The "Terminator" franchise appears to be one that's very much judged to be a series that shouldn't be made, due to the first two films being able to perfectly wrap up the story. "T3" remains as the worst in the franchise as it's completely lazy when it comes to continuing the story, "Salvation" didn't portray the future as people wanted, and "Dark Fate" remains the best of the sequels, but is hated for the female leads and the choice to kill John off, which I defend until the day I die. Then, there was "Genisys", an attempt to reboot the franchise to start its own trilogy with tons of big names attached, Schwarzenegger's return and overloading nostalgia with various elements. The film was met with terrible response by both critics and audiences, and while it made quite a bit of money in the box office, it was just short of breaking even, killing the trilogy and making the franchise reboot again with "Dark Fate". Today, I want to revisit this failed reboot and see if it deserves the hate it's given. In the future of 2029, John Connor has finally lead the human resistance into victory against Skynet. When he learns of a time machine that has sent a Terminator into 1984, he sends Kyle Reese to protect his mother, Sarah Connor. However, when Reese arrives, things aren't how they were supposed to be. There's an uncalled T-1000, Sarah is not as how John describes her to be, and she's working with a Terminator herself, who she views as a surrogate father. As they realize the timeline has changed, they travel to 2017 where they need to stop Genisys, an app that links all technology, as it's in fact Skynet in infancy while a transformed John is sent to protect Skynet from the heroes. As you can tell, the story is a pretty big pill to swallow as it not only erases previous films, but also introduces the element of alternate timelines with the heavy use of time travel. To be fair, this is the more creative sequel in the franchise by going a more bold, complicated storyline that the film itself allows the audience to try to understand. However, this results in the film to have a lot of exposition, which despite the intrigue, is still not the best way to get viewers hooked in. There is a few moments where the characters breathe or talk about themselves, but the story is full throttle on the action, spectacle, and lore that it begins to overwhelm you in a way. The story is so huge to fit in a two-hour runtime that it begs the question why isn't this film split into a trilogy of its own. Heck, the first act is by far the most engaging part of the film by many and would have been a great first installment to a trilogy if expanded upon. The tone of the movie is attempting to be a modern blockbuster akin to Marvel films. From the action set pieces, the lack of an R-rating and gritty, raw tone, and the attempts at comedy to make the audience laugh, this film sort of feels the least "Terminator"-like from the sequels. There are a few good jokes, but there are some that fall short. "Dark Fate" actually manages to get more laughs and that film wasn't even trying to be very comedic.
What can't I say about Arnold Schwarzenegger as the T-800? The aging bodybuilder once again manages to fit back in the role perfectly and takes the performance in a different direction as the T-800 is now a tough love, father figure to Sarah that is only starting to understand at being human. Yes, Arnold can offer a groaner joke with the smiling in one scene, but he can say a pretty good line in another scene. You really can't complain about his acting in any of the films as he's just perfect as these characters. Emilia Clarke as Sarah Conner is a mixed bag. On the one hand, she does look and act the part of a younger Sarah in '84 who has already been accustomed to a badass soldier. On the other hand, Sarah is just not that interesting or charismatic and doesn't go through an arc, with the only interesting thing being her relationship with Pops, the T-800, which even that feels a bit unexplored in a way. Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese is honestly not that bad as people say he is. Sure, he's no Micheal Bahn and close-up shots of his face look a bit weird given his appearance, but his role as the confused soldier who didn't sign up for a completely different mission works pretty well. He acts as the window for the audience, asking questions about what's going on and mainly complaining about how this isn't supposed to happen and his clashing attitude with Sarah and Pops. Courtney is pretty good and it's a shame that he got so much hate for his role as Reese due to diehard fans not giving these actors a fair chance. Then, there's Jason Clarke as John Connor/T-3000. It's notorious that the marketing team sabotaged their own film by giving away a mid-film twist with Connor being turned into an evil Terminator. Outside of that blunder, Clarke is just fine as the character. Playing a duel role of sorts with the wise leader turned into a manipulative villain, the performance itself is not bad, but the choice to have John as a villain is pretty shallow. If there was conflict of the character switching back and forth from being John into a machine, it would have been a far interesting character and twist of the series. But just making him a generic villain, despite a cool design, undermines Clarke's performance. There are some side characters such as J.K Simmons as police detective O'Brien, a man who firsthand saw the T-1000 and Kyle's time traveler knowledge and remains eccentric over it, Byung-Hun Lee as the T-1000, the Dysons (both father and son) who own Cyberdyne Systems and worked on the project known as Genisys with a time-traveling John, and Matt Smith as the embodiment as Skynet who corrupts John and attempts to protect his infant self known as Genisys in 2017. The side characters are perhaps one of the big blunders of the film as it's quite clear that they were supposed to be more significant in future films, aside of Lee's T-1000. O'Brien barely does anything outside of getting the characters out of bail, the Dysons are just there to show some continuity of "T2" and the physical form of Skynet is obviously meant to be the real villain that the characters were supposed to face in a sequel that we will never see. To each of the actor's credit, they all act really good. In fact, almost all of the actors do a good-to-great job on their roles, with the only one slacking from the character being Clarke, which is not because of her acting skills, but because it's extremely hard trying to top Linda Hamilton to begin with.
