"I'll be back." The beloved "Terminator" franchise, birthed by the visionary James Cameron, was a groundbreaking achievement in cinema, which brought forth never-before-seen visual effects and an astounding story. The first film, "The Terminator", was a box office smash, ranking in $78.4 million on a modest $6.4 million budget. In 2008, the film was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the American National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The long anticipated sequel, "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" was an even bigger hit, making $519.8 million on a $94–102 million budget, and was a pioneer in visual effects, which eventually won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects along with Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Makeup. The 3rd and 4th films however were a huge step down from the previous two. With James Cameron no longer in the director's chair, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" and "Terminator Salvation", while enjoyable at times, was not even close to being as good as the iconic first two films. And now, Paramount has decided to breathe new life into the franchise with "Terminator Genisys". Did the film bring the franchise back from the dead?
"Terminator Genisys" stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, and Jason Clarke and is directed by Alan Taylor ("Game of Thrones", "Thor: The Dark World"). This film, like "X-Men: Days of Future Past", serves as a retcon to the series as Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) is set back to the past to find Sarah Conner (Emilia Clarke), the mother of John Conner (Jason Clarke). But upon meeting her, he discovers that she has been preparing for his arrival for over a decade with the help of an aged, reprogrammed T-800 Model 101 (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Their mission is to stop the apocalyptic event, Judgement Day, from happening by destroying a system known as Genisys. I will say, right off the bat, you have seen any of the promotional trailers for this film, you have seen the entire film, but just in case you haven't, my synopsis won't spoil any of the twists and turns, unlike the trailer. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a good movie. "Terminator Genisys" is a loud, witless, and poorly executed film that might as well be the worst film in the series. This is not just a bad film, but a lazy one as well. There was not a shred of imagination put into the script and action scenes, which is a shame because this was a franchise that was built upon pure imagination. When audiences saw the T-1000 in the early 90's, their jaws dropped. It was awe-inspiring. There was not even an ounce of spectacle, drama or suspense in the 126 minute runtime of this film.
I'm going to start with the one good thing about this film: Arnold Schwarzenegger. Seeing him back as the T-800 was just great. When production for this film first began, I was worried about Schwarzenegger's age and how that would affect the film, but thankfully his age did not interrupt the film at all. Schwarzenegger has grown into the role very well and slips back into his characters effortlessly. His monotone deliver and dead-pan humor continues to entertain, making him the saving grace of this godforsaken picture. If he was given better direction and more interesting things to do, I'm sure by enjoyment of this film would have elevated much higher, but unfortunately Schwarzenegger was dealing with a bland script that written without a shred of creativity and vision.
The other (sort of) saving grace was Emilia Clarke as Sarah Conner. It's a daunting task, stepping into Linda Hamilton's shoes but I think Clarke gave it her all and tried her very best to honor Hamilton's performance while also making it her own. However, Clarke was not given anything interesting to say or do in the film. There were small moments where I thought the film was going to give her something important to do, however it boils down to nothing too great. With all that being said, Clarke tried to make a dry, monotonous script sound natural, which never translated too well in the film. The one negative thing I could say about Clarke's performance was I never found her as tough as the original Sarah Conner. I understand she is younger than the Sarah Conner we saw in "Terminator 2: Judgement Day", but I would've appreciated a little more strength and backbone in her. Overall, besides Schwarzenegger, Clarke as Sarah Conner was not only watchable/bare-able but a development character. Her only problem was that she wasn't given the right direction and the right screenplay, which made her performance suffer.
Okay, where do I even start with Jai Courtney? I will preface by saying that I have nothing against the man. I'm sure he's a nice guy in real life but... Jai Courtney is the white bread of acting. Serviceable but nothing great, not even that good. This was a just a complete miscast. Michael Biehn's portrayal of Kyle Reese in "The Terminator", like Indiana Jones, was a vulnerable hero that was supposed to be the every man with some moderate skill with a weapon. This Kyle Reese was a hulking soldier that was physically imposing and unreliable. Courtney's performance was also as interesting as watching paint dry. Nothing that came out of his mouth sounded remotely convincing in any way. I really don't want to bash on the guy but he's just so bland in this movie and it really does hurt the film a lot. Jai, I'm sure you're a stand-up guy, but this performance was definitely not a good one.
If any of you reading this have seen any of the trailers for "Terminator Genisys", you know exactly what to expect from Jason Clarke's character, John Conner. As the leader of the Resistance, Clarke actually does a pretty fine job. There was nothing particularly wrong or outstanding with his performance. It was just as expected. Now, I don't want to reveal too much about what happens to John Conner since some of you reading this now have not seen the trailers but all I can say is the enjoyment of the twist in the film was minimized to an extreme level since we all saw it in the trailer and even in the poster seen above. It's ridiculous. I might've enjoyed this film a little more if this plot twist was not revealed to me months before I even saw it. This has nothing to do with Clarke's performance in the film as he was just fine, but the marketing team on this film really messed up by showing this crucial point in the film in all the promotional items for the film.
In 1991, James Cameron shocked the world with the CGI work that went into bringing the terrifying T-1000 to life. It was the first time audiences have ever seen a partially computer animated character along with state-of-the-art prosthetics and animatronics. 24 years later, "Terminator Genisys" leaves us with unconvincing CGI and practical effects that look worse than anything we have seen in "Terminator 2: Judgement Day". How?! There was not one moment in the entire film when I believed these CGI characters were physically there. Every visual effect shot in the film is subpar to most big budget blockbusters we see today. In the past few years, we've seen the glorious world of Pandora in "Avatar", the extremely cool Iron Man suit in the Marvel films, photo-realistic apes in the new "Planet of the Apes" movies... This was insulting, especially since this was a "Terminator" film. James Cameron pioneered digital and practical special effects with his first two films and for this to be the 5th film in the franchise with [probably] the worst visual effects in the series is insulting. The lackluster CGI is also accompanied with uninventive cinematography, an uninspired soundtrack, and choppy editing, making the whole visual experience extremely lukewarm.
"The Terminator" and "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" are two films that I consider masterpieces, and while the subsequent films (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" and "Terminator Salvation") were subpar, I was at least able to enjoy them on a cheap entertainment level. This however is not entertaining in the slightest. The only time the film was every inventive or fun was when they recreated scenes from the first "Terminator" film with a CGI young Arnold Schwarzenegger playing the original T-800 that was sent to kill Sarah Conner in the 80's. However, those scenes fun to watch simply because it was shot-by-shot what James Cameron did all those years ago. This had nothing to do with the filmmakers' talent in creating new things, this was just recreating what a great director did over 30 years ago. What can I say? This was truly a mess. I believe the biggest crime "Terminator Genisys" made was making the film not memorable. Every single film in the series had at least one thing worth mentioning but this had absolutely nothing. With a dull script, some bland acting, unconvincing CGI effects, a droning score, misguided editing and mediocre direction, I can honestly say that this is my least favorite "Terminator" film in the series. I'm giving "Terminator Genisys" an extremely generous 4 out of 10.
See it in IMAX 3D, 3D and 2D.
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