Terminator Genisys

Terminator Genisys

Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, Jason Clarke

Directed by Alan Taylor

The Story:
In 2029, the Human Resistance, led by John Connor (Jason Clarke), plans one final assault on Skynet - an AI system that deemed humanity too violent to survive.  Along with his right hand man, Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney), John and the Resistance seem to be successful, but Skynet manages to send a T-800 Terminator back in time beforehand.  In order to prevent it from killing John's mother and stopping his timeline, Kyle agrees to go to 1984 and protect the seemingly innocent Sarah Connor.

In 1984, Kyle arrives and learns that Sarah (Emilia Clarke) is anything but innocent, as she rescues him from a T-1000 with the aid of a re-programmed T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who was created by an unknown entity to protect Sarah since she was a little girl.

Together, the three of them plan a time-travel jump to 2017 to stop Skynet from being formed, and when they arrive in the future they run into John, but now he's a hybrid of human and robot, and is now protecting Skynet from being destroyed.  If they fail in their mission, then Skynet will activate, releasing a program known as Genisys, which will sync all electronics together, and bring to life the artificial intelligence.

The Synopsis:
With the "Terminator" series, it's quite difficult to fully comprehend the entire timeline of the franchise.  One needs a Master's degree in physics and time travel to fully grasp the convoluted timelines and piece them together, so in the scheme of the series as a whole, "Genisys" appears to try to re-create the passion of the first two films, but not succeeding.  As a film by itself, it wasn't that bad.

I'll be reviewing the film as an entity by itself, and not correlating it to the previous films because, as I said earlier, it'd be horribly confusing.  Personally, I found it to be better than the third and fourth installments, and even James Cameron (the original director) gave his blessing to the film.  "Genisys" is supposed to be the first of a whole new trilogy, but with its lackluster performance, it's doubtful it will come to fruition, which is a shame.

The story of "Genisys" is fairly easy to comprehend - on its own.  Future robots deem mankind unfit to survive.  Resistance forms.  Go back in time to protect the mother of the Resistance leader.  Try to stop the robots before they even begin.  Simple.  That's about as far as I'll go with the story, because to delve deeper would once again leave me with a headache.

As for the actors, they selected some top notch talent.  Hot off the heels of his performances in "Divergent" and "Insurgent," Jai Courtney fights for the good guys this time around, and even though his performance is somewhat wooden and reminiscent of a Terminator himself, he makes due with being the leading man role. 

As the fourth John Connor, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" star Jason Clarke has more to work with than his predecessors.  Not only does he get to play the Resistance leader, but now he also plays the main antagonist, being made into a half-human, half-robot Terminator himself.

Emilia Clarke, best known for her role in "Game of Thrones," makes Linda Hamilton proud as the tough-as-nails version of Sarah Connor, a woman self-assured and armed to the teeth, trained since she was nine to be a Terminator assassin.  She's the epitome of female heroism, and is a no-nonsense warrior.

The best part of "Genisys" is the welcomed return of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Sarah's guardian, the T-800.  He's not afraid to deal out some self-defecating humor ("I'm old, but not obsolete") as well as maintain his butt-kicking ability well into his sixties.  Even though he gives his Terminator a more light-hearted feel, when push comes to shove, he's not afraid to dig into the trenches and give as much as he takes.

So what was the main problem with this film?  It came with the trailer.  I loved it from the start, but then at the end came the dreaded phrase:

"Rated PG-13."

A good Terminator film cannot be rated PG-13.  It must be rated R for it to achieve its full potential as an action film, but also as a pseudo-horror film (I still remember getting freaked out by the original Terminator when I was a kid).  "Genisys" went too far to make it more light and family friendly and, although there's some good terrifying scenes, it regulated itself to the PG-13 mantra of not being good enough.

But, that's reviewing the film based from its predecessors.

Which, if you did, you'd be disappointed.

But if you voided your mind of any of the previous films, it's good.

That is, if you can do that.

Or if you never saw the original two.  If that's the case, what the heck are you doing?

The Summary:
While not as great as its predecessors, "Terminator Genisys" is heightened by the return of the series' main star, and even though he's a little older, he still knows how to kick some serious butt.

The Score: A- (by itself), C+ (as judged by its predecessors)