Movie Review: Terminator Genisys (2015)

The Terminator (1984) and Terminator 2:Judgment Day (1991) are modern cinematic classics, the foundation upon which James Cameron has built his cinematic empire. The first film gave us “Arnie” and a nightmare vision of our future doom at the manipulators of the very machines we built to serve us, while the second film blew the idea of the summer blockbuster into the stratosphere with its massive, for the time, budget of $94 Million, it’s cutting edge special effects, fantastic action set pieces, well judged humour and, be honest, it’s touching ending. Since Cameron abandoned his baby or more accurately had it taken from him, things have a bit more patchy with 2003’s Rise Of The Machines providing more opportunities for a young John Connor (Nick Stahl) and Arnie to goof round, more information on the birth of Skynet and making the ballsy decision that Judgment Day could never be stopped, only ever postponed. 2009’s Terminator Salvation meanwhile worked around Arnie’s political career by using him very briefly as a CGI model for an early version Terminator and eschewed time travel altogether, setting its tale entirely amongst the ruins of the old world as humanity’s saviour John Connor (Christian Bale) tried to use his limited knowledge of the future to prevent Skynet from wiping out what was left of humanity and find and save a young Kyle Reese, someone who becomes VERY important to him in the future (AND the past!).

Does Terminator: Genisys belong more with the latter two middling movies in the series or is it up there with the first two?

Let me answer that by getting one thing straight first: This is, and always will be, Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn).

This is most definitely NOT Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney).

At one point in Genisys, Kyle Reese, the man who travelled across time to protect a woman he didn’t even know from an Austrian murder machine, says in a moment of danger “I didn’t sign up for this“!!!? Whether you can enjoy this film depends on how aggrieved you feel about this, and the spelling of “Genisys”.

In 2029, John Connor (Jason Clarke) leads the remnants of humanity in the final attacks on Skynet, an attack John knows that will culminate in Skynet desperately sending a terminator back in time to 1984 to try to kill his mother before he’s even conceived. John also knows however, that he will send Kyle Reese, his right hand man who will eventually father John in the past, back in response.

Reese (Courtney) arrives to find himself pursued by a liquid metal T-1000 terminator from Terminator 2, while a very different Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) ends up rescuing him. Meanwhile, across town, the original fresh faced, CGI enhanced and a slightly rubbery looking Arnie-model terminator from 2029 has his mugging of a Bill Paxton lookalike punk rudely interrupted by a much older looking version of the same model (almost current day Arnie). The past Reese was sent to protect is gone and further temporal athletics will be required to A) get the action to the present day so that the set designer doesn’t blow a gasket trying to match sets and props from 1984, B) explain how Kyle seems to know things about this timeline that he shouldn’t and C) explain away the doozy of a twist halfway through the film that would have been a stupendous moment if it weren’t ruined already by trailers and posters (so if you’ve not seen said marketing materials then avoid them if at all possible before seeing the film).

There is still plenty to enjoy here as the producers have assembled a worthy team to take up the mantle. Director Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) keeps events moving at an engaging pace, staging impressive set pieces, such as a clash between two models of Arnie-terminator, Sarah Connor demonstrating a much handier method of dispatching a mimetic poly-alloy T-1000 for those times when you haven’t got a Steel Mill lying around, and numerous clever action scenes with the “new big bad” who is the subject of those pesky marketing materials I mentioned earlier. At times, though, you can’t help but think to yourself, “Yes, that was a clever way to get out of that situation, but should the writers have come up with it in the first place?”

Potentially interesting ideas like J.K. Simmon’s cop, who encounters the main cast at different times over 30 years and the Dyson family from T2 turning up are wasted on those who have already checked out due to the “new” model of Terminator revealed halfway through and the casting of Jai Courtney.

For my part, I’d already been spoiled on the reveal of the “new” terminator model so, in this timeline, we’ll never know if it would have annoyed me or not if I’d experienced it for the first time in the cinema, and as for Courtney, at one stage, Arnie says that “Arguing with Kyle Reese puts us at a strategic disadvantage” and arguing about his casting after the fact even more so. If you can manage to stomach the complete change in the style of the actor and the fact that the filmmakers make him out to be an idiot for much of the first half of the film, you may enjoy yourself. Emelia Clarke and Arnie have a good camaraderie and the action is, for the most part, enjoyable enough.

For Doctor Who fans wondering about Matt Smith’s mysterious role, he has a small, but pivotal part to play, but he’s barely in the film enough to make much of an impact.

Despite the upbeat ending of T2 and the jokey banter between the human characters and the friendly versions of Arnie’s Terminator, the previous films maintained a bleakness overall, a tone that is sadly missing from this entry, which adds too many jokes for its own good.

In one final misstep, a relatively satisfying climax is almost completely undone by a mid credits sequence that sets up potential sequels at the cost of rendering the preceding triumph meaningless, almost immediately.

If you fancy a jokey remix of the Terminator franchise, then Genisys may be for you, but fans of the originals will most likely not be very happy.

Related posts: