Terminator fans will see Genisys (and should stay past the closing credits) but will likely hope T6 (Exxodys?) returns to distinctive storytelling. The three-plus decades of “Terminator” have spread across the relentless march of technology and the Internet, but the movies are curiously stuck between their pre-digital 1980s origins and a dystopian vision of machines’ rule over the planet.
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As for Arnold Schwarzenegger, well, he was the Terminator – and he warned us from the start that he’d be back. He’s the android version of earlier, cast-aside operating systems: a Game Boy with a gun.
“I’m old, not obsolete”, he deadpans in that distinctive Teutonic growl.
And that, surprisingly, is the case.
It doesn’t matter how many Terminator movies you’ve seen, as this one makes zero sense in every available context. “One thing we know – the future is not set”. For fans, the nostalgia factor cuts both ways, and “Genisys” is the least coherent film of the five, but takes storylines directly from the previous films and wisely utilizes the franchise’s best feature – Ah-nold himself – in all the right ways to make the film entertaining if not entirely satisfying. Screenwriters Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier begin in 2029, long after Skynet robots destroyed most of humanity in Judgment Day. One day, as a child, he was cornered by a Terminator, only to be saved by John Conner (Jason Clarke).
Leading humankind’s war against the self-aware computer network Skynet, John Connor (Jason Clarke) sends his lieutenant Kyle Reese (Courtney) back in time to save the life of his mother, Sarah (Emilia Clarke) – who, in a twist on the original mythology, was raised from childhood by a T-800 cyborg (Schwarzenegger) programmed to protect her. Again they have to dodge an evil liquid metal Terminator disguised as a police officer.
The weak plot is not helped by its reliance on Jai Courtney as the film’s male protagonist, Kyle. Whilst Taylor performs much more admirably than either of his two predecessors this is still not even close to matching the near-perfection of the first two instalments in the franchise. Oh, no – that means there’ll be another one. The dizzying setup of “Genisys” demands less explanation rather than more.
Whilst the inaugural stages of Genisys are up there with the best this franchise has to offer it regrettably proves to be a sprint that can’t be sustained as the middle and final acts become somewhat tiresome in comparison.
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Sony has released a free Terminator Genisys theme for Playstation 4 on its European Playstation Store.
