TERMINATOR GENYSIS

GRADE: C+
Starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jai Courtney, Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke, JK Simmons, Matthew Smith
Screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis & Patrick Lussier
Directed by Allan Taylor
Rated PG-13 (violence, profanity, sort of almost borderline nudity but you don't see anything)
Reviewed by Paul and Patrick Gibbs

Say what you will about story and dialogue issues in Jurassic World, that movie has overwhelmingly succeeded at  reinvigorating an old franchise and getting its fans excited. The reason it worked is less because of any brilliance to the new story than because it captures the authentic feel of the franchise. Above all this is because its director, Colin Trevorrow, approached it with a love of Spielberg's 1993 film that permeates through every frame and stirs the same feelings from the fans. By contrast, Terminator Genyisis is a sequel/reboot that feels dispassionate, playing like a business move rather than the result of any genuine love of the material or creative inspiration.

Largely ignoring Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and completely ignoring Terminator Salvation, Genysis begins with yet another portrayal of judgement day, the time in the not so distant future when the Skynet defense system wipes out civilization and begins a war between humans and machines. We see the story of resistance leader John Connor (now played by Jason Clarke rather than Nick Stahl or Christian Bale or Thomas Dekker or Edward Furlong or whoever) defeating Skynet, then the machines pulling the desperate ploy of sending the T-800 Terminator (now played by a CGI Arnold Shwarzenegger rather than an organic Arnold Shwarzenegger) back in time to kill Connor's mother Sarah before John Connor is born. As before, Connor sends his trusted lieutenant Kyle Reese (now played by big and buff Jai Courtney instead of thin and vaguely creepy Michael Biehn or skinny and dorky Anton Yelchin) back to protect Sarah and defeat the Terminator. But when Reese reaches 1984, he finds a different timeline from what he expected: Sarah (now played by Emilia Clarke instead of Linda Hamilton or Lena Headey and we're doing this deliberately to illustrate how convoluted this franchise has become, okay?) is a tough soldier, already aided by her own good good Terminator (now played by a post-gubenatorial Arnold Schwarzenegger).

To get too heavily into where the plot progresses from there would spoil the chief appeal of the new film, which is the twists and turns of how time line alteration has put variations on the original mythology. Sadly, this isn't nearly as much fun as the filmmakers want it to be. It's already been done much better in X-Men: Days of Future Past and the J.J. Abrams Star Trek films. Overall, that's what really hurts Terminator Genysis. There's nothing in this film that hasn't already been done, and done better. It's very hard to get excited about rejiggering the timeline for what ends up being a very minor variation on the franchise's oft-repeated "We have to destroy Skynet before it begins" gambit.  Director Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) is a perfectly competent craftsman who handles the action scenes well enough, but neither he nor anyone else really brings a new vision to the franchise, and they also fail at breathing new life into the old one. For all the many faults of Terminator Salvation, it at least felt like a new movie that taking the franchise in a different direction. And for all the faults of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, it captured the spirit of the original James Cameron films better than Genyisis does.

As harsh as all of this criticism seems to be, the film is not without entertainment values. Again, the action is fairly fun, and the cast is adequate if not outstanding. The best performances come from Jason Clarke (while the character goes in not entirely successful directions, the early section of the film gives us our first truly effective look at Connor as the inspiring leader we've always been told he would become) and JK Simmons in a small supporting role. Emilia Clark is well cast, effective evoking Linda Hamilton (even if this version of the character is far weaker and less interesting than the T2 Sarah fans know and love), and while Jai Courtney still hasn't made the kind of leading man impact Hollywood seems to want him to, he makes more of an impression here than he did in A Good Day to Die Hard. It would be interesting to see how he would fare as leading man in a stronger film, but we suspect that this will be another box office disappointment which helps fizzle a franchise, Courtney may well develop a reputation as the Ted McGinley of 80's/90's action reboots.  While the Terminator remains Arnold Shwarzenegger's best performance (this is especially true in T2, still the best film in the series), here an excess of characters prevents him from getting the chance to shine, and some of the comic aspects are overplayed. While he remains a welcome presence, Arnold doesn't really get the chance to distinguish himself here. Finally, those excited to see Doctor Who star Matt Smith (inexplicably billed here as Matthew Smith) will be disappointed: his role amounts to very little screen time and not much to do, even if he does take what would be an important role in the Terminator mythology if the conceit worked half as well as intended.

Because we live in an age of interent and fan hyperbole, Terminator Genysis is all but guaranteed to draw hyperbolic hatred and be classified as some sort of war crime. It's not. It's just not a very good movie. It's a decent diversion, but ends up as more evidence that this franchise has been bled dry, and that if they ever hope to restore to anything approaching its former glory it will need a true creative visionary at the helm instead of the rotating series of directors for hire we've seen since James Cameron moved on to Pandora.  Paradoxically, you won't really understand the film if you haven't seen at least the first two entries, but you may be more likely to enjoy if the film isn't suffering by comparison.