Post-Viewing: Is Terminator Genisys the latest film to fall victim to modern pandering in cinema?

Terminator Genisys has been out in cinemas for just over a week now and if you saw my recent review, you’ll know that I really didn’t like it. Despite the low reception and the disregard Genisys shows towards the franchise, many audiences enjoyed it quite a lot; some are even going as far to say that it’s the best film in the series. I can’t help but feel disappointed; it feels as if audiences have forgotten what the Terminator franchise was all about in the first place and have become content with mindless action that blends in with the crowd.

What are the things you remember about the Terminator series? The detailed characters and the journeys they went on, or the thoughtful themes and interesting tech-noir style? What about the utterly bleak and grim future world that we only see in brief glimpses throughout most of the series? Terminator Genisys has none of these things, and that’s why I can’t consider it a true film in the franchise. The biggest negative for me in this regard came with the future war scene at the start of the movie; there is absolutely no indication that the human resistance is fighting for its very survival and it felt more like a generic futuristic battle with little at stake. Have a look at the video above, see the raw emotion portrayed alongside the bleak atmosphere, then compare it with the opening scene in Terminator Genisys and you'll see what I mean.

This betrayal of a franchise’s roots has happened before; two years ago I went to see A Good Day to Die Hard and was quite flabbergasted at how poor the film was. Terminator Genisys suffers from similar issues; the characters are vastly lacking in the emotion and personality they used to have, the action doesn’t have much impact or tension and the cinematography and effects have taken steps backwards from what the quality they had before.

There’s no denying that Terminator 3 and Salvation could never live up to the first two films; but they still had their own redeeming factors which kept them from sinking into awful territory. Terminator 3 may have been very unoriginal with its plot, but the action can definitely stand alongside the first two films. From the intense chase between John, the T-800 and the TX, to the brutal brawl inside Cyberdyne headquarters, T3 was an immensely enjoyable thrill ride and to top it off, the ending was surprisingly emotive and poignant. 

Terminator Salvation, though not quite as impactful in its story components was still a relatively enjoyable film. The effects in the film were very impressive, opting for both practical effects and some genuinely convincing computer effects on the T-800 in the film’s final moments.

The popularity of Terminator Genisys among the common audience does say quite a bit about modern trends in Hollywood. More and more studios are choosing to avoid staying true to franchises and are instead going for what will be the most popular film, or worse, slapping a name on a half-assed product to bring in the profits. In the case of Terminator Genisys, very little thought was paid to the plot, a bunch of computer generated effects were thrown in along with a basic sub-text about our use of technology and that was it. It seems as if audiences have become more accepting of second-best and more accepting of films that are pale imitations of the franchises they claim to be a part of. If Terminator Genisys is touting itself as being part of an immensely successful and influential franchise, surely we should expect franchises to keep and maintain the qualities and components that made them so memorable before?

I’m probably going to get a lot of flak for this, but I would have taken a sequel to Terminator Salvation any day over Genisys. With a movie like that, we could have seen some gaps in the lore filled in, instead of them being reworked into the mess that the new movie is. Imagine seeing the series come full circle, seeing how the human resistance triumphed and how the T-800 was re-programmed to protect John in the second film. It’s such a shame that the franchise had to go in this direction, dropping any notion of what made the series work in the first place in favour of action and drama with minimal impact and thoughtfulness. There was a time when the Terminator franchise was one of the best in cinema history, but sadly those days are long gone and I’m not feeling too excited for the future of the series.