Terminator Genisys

WARNING: I WILL BE DISCUSSING A PARTICULAR PLOT POINT THAT THE TRAILER GIVES AWAY.  IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE TRAILER, I WOULD ADVISE YOU TO SKIP THIS REVIEW.

Released: July 1st, 2015

Director: Alan Taylor

Run Time: 125 Minutes

Rated PG-13

Cast:
Arnold Schwarzenegger: Guardian
Jason Clark: John Connor
Emilia Clarke: Sarah Connor
Jai Courtney: Kyle Reese
J.K. Simmons: O’Brien

When The Terminator was released to audiences in 1984, it took the world by storm.  What you had here was a hybrid sci-fi/slasher film involving a cyborg from the future who was sent back to eliminate the mother of John Connor.  John Connor would the world-wide resistance to victory against the machines.  The film had a great story, unique and strong characters, especially Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton as Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor respectively.  But the real star of the show was Arnold Schwarzenegger as the villainous Terminator.  While his real break came when he starred in Conan The Barbarian, it was The Terminator that made him an icon.  Directed by James Cameron, The Terminator would gets its first sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991, followed by Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003, and Terminator Salvation in 2009.  Say what you will about 3 and 4, but the first two movies are amazing.  T2 is probably one of the best movie sequels since Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back.  Terminator Salvation was the first in the series to be rated PG-13, and it just didn’t work.  AND it didn’t have Arnold.  So now, in 2015, we get another Terminator film.  Since the fourth film was poorly received, it was decided that the next movie would be a reboot.  After getting shuttled around from distributor to distributor, the franchise lands at Paramount Studios.  With Arnold Schwarzenegger reprising his role as The Terminator, how does Terminator Genisys stack up to the others?

Basically, the film opens as we see the world get obliterated by nukes, which is spectacular by the way.  Then we cut to John Connor leading his forces against SkyNet and it’s army of murderous machines out to annihilate humanity.  They discover a time machine beneath a prison camp, but are too late as a Terminator has already been sent through.  Connor’s right-hand man, Kyle Reese, volunteers to go through time to protect Sarah Connor from the Terminator.  This is where things start getting interesting, as the film basically recreates iconic scenes from the original film, nearly shot for shot.  Particularly, the Terminator’s arrival in 1984.  The difference here, is that there’s another Terminator waiting for this thing.  As you can imagine, the timeline isn’t exactly what you think it would be.  Terminator Genisys borrows a lot of elements from the first two films, but not all of it works.  It’s like the film-makers threw in everything AND the kitchen sink.  The story is so scatterbrained, that it’s really hard to figure out what’s happening.  There’s plenty of plot, and it’s not bad, but it’s a jumbled mess.  They even bring in the T-1000 for kicks.  There’s a lot of fan-service in this movie.  The time-traveling is a head-ache.  First, they travel from 2029 to 1984 and then forward to 2017.  It’s a complete mess as far as the narrative goes.

Now, I’m going to discuss the elephant in the room.  This issue I had discussed in my previous post about proper marketing, and it pisses me off that the marketing gurus behind the trailer ended up giving away a very MAJOR plot twist.  If you’ve seen the latest trailer for Terminator Genisys, you know what I’m talking, so it’s not going to come across as much of a spoiler.  Basically, John Connor ends up being the main villain in the movie.  Why?  He was turned into a Terminator by SkyNet.  That’s a HUGE game-changer as far as plot devices go, and it would’ve been a huge shock and surprise, if they didn’t play their trump card in the latest trailer.  If they had left that part of the trailer, minds would have been blown to see that the so-called savior of the human race is actually the bad guy.  I said in my previous post that a trailer can make or break a movie.  Unfortunately, for Terminator Genisys, it’s a huge slap in the face.  I ended up not enjoying the film as much because I was looking for that “twist.”  It took my attention away from the rest of the film.  You don’t want to do that in a Terminator movie.  Warner Bros. pulled the same shit with the trailer for Terminator Salvation.  While that movie was not very well-received, the trailer did nothing to help.  That’s the case here.

