The year was 1981. A young film maker
by the name of James Cameron had just released his directorial debut
film, “Piranha II: The Spawning,” and it was a critical and
commercial failure. Nobody thought that a director like him would be
able to get another job in Hollywood ever again. Then all of a
sudden, in 1984, during the month of October, every single one of
those people who doubted him, were eating their words after the
release of “The Terminator.”
The film told the story of the
futuristic war on Skynet, in a time when the machines reigned
supreme, and the human race was fighting back as much as they could.
Skynet's best option to take out the rebellion's leader, John Connor,
is to send a terminator, namely a T-800 model, to go back in time and
assassinate John's mother, Sarah Connor, before the war begins. In
response, John sends his second in command, Kyle Reese, back to the
past to find Sarah, and stop the T-800.
“The Terminator” not only paved
its way to becoming one of the best science fiction films ever made,
but one of the greatest films of all time. It pulled Cameron out of
the ashes of his already doomed career, showing us his true
capabilities, and also brought Arnold Schwarzenegger into more of the
mainstream eyes after “Conan the Barbarian.” The film managed to
combine action, sci-fi, and horror, into one neat little package that
very few films could have done at the time.
It's sequel, “Terminator 2: Judgment
Day” released in 1991, features another terminator, sent back in
time to hunt John Connor down, while his mother is in custody. The
new terminator, the T-1000, is a liquid metal robot unlike any other,
and in response, a reprogrammed T-800 is sent back to help John and
Sarah, giving them further help to become the warriors that are known
in the past and future.
“Terminator 2,” along with
Cameron's previous film “Aliens,” are both regarded by many as
two of the best sequels ever made. And why shouldn't they? They took
their previous counterpart, and made them into the very best intense
action films of their respected decade, that featured very powerful
female action leads, and iconic creatures that were equally as
powerful. While the first “Terminator” may be my favorite, I do
agree with everyone that “T2” is the best of the series. It was a
fantastic film on several thousand levels.
Then came “Terminator 3: Rise of the
Machines”...and boy, was this a misfire. After getting around the
fact that James Cameron wasn't attached, this film doesn't try
anything new, and just comes off as a rip-off of the last film. John
Connor is chased down by a terminator in the past, and a T-800 is
sent back to help protect him. The difference? The new terminator,
the TX, is a lady terminator, played by the actress who played
Bloodrayne, and Sarah Connor wasn't featured in the film. Linda
Hamilton actually explained in an interview, that she turned down
this movie, because they would kill her off halfway through, without
mourning her death, making the character disposable. After that, I'm
glad that she didn't come back for this film. Despite it being a
success at the box office, and a mass majority of critics liking it,
it didn't stick well with me.
Six years later, we got “Terminator
Salvation,” directed by McG. This was one that people absolutely
hated, calling it a disgrace to the franchise, and not a true
“Terminator” film. Personally, I thought the film was pretty
good. I mean, it's no masterpiece, but it was definitely better than
“Terminator 3.” Instead of getting another film that involves
traveling back in time to save the Connors, we got something we
haven't gotten yet: a film in the series that entirely takes place
during the Skynet war. Yeah, for a film that shows us the war several
times in the beginning, we finally have a film dedicated to the
battles of said war. I also thought that Anton Yelchin did a very
good job at playing a younger Kyle Reese, not letting an ounce of
intensity slip out of the character. Michael Biehn would be proud, if
you ask me. Hell, I even liked Christian Bale as John Connor, despite
the taped rants that were shown later on. Sam Worthington as Marcus
Wright, I thought did a pretty good job as well, playing a terminator that helps out the rebellion. My only gripe is that I
wished the trailers didn't give that away so quickly, because that
just shows you how bad marketing campaigns are getting these days.
But overall, “Terminator Salvation” was a good time, being my
third favorite of the series.
Plans for a fifth film have been
buzzing around years, especially when Arnold announced his
return to acting after his term as Governor of California ended. And
after appearing in “The Expendables Trilogy,” “The Last Stand,”
“Escape Plan,” and “Sabotage,” the chances were higher and it
seemed it was going to be a reality...however, something being a
reality doesn't always turn out for the better.
This time around, we go right back to
the time travel, all the way back to when Kyle Reese is sent back to
1984 to save Sarah Connor. However, once Kyle is there, things are
drastically different, as he encounters a T-1000, only to be
saved later by Sarah and a T-800, who has been her guardian since she was
9. Hoping to finally put an end to Judgment Day and the war
completely, they must then travel to 2017, when a program called
Genisys becomes the Skynet they know in the future, only one of their
obstacles now is John Connor as a new kind of terminator, the T-3000.
