By Based on the stupid title, initial plot description and Entertainment Weekly photos, I was a little more than skeptical about Terminator: Genisys. Even though the synopsis had many, many things I loved in it (time travel, Emilia Clarke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, alternate timelines, Emilia Clarke), it sounded too goofy to possibly work.
Then I saw the first trailer (see below) and started to change my tune. I happened to sort of stumble upon the fact that the movie was out this weekend yesterday evening and plied my best friend to come see it by offering to pay for his ticket. Butts in seats for the very first showing of Genisys, I was prepared for disappointment.
I…was not prepared for what Terminator: Genisys had in store for me. Not even remotely.
Terminator: Genisys
Director: Alan Taylor
Rated: PG-13
Release Date: July 1, 2015
We all know the story: Savior of humanity John Connor (Jason Clarke) sends Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back in time to prevent a terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) from killing his mother Sarah (Emilia Clarke) before John is born. However, Kyle finds himself in a very different situation shortly after his arrival in 1984. What follows is a bit of timey-wimey shenanigans that only the Terminator franchise can provide. To say any more than that would really ruin the surprise. Do be warned going forward, however: I will say a little more. Fair warning.
First off, you can barely tell that Arnold Schwarzenegger is sixty-seven years old. The man’s charisma is absolutely infectious and seeing him in the leather jacket and sunglasses that made him a household name is like coming home again or putting on your favorite, well-worn pair of shoes. He’s perfect. He’s a finely-aged wine. He’s Arnold Goddamn Schwarzenegger. He delivered every one of his lines with a delightfully robotic wit and I could honestly spend the rest of the review just talking about his performance but that’s not very fair to the other people involved.
While she’s no Linda Hamilton (is anyone?), Emilia Clarke does well as the new Sarah Connor. She’s a lot more well-adjusted to her situation than the Sarah Connor of yesteryear and is more than capable of protecting herself. Jai Courtney, who has come a long way since being super duper bland in A Good Day to Die Hard, is our Kyle Reese and I’ll be honest: I’m for it. He didn’t break new ground or completely change my movie-going experience or anything, but he was a sturdy male protagonist and when you’re starring opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, that’s all you can ask for. Jason Clarke’s John Connor was dark, brooding, and scared (inside and out) after thirty-someodd years of fighting Terminators and he really sold it. These four are joined by Matt Smith in a brief but significant role that was blissfully kept under wraps (unlike many other facets of the film courtesy of the bastardly second trailer) and J. K. Simmons in a more substantial but similarly all-too-brief role as a detective. Finally, and I would be remiss to forget him, Lee Byung-hun of I Saw the Devil and G. I. Joe fame plays the new T-1000. He is menacing and carried that same icy cool Robert Patrick had in T2: Judgment Day.
I was really very surprised with the effects in Genisys. I expected them to look good but I’ll be damned if they didn’t look great. All of the Terminators and other Skynet enemies looking amazing, the liquid metal looked real and, most importantly, the battle between present-day Arnold and circa-1984 Arnold was incredible. To my admittedly untrained eye, there was zero uncanny valley and he looked fantastic.
Springboarding off of the effects, the action was almost non-stop. From the final assault on Skynet in 2029 in the beginning of the film, the movie GOES. The aforementioned fight between two Arnolds, a handful of car chases, a pretty excellent battle against the T-1000, and a wonderful final battle; all of it was great. I don’t think I rolled my eyes during any of these sequences and after the last two films, I think that’s a very good thing.
The score was good but honestly, what else do you need to hear other than DUN-DUN-DUN DUN-DUN, DUN-DUN-DUN DUN-DUN in your Terminator movie?
Most important, of course, is the writing. I don’t want to say too much because of all the moments where I wish I hadn’t seen that stupid second trailer or any TV spots or heard any ads on Spotify or seen half of the films’ posters, but what I will say is that it was an awesome movie full of twists and turns and fortunately some surprises, which is impressive considering how hard they tried to ruin it with spoilers. There’s some fun time-travel stuff and at one point i was like “Oh, it’s like Terminator meets 12 Monkeys,” but then I realized that 12 Monkeys utilizes more or less the same time-loop that Terminator does. If you think too hard about the time travel stuff your nose may bleed and you might feel the vein in your head start to pulse uncomfortably but if you take it for what it is, it’s a lot of fun. And lest I forget the most important factor: Genisys has a completely logical explanation for its inclusion in the title.
There’s a lot of callbacks to the first two films, many of which are a little more subtle than you’d expect. I found myself fist-pumping and quietly cheering many times over the course of the 126-minute runtime.
The only real complaint I have about the story is there are a small handful of unanswered questions, but as Nick reported last September, we’ve got two sequels coming our way. Mr. Valdez can rest easy knowing that, in this humble reviewer’s opinion, Genisys is absolutely good enough to warrant sequels.
Will this film stand the test of time like the first or second films? Maybe, maybe not. Is it better than the third and fourth films? Absolutely. Am I excited for the sequels? You bet your shiny, metal asses I am.
As far as summer movies go, this is one of my favorites in a long, long time. If I didn’t know any better, it may well be my favorite film of 2015 (so far, mind you). I went in to this film expecting it to be awesomely bad and I left it singing its praises over and over. If nothing else, I would like to publicly apologize for anything negative I said about it in the months leading up to last night (excepting the awesomely horrific EW pictures).
tl;dr: Go see Terminator: Genisys.
