James Cameron’s Terminator is a action classic. It was a simple fun action film, with allot of great special effects. It’s sequel was pretty popular, some would even say it was the best of the series. After the third film, Christian Bale starred in the disappointing Terminator Salvation. Finally, after many years, Arnold makes his comeback. Is it as good as we hoped? No. “Terminator Genisys” is directed by Alan Taylor, and the cast includes Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, J.K. Simmons, and Matt Smith.
In the wake of Skynet, a rebellion of humans have risen up to take down the machines. John Connor (Jason Clarke) is the leader of this resistance. At his side is Kyle Reese (Courtney), a resistance fighter. During a ferocious battle against the terminators, a new terminator is released by Skynet. This terminator is sent into the past to kill Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke), just like the original film. John Connor has fallen in love, so to speak, with Sarah, despite the fact that he has never met her. He volunteers to go after the terminator and destroy it, before it kills Sarah. As the terminator confronts a couple of street bums, Pops (Schwarzenegger) attacks from behind, killing his past/future self. When Reese arrives on the scene, Sarah is already trained and battle ready. Their new objective is too destroy Skynet and stop the war before it happens.
This is one of those films that could go either of two ways. First, it’s really decent, and captures the nostalgia of the original. Second, it relies too much on bad CGI, a horrible plot, and stupid over-the-top artificial intelligence silliness. Thankfully, the film lands somewhere in the middle, while leaning more towards the latter. It should be said straight away that the performances are honestly okay. Many of you know Emilia Clarke from her role as Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones. She’s a great female actress, and she’s pretty bearable in this film. Her performance isn’t all that bad, and she’s proven that she can do action fairly well. And of course she’s as attractive as hell. Moving on we have Jai Courtney. I first saw him in the horribly atrocious, A Good Day To Die Hard, the fifth Die Hard film. He was pretty horrible in that movie, but I was surprised at his moderately decent performance in I, Frankenstein. He made another appearance in Russel Crowe’s directorial debut, The Water Diviner, in which Courtney gave a terrific performance, despite the minority of his role. Last but not least, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Possibly the best part of the film was his performance. Amidst the bad dialogue and horrid plot, Arnie stood out as the comedic relief. He was brilliant.
As previously stated, this film could either be really decent, or really horrible. Unfortunately, the film isn’t all that great. Honestly, it was really disappointing, on both an intellectual level and writing level. The first film wasn’t smart by any means. It was however, simple, action packed, and fun. As many horrid science fiction films these days do, Terminator Genisys goes into rolling your eyes territory. The film starts out rather promising. It was interesting seeing the famous John Connor–played by Jason Clarke–in the flesh giving rousing,yet cliche speeches to the resistance. The film starts out where the original did, and suddenly an older Arnie comes out of nowhere and fights his past/future self. That being said, the first twenty minutes are pretty decent. Flawed, but decent nevertheless. Then an impossibly stupid plot ensues that just doesn’t work at all. This may be one of the most convoluted, messy films I’ve seen in some time. Nothing makes sense, nothing whatsoever. Essentially, everybody goes into the past to change the future, and then they go further in the future to stop the future…it’s just ridiculous.
The concept of artificial intelligence is interesting to me. Stephen Hawking and many like him, are afraid of AI and it’s possible negative impacts on human life. Such a topic doesn’t have a place in this kind of film however. The plot needs to be simpler, not more complicated, The film tires too hard to be smart, and instead comes off as really stupid. Not long ago, I saw a brilliant film called, Ex Machina. It was an utter masterpiece, and made one think about AI. It’s one of the most brilliant AI films out there. This film goes into Transcendence territory. It’s the annoying internet takes over the world plot, where everyone gets some app and the government uses AI to take over because they know how hooked people are on their cell phones and laptops. I’m not saying this isn’t possible, it just comes off as incredibly cheesy and annoying. Also, there is a robot in this film that is made of liquid. I wish action films wouldn’t insult our IQ like this. It requires one to suspend your beliefs way to much.
Previous Terminator films have had many memorable action sequences. This film is expected to at least provide good action. Unfortunately, allot of the action is very bloated and uninteresting. I hate to use the term, “mindless”, but it really was the kind of action film where you have to turn off your brain and shove your face full of popcorn. Some of the action was bearable, but overall it was a bit dull. I will say Emilia Clarke was a complete badass, as was Arnold. His action scenes were pretty solid.
“Terminator Genisys” is the fourth installment in an iconic franchise that unfortunately doesn’t live up to the originals. The highest compliment I can give is that Arnold Schwarzenegger’s performance is fantastic. He was the most entertaining aspect of the entire film. Surprisingly, there was allot of clever humor throughout the film that alleviated it somewhat from its messiness. It is a convoluted, poorly written, and stupid film, but at least Schwarzenegger made a great comeback.
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