The best way to describe this film is
that it's the “Star Trek (2009)” of the “Terminator”
series...but done poorly. It's trying to be a reboot, but at the same
time be a continuation of the series. But where as “Star Trek
(2009)” managed to handle the time travel/alternate reality aspect
in a much better light, this one does the exact opposite. There are
constant moments that bring up moments that happened in the first
film, that it really gets distracting and doesn't make sense, since
this takes place in an alternate time-line. If this is an alternate
universe, and the events that happened to Sarah Connor in the first
film are obsolete, why does she even keep bringing them up? I mean,
yeah she had the T-800 to fill her in on events when it was sent back
to save her, but who sent the T-800 to begin with? We assume it was
John Connor, but the film doesn't make light of that at all. Trust
me, there are several other problems that don't make sense in this
film, so let's move on.
While the action scenes themselves are
fine, the special effects don't impress me that much. They don't look
any better than “T2,” which is really pathetic if you ask me.
We've been advancing the shit out of technology in film for several
decades now, making a big jump with CGI thanks to “T2” and
“Jurassic Park,” and yet there are still mainstream blockbusters
that don't look any better than that of those from the 90's. The
worst effects in the film by far, are with John Connor's regeneration
abilities as the T-3000. Seriously, I have seen PlayStation 1 games
with better graphics than that!
The casting is incredibly hit and miss
here. I mean, Arnold is fine as always as the T-800, so that doesn't
bother me, and I was okay with how they explained his aging look in
the film. Emilia Clarke did a fine job, playing a young Sarah Connor,
even if it was a Linda Hamilton impression. I did find it odd how she
did look younger than Linda from the first film, but since it's an
alternate timeline, I could let that go. Jason Clarke as John Connor
did as good a job as he could, but the way his character was directed
wasn't really that appealing. The idea of John being the villain was
bold, but the way it was done didn't seem to work.
Then we get to Jai Courtney as Kyle
Reese...*sigh*...look, I mean no disrespect to Jai Courtney, I'm sure
he's a nice guy in real life, but I just don't think he's a good
actor, let alone a good choice to play Kyle Reese. This is the 6th
film in a row that I've seen him in where his performance is just
shit. His acting style is so wooden, that it really makes it hard to
feel any emotion for the character he's portraying. As John McClane's
son in “A Good Day to Die Hard,” he was awful. In “I,
Frankenstein,” he was awful. In “Unbroken,” he sucked. In both
“Divergent” films, he sucked. And now in “Terminator Genisys,”
he was a poorly done Kyle Reese. I mean, I will admit he was better
in this, than the others, but that's not much of a compliment. To
this day, the only film I've liked him in was “Jack Reacher,” but
that's only because his character was SUPPOSED to be an emotionless
assassin. I wouldn't mind it if he played a terminator, but as Kyle
Reese...it doesn't work. And no, I'm not looking forward to seeing
him as Captain Boomerang in “Suicide Squad.”
Did I forget to mention that J.K.
Simmons and Matt Smith are in this movie? Yeah, you read that right. The recent Oscar winner, and Doctor Who himself, are in
this movie. And what do they do? HARDLY. ANYTHING! Yeah, Simmons
helps them out in a couple moments, helping prove Kyle and Sarah's
innocence in one scene, but you could have easily cut him out of the
film, and it wouldn't have made a difference. He was useless here!
This is NOT on my tempo, movie!! And Matt Smith, he plays Skynet,
taking over the role previously played by Helena Bonham Carter in
“Salvation.” Sure, he has that moment in the Skynet war, turning
John into a villain...but that's the only big contribution his
character has. The rest of the time, he appears as a hologram, simply
saying they're going to lose, but he's not doing anything. Here's an idea:
why couldn't he just be the villain? Why couldn't he have just killed
John, and then go into the past to stop Kyle and Sarah? Seriously,
think about it. He would have been a far more interesting threat,
since he was the one who turned John into a terminator to begin with,
and could have had his own ARMY of terminators at his disposal right then and there!
We've seen what he's capable of, what's to stop him?!
The film was directed by Alan Taylor,
the same man who directed “Thor: The Dark World,” which I admit
to loving a lot. I don't know if that film was just a fluke, or if he
had trouble working with the script, which was written by Laeta
Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier. James Cameron said that this film was the true third “Terminator”
movie, but I have to disagree with him completely. With
how big of a clusterfuck this movie is, I can easily say that this
film...is the worst installment of the “Terminator” franchise.
Folks...I really wanted to like this
movie. I REALLY wanted this to prove me wrong, and turn out to be a great
film, or at the very least decent, but I can't for the life of me
recommend seeing it. It answers questions only to raise more of them
(too many of which to bring up), the special
effects aren't that impressive, the story is all over the place, and
the performances are either mixed or just wasted. Do yourself a
favor, and don't bother watching this film. There are much better
films out in theaters right now that are worth your time, so just go
watch those. Or better yet, spend the day watching the first two "Terminator” films and “Salvation.”
Rating: 2/10
