 2015 and they still can't do a convincing CGI Arnold Schwarzenegger? And if good Arnie has been waiting for bad Arnie for a long time like he says, why did he confront him with such a useless shotgun when Sarah had access to a decent one?

Anyway, enough ranting. If it's so bad then why not 1 star? Because as a standalone movie, it's not that bad. It's actually pretty watchable. The actors are decent, Sarah Connor is nice to look at and does a good job. The action may be preposterous but most Hollywood action sequences are these days and we can still enjoy them if we switch off our brain and suspend our disbelief. But then again, I think that's just the problem, there was a time with Terminator movies when we didn't have to switch off our brain. There was a time when they weren't just another summer popcorn flick. T2 had intelligence... Oh wait, I'm ranting again.

Ok here it is. Honestly, as a standalone movie it's actually pretty good. As a sequel in the feted Terminator franchise, it's not.