After the less than stellar performances of the last two
films in this series (critically panned and financially underperformed), it
seem like this once beloved Sci-Fi Action Thriller was six feet under. Until, it was dug up again with the return of
Arnold Schwarzenegger on the big screen with another attempt to reboot The
Terminator series from its slumber. It
has finally returned after 2-3 years of teasing and advertising of this project
with Schwarzenegger returning as the T-800, the cybernetic robot we all love as
the good guy teaming up with Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese this time to save the
world from Skynet in Terminator: Genisys
(Really? Clever…) directed by Alan Taylor (Game
of Thrones, Thor: The Dark World) as well as notable actors from other
films and TV shows such as Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, and Jason Clarke in the
lead roles. Now that this film is a
reality, the main question is if it can be a fun, worthy follow-up to the
classic films of the past or serve as a dull, painfully dumb re-thread of the
previous films before in an attempt to reboot akin to Star Trek from J.J Abrahms?
Let’s dive into it and really start with the most crucial component of
any film.
We start with the story or stories being told in this entry
of the series with the end of the Future War within sight as John Connor and
Kyle Reese are about to deliver the final blow to Skynet with the central core
destroyed and Skynet sending a T-800 back into the past as a last ditch effort
to prevent the birth of John Connor by killing Sarah Connor in the year
1984. This seems like a modified
rethread of familiar story arcs from the very first film with John sending Kyle
back to protect Sarah from the Terminator but not without something going wrong
both in the past and future. Even though
Kyle makes it back to 1984, it seems like somebody had sent a few Terminators
all over the timeline and has radically change the lives and fate of everyone
in the series now. This time, Sarah
Connor has been protected and trained to be a soldier ready for the future war
by a modified T-800 known as Pop and programmed as her bodyguard. This commences an adventure that has our
intrepid heroes jumping from place to place to stop Skynet from being born into
all of our technology in the year 2017 before it could cause Judgment Day with
old familiar clichés and troupes as well as new threats coming along for the
ride.
If that sounds like moronic nonsense, you are not the only
one to feel that way after leaving the theater from watching this monstrous
creation of a film. It juggles with so
many plot threads and explanations as to why this conflict exists that it comes
across as contrived and hollow throughout the entire time this story continues
to roll forward, causing a mess of twists and generic action/dramatic beats
that make very little sense overall. It
doesn’t help that all of the characters lack any real sense of change or
personality to them which is a fault of the direction and script literally
having no sense of creative meaning to it.
This is about as confusing as it gets with time travel films along with
toss away characters that come and go when the plot needs them to be there
(wondering what the hell was the point of J.K. Simmons and Matthew Smith in
this film). There is really no sense of
pacing or rhyme to the 2 hour runtime of this film making it feel like a slog
to get through, systemic of a very messy, mediocre screenplay. It is very much
a rethread of the same plot beats and conflicts we have seen in about 4 of
these films with very little to no interesting elements to contribute to this
story making it feel like fan-fiction that happened to have hundreds of
millions of dollars to make it into a reality.
This is only the start of the problems this film exhibits throughout the
production.
There is also the matter of the acting talents behind this
film featuring quite a few notable names that are undertaking the roles we have
come to know as fans of this series would.
The standout is ironically and shockingly Arnold Schwarzenegger as Pop
the T-800 guard for Sarah Connor who exhibits a ton of great humorous moments
and brims with such weathered humanity that he really provides an anchor for
the dramatic moments while everyone else struggles with the sloppy script and
half-hearted direction/acting efforts put into their roles. While Arnie really shines in this film as an
actor and action hero, the same cannot be said for the main leads of Jai Courtney
and Emilia Clarke as Kyle Reese and Sarah Connor respectively. They seem to be very bland in their roles as
well as having zero chemistry between each other that it comes across like
cosplayers trying to act like the characters from the 80’s film and doing an unconvincing
job of it. While that is not the case
for Jason Clarke as John Connor, he chews up the scenery as the film progresses
making for a very unthreatening, cookie-cutter performance that fails to give
the film that tense momentum that made the first two films exhilarating to
watch. As for everyone else, they are either
stereotypical to the max or just eye candy filler to give us an action sequence
to wake up the viewer from a comatose state of boredom this film projects from
the script and direction, giving the actors little to work with to make it
fun. This lame, awkward attempt to be
hip and cool for today’s audiences with its cast and setting to revolve around
our technology within present day is also evident in the action sequences.
