I have to admit that when I heard Alan Taylor was directing the latest Terminator movie I was not excited. The reason for my lackluster response to that news was due in large part to his previous offering, Thor: The Dark World. It was a major disappointment to me since I loved the first Thor film directed by Kenneth Branagh. Now I loved Alan's work on Game of Thrones but his feature film work has been somewhat underwhelming. So I went into Terminator: Genisys with my fingers crossed and with the understanding that this movie was NOT a sequel. Going in with the thought of sequel would cause any true Terminator fans to potentially hate this film. So if you are on the fence about seeing this movie and you were waiting for my blog to yay or nay the idea, understand that if you do see it know that this movie is NOT a sequel, it is a REMAKE! That means it turns the original Terminator completely on it's head (while making James Cameron's head explode at the same time).
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Sarah Conner's personal Terminator whom she affectionately refers to as Pops. Sarah Conner is played by Khaleesi herself, Emilia Clarke, John Conner is played by Jason Clarke (no relation), and Kyle Reese is played by the horrid Jai Courtney. Watching Jai in this movie is just painful at times and you hope the guy gets some acting classes soon. When you get outacted by Arnold then you know you have some serious work to do but I digress. I have to give it to Alan this time around though, this film is an entertaining take on the Terminator lore. It wasn't his fault he was saddled with a story that made absolutely no sense. That blame lies at the feet of Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier. These two must have been tripping on some really ancient shrooms when they put this thing to paper because again it makes absolutely NO sense. There's a touch of Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles here thanks to all the Terminators in this movie and the attempts at stopping judgement day before it happens. Where they get it wrong is the Terminator technology. There's already a liquid metal Terminator back in 1984 when Skynet sends back the T-800 model to kill Sarah Conner. How that happens is never explained and I'm guessing they just want you the viewer to go along with it. Where they also mess up is what they did with the John Conner character. None of that made ANY sense either but whatever, right?
As I said, Terminator: Genisys is loud and brash and it tries to give you the gravitas of the original Terminator and the charm and over the top action of it's sequel but it misses both by just a hair. Arnold is great in Genisys but sadly no one else is except J.K. Simmons who plays officer O'Brien. They bring the charm to an otherwise droll film but it's not enough. There's little to no chemistry between Emilia and Jai and without that, that's the ballgame. However, on the shits and giggles scale this $155 million dollar movie is a solid eight. The chases, the explosions, the fights, and the shootouts never seem to stop. Cinematographer Kramer Morgenthau did a fantastic job capturing all the action and explosions, but the fights between Terminators was a tad hard to follow but they were interesting. I had an issue with the Lorne Balfe's score. I am a big fan of Lorne's but he failed to deliver a iconic theme like Brad Fidel did for Cameron's original. Maybe he can rectify that in the sequel. If you're looking for an entertaining movie then check out Terminator: Genisys, but if you're looking for an intelligent, cohesive storyline then sit this one out and I'll see you at the theater.
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