Terminator Genisys Movie Review

Just over thirty years ago, the Terminator franchise made its debut with an incredibly thoughtful and emotive addition to the science-fiction genre. In the years following it and its sequel in 1991 the high bar the series once held has gradually lowered in the eyes of both critics and audiences. Six years on from the last Terminator film and what do we have? Well let’s just say that Terminator Genisys is little more than the lowest point the series has ever reached.

Terminator Genisys begins in the year 2029 in the closing days of the war against Skynet; the machines have just sent a Terminator back in time, setting in motion the events of the first film. The leader of the human resistance, John Connor (Jason Clarke) chooses to send back fellow comrade Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) to protect his mother Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke). But when Kyle arrives in 1984, he finds the mission has changed; Sarah has changed from a simple waitress into a full blown soldier flanked by a second T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) nicknamed “Pops”. From here it’s a mad dash across multiple locations and time as our heroes attempt to thwart Skynet’s plan, which centres on the Genisys software platform. The plot of Terminator Genisys is all over the place and not in a good way; one minute it’s shoving loud and obnoxious action at the audience with no rhyme or reason and the next it is borrowing or even outright repeating sequences from previous films. It’s quite astounding how unoriginal the film can be; whilst Terminator 3’s plot was a direct rehash of T2, Genisys goes a step beyond. None of the action sequences or character chemistry it presents comes close to matching any of the previous films in the franchise. Gone are the thought-provoking themes that defined the first two films and gone is the dark and gloomy tone of the future setting; in its place is a terribly conceived light-hearted tone which utterly fails to match what the franchise is supposed to be about. Ultimately the biggest sin committed by Terminator Genisys is that it doesn’t feel like a Terminator film at all. If you removed Arnold, the terminator endoskeletons and the countless quotes and moments ripped from the previous films, the film would be quite unrecognisable as a part of one of the most ground-breaking science fiction franchises in the history of cinema.

With the exception of a returning favourite, a vast majority of the cast members in Terminator Genisys are brand new and unfortunately the material they’re given is pretty lacklustre. Emilia Clarke and Jason Clarke (No relation) are both great actors who have shown off their talents brilliantly in the likes of Game of Thrones and Zero Dark Thirty, but here they’re put to waste with basic and generic dialogue that doesn’t give them any kind of opportunity to develop the characters. It’s all forced drama which doesn’t receive any kind of payoff. Jai Courtney turned in a pretty poor performance in A Good Day to Die Hard two years ago and honestly he’s not much better here. As an actor, he just can’t manage to convey the kind of emotion you’d expect from these kinds of film franchises. In fact, that’s something that can be said about most of the characters of Terminator Genisys; a vast majority of them have been degenerated into soulless shells of what they were before. The reason why the action sequences in previous films (especially the first two) were so memorable and tense was because we cared for the characters and wanted them to survive. Here, it’s all going through the motions; the characters aren’t developed in the slightest, so why should we care about their fates? At least it’s nice to see Arnold Schwarzenegger back reprising his role as the T-800, albeit a different kind of machine re-programmed through unknown means to protect Sarah Connor from an early age. Arnold most definitely overcomes his age, delivering both comedic relief and a solid physical performance that’s on par with previous films. It’s a shame that his performance isn’t nearly enough to carry the film.

For a modern science fiction film, Terminator Genisys does have a few things to be proud of when it comes to its presentation. The eye-popping explosions and the brief but relevant modern update to the future setting do keep in line with the franchise where other aspects don’t. The action sequences, despite lacking impact are generally well-shot and choreographed, giving us a relatively clear view. Yet despite the undeniably dazzling scenery and technical effects, there are still some sore points in the presentation; the brief appearances of the T-1000 and T-800 from the original films suffer from some poor computer effects that veer far from the realism and believability of their predecessors. The Terminator theme is gone for the most part and instead we have some generic action music that muddles up the tone of the series even further. Terminator Genisys has its high points with the way it was shot and put together, but it can’t hope to make a proper impact when there are so many other films of its kind which do a better job of presenting a future world.

Terminator Genisys is a muddled, overblown and convoluted mess of a movie; it endlessly undermines and spits in the face of the franchise, replacing what was profound and deep with generic, derivative action-movie fare. Aside from a decent returning performance from Arnold and a couple of flashy effects, the film really doesn’t have any business being part of the Terminator franchise and ended up making me wish that I was watching the originals instead. I have a sinking suspicion that it will all go downhill from here, given the film’s rather blatant “sequel-bait” ending.

Rating: 1.5/5 Stars