Terminator: Genisys Review

In my review of Jurassic World, I mentioned that there were two films slated for release this year that were continuations of classic franchises and that I thought were going to be really bad. Jurassic World, of course, was one of them, and Terminator: Genisys was the other one. I finally got a chance to see the fifth installment in the Terminator franchise, and whereas Jurassic World was surprisingly enjoyable, Genisys is pretty much everything I was expecting. Not a good movie, and hopefully (fingers crossed) the last time they try to recreate the magic of the earlier films in the series. Seeing as though they already have a planned trilogy lined up, that seems unlikely.

Terminator: Genisys takes place right around the time of the original film, and follows a similar plotline for the first 30 minutes or so. Machines called Terminators have taken over the world and have imprisoned the remaining humans. John Connor leads a rebellion against the machines, who respond by sending a Terminator back to kill his mother before he's ever born, preventing the rebels from ever forming. A soldier in the rebellion named Kyle Reese is then sent back to stop the Terminator from succeeding. This is all stuff we know and love about the Terminator franchise.

The gimmick of Terminator: Genisys is that in this new timeline, somebody has already sent back a Terminator - played by Arnold Schwarzenegger in a triumphant return to the role that started it all for him - to prepare Sarah Connor for the Terminator that will be sent to kill her. Who is this mystery guardian angel? Well, that's left unsaid, probably for future sequels to answer. Anyway, this older Terminator fights alongside Sarah to destroy the imminent Terminator attack. With Reese now on their side, they fight to stop Skynet from releasing a program called Genisys that ultimately started the war in this timeline.

That's quite a mouthful, I know. That's one of Terminator: Genisys' biggest problems. It has a lot that it wants to do, but not enough movie to do it all in a balanced way. It occasionally feels like the writers took a look at some of the most popular Terminator fan fiction for inspiration for this script. It really is that over-the-top and jumbled at times. The movie is at its best when it's following the timeline that we are familiar with (this is about the first half hour, as I mentioned before). When it starts to mess with that familiarity, it really started to lose my investment.

The cast was all functional, if completely ordinary. No one besides Arnold really stuck out to me. Jason Clarke was fine as John Connor, as was Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor. Again, though, both of them could have been played just as well by many other actors. Kyle Reese is played by Jai Courtney. I don't know what it is about this guy that makes him so attractive to studios, but he keeps showing up in these big franchise films. And he's utterly unremarkable in each one of them. He was utilized far too much in this film.

Alan Taylor directed Terminator: Genisys. While the trailers had me convinced that this was going to be a pretty bad movie, Taylor's name being attached at least had me hoping for some entertaining action sequences; Taylor is the man behind Thor: The Dark World, which despite its imperfections had some well-handled action. Even that aspect of Genisys is forgettable. All the notable set pieces were right there in the trailers and were also modeled after other, better movies' action sequences (the truck chase can be found in T-2 and the flipping school bus came right out of The Dark Knight). The action is as momentarily diverting yet unsubstantial as any Transformers movie.

What this movie gets absolutely spot-on correct is Arnold Schwarzenegger. The big guy hasn't had much luck with his movie career as of late, starring in roles that ultimately parody what he once was. With Terminator: Genisys, I can definitively say he is back as the Arnie we know and love. Even if it's only for this one movie, it was a delight to watch. He was by far my favorite part of this movie.



Despite the cartoony plot that Terminator: Genisys follows, there's nothing different about the movie. It feels wholly generic, like another standard summer blockbuster that Hollywood is so eager to pump out these days. I was hoping that the movie would at least give me something a little wacky to latch on to, but it's far too convoluted and poorly written for that. You'll probably be reasonably entertained by parts of Terminator: Genisys, but you will have forgotten all about it by the time you walk out of the theater. I'd only recommend this to hardcore fans of the franchise, but even they will probably be disappointed. I'd put it somewhere in between Jurassic World's enjoyable silliness and A Good Day to Die Hard's offensive awfulness.

C-