The Terminator franchise gets rebooted in Terminator Genisys, the fifth film in the Terminator franchise, and the first since the 2009 Arnold-less disappointment Terminator Salvation. When this film was announced the initial reaction from most people was that of indifference; after all, why would anyone in their right mind be interested in another Terminator film? Especially after the poor reception of Salvation and Rise of the Machines failing to meet up to the standards set by the seminal Judgement Day, you’d be forgiven that thinking that the Terminators had been turned into scrap. After Terminator Genisys, you’ll wish they had been. In the same vein as Back to the Future II, Genisys introduces an alternate timeline in which the machines sent a Terminator back to kill a young Sarah Connor, resulting in a different version of the events we saw in the first film. However, instead of doing anything interesting with it, the film resolves to fill up the audience with painfully performed exposition and tightly shot action scenes until it can ditch the 80’s setting and jump into the bland future of 2017.
This proves to be a continuous problem with Terminator Genisys; it has no idea what’s happening, and neither does the audience. Written by Laeta Kalogirdis (Shutter Island) and Patrick Lussier (Dracula 2000), the script feels incredibly bloated and overly verbose that it’s amazing that the movie is only two hours long. Most of the time there isn’t explosions or car chases Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) and Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones fame) are sharing awkwardly stiff dialogue that mainly consists of either one of them bitching about the situation they’re currently stuck in or having romantic moments in which the chemistry is so nonexistent I’m surprised they didn’t edit the movie to make the T-800 the love interest. The film’s other leads don’t fare much better, with John Connor (Jason Clarke) being reduced to nothing but a poor plot twist (which they reveal in the trailer). The only ones worth paying attention to are Schwarzenegger, who reprises his role as the T-800 and again plays a very convincing Terminator, and J.K Simmons (Whiplash), who plays a police officer who witnesses the time traveling escapades and killer future robots only to be dismissed as being crazy.
Terminator Genisys continues to be in poor form in the action department. Most of the action sequences are lifted from the previous Terminator films, especially when the liquid metal T-1000 shows up to make a brief appearance, but lack any of the weight they had in the originals. The action is shot in tight close ups with a shaky camera and enough quick cuts to make the audience get motion sickness and throw up. Any importance the movie puts on the action sequences is lost because it’s damn near impossible to tell what’s actually going on half the time, and the film’s PG rating ensures a complete lack of blood and causality. The effects are watchable most of the time, but the T-1000 looks nowhere as good as it’s T2: Judgement Day counterpart, and whilst the young Arnold scenes early in the film look convincing enough to begin with, the final battle is such a perfect storm of bad cinematography and bad effects that it ruins any chance of the effects being memorable.
The entire idea of the movie seems faulted from the beginning and although the characters spout waves of exposition every chance they get the story never really hits it’s stride and doesn’t get beyond it’s initial confusion. Even fans well versed in the Terminator series will be confused about the seemingly incomplete story, and as the plot problems keep mounting up, no amount of explosions and cheesy one liners can cover up for Terminator Genisys‘s stark lack of cohesion.
Verdict: Easily one of the worst big budget action films in recent memory, Terminator Genisys is a thoroughly unenjoyable mess, and will make you wish you could go back in time to stop yourself from seeing it. If you’re dead set on seeing the movie, wait for it to be released on VOD.
2/10