That breaks my heart, because Terminator Genisys is actually a hell of a lot of fun.  It’s got big explosions, cyborgs fighting each other, awesome chase sequences and some pretty wild special effects.  For a two-hour run time, the film moves at a nearly break-neck pace.  When Schwarzenegger’s character goes up against the T-800 in 1984, it’s a blast to watch.  There’s no shaky-cam technique used, so everything is free and clear of obstructions or crap camera-work.  The chase sequence involving the bus on the Golden Gate Bridge is absolutely fantastic to watch.  It looks like they actually flipped a bus.  So, yeah, visually it’s great to watch.  The performances don’t really hurt anything either.  People had complained about the lack of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the previous film, so he’s come back to headline this one and he’s just plain awesome.  Yeah, we’ve got some pretty awkward moments between the Terminator and Sarah, but it’s Arnold Schwarzenegger in a Terminator movie.  That’s awesome!  From Game of Thrones, we have Emilia Clarke who plays Sarah Connor.  I think Clarke is a very strong actress who brings a lot of strength and vulnerability to the role.  Not like Linda Hamilton, though, but in her own way.  Jason Clarke is fantastic as John Connor.  He has a commanding presence that simply can’t be ignored.  J.K Simmons, while a very talented actor, isn’t given a whole lot to do here except be the outspoken person who believe what Sarah Connor has been telling people.  The character of Kyle Reese has been played by multiple people already, most notably by Michael Biehn in the first two movies and Anton Yelchin in Terminator Salvation.  Jai Courtney tries his hand, and honestly, he’s not too bad.  I’m still not convinced that he’s ready to be a leading actor in an action film, although he is showing improvement.

The music is phenomenal.  Lorne Balfe composed the music for this entry into the franchise, and it’s awesome.  It hits all the right beats when it comes to the action sequences, delivering pulse-pounding music that gets you pumped for more.  This being a Terminator film, you would expect the main theme to appear, and it does, briefly during the earlier scenes, but it comes into full force during the end credits.  I think it’s fantastic that Balfe utilizes some of Brad Fiedel’s main themes.  It really makes the film feel like a Terminator movie.

I should have mentioned this in my marketing post, but it slipped my mind.  I’m talking about when this movie was released.  The film was released yesterday, on July 1st, as of this writing.  To my knowledge, not many action movies have been released during the middle of the week.  See, timing is important when you are releasing a film.  It’s even more important when you’re releasing an action movie.  The best time to release a movie like Terminator Genisys would’ve been on Friday, July 3rd.  That’s the best time to release an action film or ANY film, because most people go to the movies during the weekend.  This weekend is The Fourth of July, so it would’ve made more sense to release the movie on Friday.  Your movie is more exposed to potential audiences, so the movie will make more money.  I don’t understand the logic of releasing a movie like this during the middle of the week, when it isn’t going to do as much business.  It sounds like, and I hope this isn’t the case, that somebody really doesn’t want Terminator to make money.  I mean, yeah, the movie is getting exposure, just not the kind that the film-makers were hoping for.  The Terminator franchise is one of the most popular franchises in the world, and I’m one of the more forgiving fans when it comes to the third and fourth films.  Don’t get me wrong, nothing will beat the first two movies.  Not by a long shot.  I just don’t think there’s a bad movie in the bunch.  Terminator Genisys isn’t a particularly bad movie.  It’s just been hampered by moronic marketing.  I still enjoyed the hell out of it, and I think fans of Terminator should give it a shot.  Who knows?  They might like it.

Terminator Genisys is supposed to be the first in a new trilogy, but I’ll have to wait and see after the weekend to see what kind of money it brought home.  Salvation was supposed to be the start of a new trilogy, but it bombed, big time.  I’m hoping for a director’s cut to hit DVD so some of the issues that I mentioned can be ironed out.  As it is however, it’s still a solid action movie that mostly delivers and the thrills that the series is known for.  I’m giving this one an 8/10.  It had potential, but it could have been a lot worse.

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