Film Review: Terminator Genisys (2015)

It's frustrating for science fiction movie lovers to see Hollywood try to exploit some of the best and most acclaimed works in the genre with a series of increasingly senseless remakes, reboots, and sequels, for which it is already clear that their quality cannot surpass the original. This was not even achieved by Terminator 2, the most commercially successful and probably the most extravagant film of its time, despite its revolutionary CGI effects, which simply failed to overshadow the original concept, simple story, and memorable characters of the original Terminator from 1984. The following films in the franchise, which tried to be its sequels in one way or another, were significantly worse and reduced to mere gimmicks, whether it was a female terminator in Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines or a genre excursion into post-apocalyptic war films in Terminator: Salvation. The fifth film, Terminator Genisys, was not better.

This film was advertised as a kind of "soft reboot", i.e., an attempt to make a sequel that would rely on the original film but would not be constrained by in terms of established canon. The story begins as a kind of remake of the first film, set in 2029 when the world, devastated by nuclear war, is leading a successful resistance against the machines and Skynet, the artificial intelligence that was the cause of the conflict. The leader of the human resistance, John Connor (played by Jason Clarke), just before the final victory learns that Skynet has sent a terminator, a killing android, back to 1984 to kill his mother and thus prevent his birth. For this reason, his most trusted soldier, Kyle Reese (played by Jai Courtney), is also sent back in time to prevent it. To his great surprise, Connor's mother, Sarah Connor (played by Emilia Clarke), in Los Angeles in 1984 is not a helpless girl who needs to be saved, but a tough warrior who has spent her whole life preparing for a showdown with the terminators, and will be Reese's mentor and accomplice. Skynet had already tried to liquidate her as a 9-year-old girl, but it was prevented by another terminator sent by John Connor to do so; he became the girl's guardian, mentor, and kind of foster father. Reese and Sarah must somehow prevent the creation of Skynet and the nuclear war, and the key to this is the activation of the Genisys operating system in San Francisco in 2017, for which they must travel to the future.

Time travel is a common problem for writers and screenwriters, and it is even more difficult when creating sequels to films, i.e., when writing scripts constrained by the universe where it is already clear that a nuclear holocaust will occur. Genisys solves this problem, like many other time travel-themed works, through the concept of a multiverse, i.e., the creation of a alternative universe where events have taken a different course. Thus, the universe of Genisys can be understood as a kind of variation on the theme, i.e., as just one of the alternative versions of the universe presented in the original Terminator. Although this concept is quite trite, it could have worked if the screenwriters had invested some effort in developing it, but instead, they treated the story as an excuse to throw in action scenes with the latest CGI technology, although these are now much more banal than those in 1991 Terminator 2. Violence, gunfire, and reckless driving, however, do not seem very impressive, just as the final showdown will be quickly forgotten by the audience, accustomed to similar things in Marvel and DC Universe films. Screenwriters and director Alan Taylor, therefore, rely mainly on nostalgia, i.e., try to offer fans of the original Terminator a kind of fan service in the form of replicas, costumes, or even some scenes re-created with parodic or other deviations.

In all this, Schwarzenegger is probably the best, as he does not deliver a particularly good performance here, but serves well to demonstrate the capabilities of CGI through his own character, who appears as a young, middle-aged, and eventually elderly Terminator. His star power, however, cannot overcome the script and other limitations of the film, which include a lack of talent, charisma, and inspiration among his co-stars. This becomes especially apparent when some of them are compared to their predecessors in the same roles. Jason Clarke is completely worn out in the role of John Connor, already wrecked by the trailer that spoiled what was supposed to be a surprise twist. The situation is even worse with the unlikeable Jai Courtney, who is far below Michael Biehn as the original Kyle Reese, and the disappointment is further compounded by Emilia Clarke, who was supposed to bring the charisma of Daenerys from Game of Thrones to this film but is completely unconvincing compared to Linda Hamilton in the original film. And, as might be expected, there is no chemistry between her and Courtney, unlike Biehn and Hamilton. Given all this, it is not surprising that the planned trilogy of reboots did not materialize, and the next Terminator film, Dark Fate, was again bringing plot to the drawing board only to continue with disappointing trend and end as box office disaster.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

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