I don't understand why it's so hard to produce a Terminator movie that lives up to the iconic first two instalments. I personally didn't hate either T3 or even Salvation, but they were inarguably inferior to their excellent predecessors. Not only is Genisys another example of how seemingly difficult it is to achieve success with this franchise nowadays, but it's also the weakest entry in the series.
Trying to profit off of nostalgia, Terminator Genisys essentially re-tells the first movie's plot, but with some time-bending changes. Like that movie, Genisys begins in the year 2029, when Skynet has won the war and has enslaved humanity. John Connor (Jason Clarke), our last hope, sends his one true friend Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984, so that Reese can protect John's mother from death at the hands of a terminator. However, when Reese is sent back in time, he quickly realises that things aren't at all how he expected, and Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) is far from the helpless damsel that he thought she would be.
The film starts promising enough. With an advancement in our own technology comes a better view of what Terminator's fictional war will look like, and the film begins by showing us this bleak future. The machines reign supreme, and humans being gathered into death camps provides some pretty sombre images. Even once Reese is sent back, the movie still remains enjoyable; especially for those who have seen the original Terminator, as Genisys does a good job of providing an updated, shot-for-shot remake of that film's opening scene. However, once we meet Sarah Connor for the first time, things begin to go downhill. I haven't seen Game of Thrones, but based off of this movie alone, I don't think that Emilia Clarke is that good of an actress, and especially bad at representing the now iconic heroine of Sarah Connor. Fair enough, they've tried blending elements of Terminator 2, with Sarah now being a hardened badass, but it's never really explained why she's such a badass. There's some flimsy explanation about how she met her Terminator (affectionately called "Pops") when she was 9, but no real information is given to explain how that scenario came to be.
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| Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) |
And Sarah's Terminator is the only thing that really redeems this movie in any way, for one reason only: Arnie's back. Returning in his titular role as the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance is on-point and the same as in the other instalments for the series. The best lines, stunts, and moments throughout the movie are thanks to nobody but Schwarzenegger, and he manages to make the movie slightly bearable. Sure, there's a weird bullet-loading montage halfway through which involves Reese and the Terminator, but by that point you've given up hope of the film getting much better.
Verdict
There's not a lot more to say about Genisys, because it's simply not a very good movie. The acting is poor, a lot of the action is boring, and without Arnold's presence, it would be completely unwatchable. It's cool to see the throwbacks to the original movie, but all that does is make you wish that you were watching that instead, and if you haven't seen the original, then these references will be completely lost on you. Instead of seeing Genisys, buy the boxset of the other instalments (yes, even T3 and Salvation), and enjoy some of the best sci-fi movies ever made.
"You're nothing but a relic"
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