The action set pieces are examples of the shoddy pacing and lack
of tension/excitement that is evident throughout the whole film. They are ambitious in scope and scale but
they are also poorly imitating the superhero action styles of Thor way too much
that it is hard to really feel any sense of danger to the action. Plus, it doesn’t help that the CGI really
feels too weightless for the machines making it ridiculous that these heroes
could survive hand to hand combat with these human killer robots. Think of it this way, this film is trying to
be a Marvel film with the corny jokes and one liner humor as well as the larger
than life action set pieces that you would expect from that genre of films
along with a forced, will they or won’t they romance that aims to infuriate you
entirely but for the wrong reasons. That
wasn’t what made the Terminator films great and exciting in the first place
since they were about the human drama that comes from having to fight against a
weapon that aims to change our fate and the dramatic consequences that comes
from that conflict. This film really
feels manufactured for the Superhero fans rather than fans of Sci-fi or the
series creating a disconnecting, insulting feeling of pandering that this film
exhibits throughout its runtime in the delivery of the plot points and
character development. It seems like
there are very little redeeming qualities to this film but maybe in the technical
side of this film, it might have a few spots of inspired creation.
We are now in the home stretch with the technical aspects of
the film on display now through the artistic look to the editing and of course,
the special effects since the score from Lorne Balfe is just generic, Han
Zimmer knock off work and not really worth discussing it in details. The look of the film is a pretty inspired
upgrade (future war) to just typical over design of the settings that missed
the point of the original film’s atmosphere to having no sense of character to
the setting (2017 world). I will say
that the future war looked cool and a pleasantly intrigue upgrade that was
artistically interesting instead of the drab, grimy world that Salvation failed to establish in its
film. However, the look of 1984 from recreating
the shots from the original film to fit with their new plot to aesthetics from
costumes, lighting, and place are all wrong since it seems cleaner, sleek
looking and less scuzzy, grimy looking which the original film had, giving that
world such a distinguished look for that time period and atmosphere to the story. It doesn’t get any better with the way the
film is edited in its entirety.
The editing of the film is really disjointed and absolutely
has no sense of rhythm or connection within scenes. There is a clear indication that a character
is cut out almost entirely and shows up out of nowhere to be the main,
supposedly over-arching villain for this trilogy (I hope not) with no
indication of building up to that plot point.
That is just one main example of the editing failing to really allow the
viewers to connect the narrative beats clearly but it also spills into the
action set pieces as well. They feel
overly long, stretched out, and ludicrously destructive to a comical effect that
it is hard to fathom how they could commit the same cardinal mistakes as the
last two films in the handling of the action sequences. So the technical qualities are lacking as
well leaving us with the special effects and how they hold up.
Well, the special effects are not as lopsidedly negative as the other
elements of this film but it is clearly a mixed bag with some effects working
in the practical action beats and the CGI driven ones really look fake,
plastic, and ridiculous in contrast to the previous efforts. There are some cool-looking effects in the
action beats that might get the eyebrows raised but not enough to make the
gunplay, fisticuffs, and villains look exciting or dangerous seeing as how they
spend a majority of the film getting beaten over and over again. The effects are typical clean, sleek look
akin to Star Trek in the views of the
future today as in being overused to handle the action and effects driven look
to the machines making it feel fake and phony to watch. While it was stated that there are times that
the effects do help make the action set pieces tolerable in its insanity, it
does not hide the deficiency within the acting talents, script, and direction
that bring this film down into the abyss of mediocrity.
This whole film really reeks of studio mandate that was also
evident in Jurassic World but at
least that film did deliver on what it set out to do as well as being
restrained and clever with its nostalgia fan service call backs while this film
is more of the same with a different coat of paint. The main issue with Terminator: Genisys is the purpose for even existing in the first
place and the simple reason is name recognition with actor but the series in
general. This was the film series that
gave a darker edge to Sci-Fi during the 80’s (Alien started that trend in the 70’s) and to see the film get a
cleaner, superhero makeover is just disheartening and completely misses the
point of the first two films. In fact,
this film really negates and tarnishes the first two films with its disjointed
yet damaging continuity in the plot, horribly bland acting and generic
character stereotypes that serve no purpose in the film, and action scenes that
fail to really capture the raw, intense danger that those films provided at the
time. Terminator: Genisys is a black spot on this beloved series that
will do more harm than good for it as well as providing a nonsensical, moronic
reason for this story to even exist in the first place. It is a re-tread that should have stayed in
the past where it belongs now.
This entry in the series causes more WTF moments than it
deserves with its inane plot, bland and generic characters, and anemic action
scenes that lack any sense of tension or excitement instilling a superhero
style to the whole film that really does not suit this series at all. It comes across like really wishful, bad fan
fiction that somehow got traction to be made for around $180 million dollars
and makes one wonder, if anyone even bother reading a script. This is one entry you should blank out of your
mind and ignore the insipid yet inevitable 2 sequels that could be coming
around the corner…soon.
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