Terminator Genisys

Terminator Genisys has had a hard time the past couple of months, though much of that is due to the horrendous marketing team behind it.

It all started with some corny, awkward photos for Entertainment Weekly (last year I believe) that left fans feeling very "meh" about the film's announcement, especially during a year with so many other films coming out.

Then we got to see the first trailer, which I swear to God was attached to every f**king movie under the sun in the last several months. Comedies, animated films, indies, horror, action...I feel like I've seen that initial trailer at least 30+ times. Sucks too because the trailer is a total bore. It creates the sensation that Genisys will be forgettable and average.

Paramount, clearly panicking after the barely-luke-warm reception for their film decided to lay all their cards out on the table to at least try and get butts in seats (which seemed to not work out that well for them given the last weekend's box office). Their second trailer divulged nearly the entire story, including a MAJOR spoiler about one of the film's character. It's a shame too because it's such a game changing spoiler, not only for the film but for the universe alone, that it would have certainly assisted in making a mediocre film just a little better.

Finally, we have a few days before release day and critic reviews start trickling in saying that Genisys (which I've misspelled five times now by the way) is the worst terminator film yet. As someone who isn't highly familiar with the franchise, that didn't mean much to me. I've seen the first on TV, recently Retro Reviewed the second (fantastic by the way -- find the review HERE), never seen the third but heard both good and bad about it, and I didn't hate Salvation like most. But I did take a GREAT issue with that film and unfortunately, Genisys (six times now dammit!) shares the same exact fault: neither of them moves this world forward at all. Salvation hardly added anything to the larger world building of the series, and by the time the credits rolled, Point A, the beginning, was virtually the same as Point B, the end. Genisys basically just says "Screw it!" and throws much of what happened in previous films out the door. Which is really awkward because it relies so heavily on the nostalgia of the series, not unlike Jurassic World, that changing the timeline as drastically as it does, one begs the question: why does this film even exist?

Where are your dragons to save you now? Hmmmm?

Give this man an Oscar!!

And that leads to another point. Time travel is extremely tricky to pull off. It's easy to write a bunch of logic holes, and not abide by any set of rules, and easily trap yourself within your own timeline. Genisys thinks that it's smarter than it really is and enjoys showing off its time travel vocabulary, unnecessarily convoluting one of the greater time-travel plots in cinematic history from the first few films. It's really a shame too because there is some light in the initial 1984 sequence that, hey, maybe they are on to something here? But once there is a rushed explanation about why they must travel to 2017 to prevent Skynet from existing (notice that it completely skips the 1997 Judgment Day?) it's clear that this film adds no real value to the series as a whole, which is truly nothing but tragic, especially given that Salvation didn't add any value either.

The film itself, outside of its worthiness for existing, is decent, but ultimately forgettable. The cinematic world is much different than it was in Cameron's Terminator days, so some of the things that impressed back then, are much less impressive these days. That being said, the 1984 sequence is still the best "portion" of the film, even if it does play out like a lazy retread of the first two films. Overall, the action is fairly boring, with the highlight being a bus chase on the Golden Gate Bridge (also spoiled in the trailers) and it sums up to :Good Guy Terminator punches Bad Guy Terminator while Good Guy Humans shoot Bad Guy Terminator and much destruction ensues. With all this action comes a lot of special effects, some of which look great (the various Terminator effects) and some look downright horrid (helicopter chase). It's a good example of trying to do "too much" when a more subtle approach would have served better.

Forgettable Jai Courtney is forgettable. What happened to those stellar Spartacus days?!

Metal Voldemort = nightmares.

The cast is serviceable, though, much like the film, forgettable. Schwarzenegger walks away the most unscathed as his character is still the best and he has some funny moments. Jai Courtney is basically a placeholder, maybe because they couldn't get a bigger name on board, and once again, he's forgettable. Emilia Clarke does fine, but she looks super young throughout, almost like she is playing Sarah Connor dress-up. Jason Clarke, who's been strong in many other films, shares the same fate as Courtney here and feels a bit like a placeholder. The script isn't anything special, and it tries (but mostly fails) to have a few running gags here and there.

Terminator Genisys is not a horrible film on the surface. It's typical action fare with a kinda-sorta interesting story, some cool special effects throughout, and by the time you're back home, you've forgotten almost all there is to remember. What hurts it the most though, and what I would argue pushes it toward that "horrible" category, is the franchise that it's linked to. The Terminator name used to hold clout, meaning, and respect -- at least for 2-3 films. But now it's a franchise that shall forever be scarred by this most recent sequel, and Salvation somewhat. IF there is another film, Paramount needs to take their s**t seriously and stop throwing nostalgia, pretty faces, and violence at the screen. They need to start with an extremely worthwhile, world-building story, and go from there.

This universe is too rich with potential to let it melt away in a messy heap like this.

CONS:

• It's biggest fault is what it does to the other films and the franchise as a whole. It attempts to rewrite everything using flawed time-travel logic
• Relies on nostalgia far too much
• Derivative action and violence
• Some truly bad CGI
• Mostly forgettable cast and script
• Boring first trailer that played in front of every film known to man, and a spoiler-filled second trailer really hurt the film
• Forgettable overall

PROS:

• Arnold is the film's strength and he has the film's best action and comedic beats
• Some of the CGI is fantastic
• The twist (had it not been spoiled) is pretty crazy
• A few good action scenes throughout

Rath's Review Score: 4.5/10