Terminator Genisys
Directed by: Alan Taylor
Written by: Laeta Kalogridis & Patrick Lussier
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, J.K. Simmons, Matthew Smith, Byung-Hun Lee, Dayo Okeniyi, Courtney B. Vance
Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi/Thriller - 126 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 1 Jul 2015
Written by: Laeta Kalogridis & Patrick Lussier
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, J.K. Simmons, Matthew Smith, Byung-Hun Lee, Dayo Okeniyi, Courtney B. Vance
Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi/Thriller - 126 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 1 Jul 2015
The Hollywood insider who created the eye-rolling gimmick of having a character go back in time to re-write history wiping out the rest of the ‘old’ timeline is a financial genius. What better way to gobble up a couple billion more dollars than to wipe out the old and replace it with the knock-off new. They did it in 2009 to reboot the Star Trek franchise. Spock goes back in time and now Kirk and the gang are free to have any kind of new adventures they please for they are not constrained by the original series, The Next Generation, or Voyager, for they now never existed. Instead of a straight up reboot like any number of Batman, Superman, and Spider-man franchises, the new Terminator series installment sends Kyle Reese back in time to 1984 to save Sarah Connor, the exact same set-up from James Cameron’s original film. However, Paramount and a couple sneaky writers decided to go all Back to the Future II and create an alternate reality. Therefore, no matter how much you cared for 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day or its two lackluster follow-ons, they now never existed. If Jurassic World can make a couple sequels disappear, so can Terminator.
I always wondered why a Terminator and a savior travel through time one after the other arriving on the same day in the past. Terminator Genisys explains why at the beginning but it is soon moot with so many timelines and alternate realities orbiting around and bumping into each other it all ends up in a confused jumble. In the dark and desolate future of 2029, John Connor (Jason Clarke, 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) does indeed send his friend Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney, 2015’s The Water Diviner) back to 1984 to protect and save his mother. By now, this is a very familiar plot point. Oops. Reese arrives but Sarah Conner (Emilia Clarke, “Game of Thrones”) has already been saved and she is the one saving him. What?
I always wondered why a Terminator and a savior travel through time one after the other arriving on the same day in the past. Terminator Genisys explains why at the beginning but it is soon moot with so many timelines and alternate realities orbiting around and bumping into each other it all ends up in a confused jumble. In the dark and desolate future of 2029, John Connor (Jason Clarke, 2014’s Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) does indeed send his friend Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney, 2015’s The Water Diviner) back to 1984 to protect and save his mother. By now, this is a very familiar plot point. Oops. Reese arrives but Sarah Conner (Emilia Clarke, “Game of Thrones”) has already been saved and she is the one saving him. What?
Terminator Genisys is supposedly the first film in what will eventually be a new Terminator trilogy. The explanation for certain things, including the most important event, how Sarah Conner was already saved, must come in a future film. So, tune in next week folks to find out the answer and don’t forget to lay down some more of your money to fill Paramount’s coffers who did you a big favor by completely erasing the original Terminator timeline you grew up with. We don’t stay in 1984 for long because what will become Skynet and the rise of the machines will not occur until the year 2017, so let’s hop back in our time travel do-hickey spinning thing and get back on the space-time continuum interstate.
Keeping up with various years, timelines, and realities would be challenging for the most adept fans, so for us folks who only watch these films once, don’t even try following the whens and hows; just focus on the booms and bangs. If perhaps you are not already completely jaded by the too obvious franchise resurrection, Paramount also put the whole thing in 3D, jacking up your ticket price by another magnitude. The 3D is as useless to this film as explaining to your grandmother why even though the rule is only living flesh can time travel, hence the conveniently covered nudity for an inane PG-13 rating, how the hell a T-1000, made of liquid metal, may successfully time travel.
What? Say something nice about Terminator Genisys? Well, Emilia Clarke is a very effective Linda Hamilton replacement. She pulls off a character already very well known to audiences but neither copies the original nor goes overboard trying to make it her own. Jai Courtney, on the other hand, reminds us he is the go to actor for failed sequels – remember he was in two recent debacles: A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) and The Divergent Series: Insurgent (2015). Arnold Schwarzenegger (2015’s Maggie) is back as a late middle-aged Terminator, but as he will remind us ad nauseum, not obsolete. J.K. Simmons (2014’s Whiplash) shows up as a minor comic relief character, but there is no payoff to validate his screen presence. Perhaps that comes in the sequels?
Director Alan Taylor is no stranger to disappointing sequels as he brought us 2013’s Thor: The Dark World. The script by Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier decides to give us another view of the Golden Gate Bridge getting blown up; a feat we’ve already seen this year in San Andreas. The bridge is spared from an earthquake-inspired tsunami this time only to be obliterated by a nuclear blast. That poor bridge. Kalogridis gave us 2010’s Shutter Island not too long ago, a phenomenal script, so why she is paired with Lussier here, the mastermind behind 2011’s Drive Angry and Dracula 2000 and its two direct to video sequels is anyone’s guess.
If you must see the new Terminator for nostalgia reasons, stay away from the previews. I went in blind and was happily surprised I had no idea what the set-up was and who was and was not a bad guy. The previews will give all that away in a couple seconds. You will also get to enjoy Emilia Clarke’s fresh take on an old character. Other than that, Terminator Genisys is just as forgettable as 2009’s Terminator Salvation; anyone still remember the plot of that one? I didn’t think so.
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