(spoiler free)
I was really keen to revisit all of the previous Terminator movies in preparation for Genisys, across the four movies the timeline can get a little confusing. However, as I was already around 2 weeks late in getting to see this I opted to watch it with out the franchise revision. In hindsight a refresher of the Terminator history wouldn’t have gone a miss.
Terminator Genisys blew this timeline wide open in a mental way, with various time travels, changing past and future events and even alternate pasts. Good luck keeping up with all this, if I’m honest I wasn’t really interested enough to try and keep up or work it out which was a shame. However, Genisys was very self-aware of its confusing time plot lines and addressed them on several occasions which I did enjoy. One of my biggest issues with the Terminator film series is the lack of continuity in terms of the casting. Apart from Arnie there is little consistency in terms of actors, this was always a problem for me as I found it hard to become attached to characters. Genisys experienced the same problem as the new cast members did little to engage me this way. I thought the casting of Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor and Jason Clarke as John Connor was odd, I didn’t think either of these actors embodied either of these characters in a way that was faithful to the original characters, however this has to do with the writing as well. Both of the characters are different to their previous versions due to some elements of the story. When these are taken into account Jason Clarke actually is very good in this version of John Connor and thought he had a lot to offer. Unfortunately I just didn’t buy into this more censored version of Sarah Connor.
Some of the other cast members added to the film too, naturally as a big fan of Matt Smith’s Doctor I was excited to see him in a new film role. Unfortunately he really doesn’t get much screen time at all, what he did contribute I really liked but I think more should have been made of his character. J.K. Simmons has a minor role here but as minor as you want to make it any film that features Simmons is going to have at least one positive! As is to be expected with the more trashy action sequel comes the repetition of iconic quotes, this rarely works and it’s no surprise that it didn’t really work here either. Thankfully these are actually kept to a minimum though and there are actually attempts to make new ones which I thought was admirable. Unfortunately the humour never really worked in Genisys but it wasn’t so bad to become cringey. Despite my issues with the film, Terminator Genisys was solid cinema entertainment, I wasn’t bored once over the two hour running time. There are some really nice moments in this film, the scene on the Golden Gate Bridge has one particularly awesome moment. Plus some of the fight scenes are pretty entertaining.
Terminator Genisys almost reinvented the franchise however it doesn’t take us miles away from what has come before in order to become offensive but simultaneously doesn’t go far enough to be anything that memorable or special. In all honesty there wasn’t much point to the movie. The only really fresh aspect was ruined by all the promotional material but apart from that there isn’t really much on offer. Although the movie wasn’t anything special it was far from being a bad movie and its so easy to enjoy. I never asked for a 5th Terminator film but I’m more than happy to accept Genisys into the Terminator canon.
Rating – 7/10
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