Alan Taylor is known for directing multiple TV episodes for popular shows and being the director to the worst MCU film, "Thor: The Dark World". While I do feel that another director should have been in charge, Taylor actually does a good job with a lot of it being due to having the scope and vision for the overly-ambitious story. The future sequences in the first act are what diehard fans were waiting for, and while the scenes only last in the first few minutes of the film, it gives off the impression of how Taylor gets the visuals, scale and tone of the future from previous Terminator films. When Kyle goes back to 1984, Taylor attempts to recapture the angles and look of the original film. Not only are a few of these scenes shot-for-shot, but the setting also has this fuzzy look to it, emulating the video quality of the original and making the film look in line to the first film. When the characters go to 2017, the film gets a crystal clear, modern aesthetic that we are more accustomed to from modern blockbusters and it looks great. The cinematography by Kramer Morgenthau is really solid, offering some nice-looking shots, especially in the action sequences. Morgenthau's camerawork is amplified by some fantastic visual effects shots, which speaking of which, the visual effects are fantastic. From the future battle with the various mechs, the fluent motion of the T-1000, the design and healing effects of the T-3000, and the T-800's look really good. The helicopter and bus sequences aren't as convincing or cool to look at, but it is rectified by the digital recreation of the original Terminator and Arnold's de-aging effects in '84 are mind-blowing. It's a shame that the effects were slept upon during its release as they are great for this current digital age and film. The action scenes are generally pretty good with the highlights being the future battle, the fight between the T-800 and T-1000 in the base, and the battle with the T-3000 in the climax, the latter having some cool highlights that make it look like a match between the Terminator and Geras in "MK11"! While there are some cool shots and moments in the other scenes such as the T-3000 being magnetized in its first fight and Pops being sent flying towards a police car, the action tends to be a bit overstuffed with too many explosions and things crashing into each other. The first fights with Pops and the T-800 and T-3000 are pretty underwhelming as it's just two robots smashing the other into various walls and things. "Dark Fate" really improves on the close, hand-to-hand combat as they manage to offer more raw strength and gunplay, and less use of smashing each other into other things. The vehicle set-pieces are by far the blandest of the action as it not only has the least cool effects, but they feel too similar to other set-pieces from "T2". The last thing to mention would be the music by Lorne Balfe, best known for his collaborations with Hans Zimmer. Although it's not the weakest score in the franchise, as there are some good renditions of the famous theme and the track "Sacrifice" is pretty good, Balfe much like others just can't match Brad Fiedel's score from the first two films.
"Terminator: Genisys" is never going to be considered in the top three films of the franchise. From an overwhelmingly, huge story that's heavily reliant on exposition to help people understand what's going on, a modern tone that's akin to a Marvel film with less grittiness and more failed attempts at comedy, Emilia Clarke's performance as Sarah Connor can't match Linda Hamilton with a pretty sub-surface personality, John becoming the villain could have been more interesting or complex with a dual-personality or more attempts to fool the audience that John could be saved, the side characters are very underused and are mainly there for sequel-bait or to advance the story, Lorne Balfe's soundtrack is kind of generic, aside of "Sacrifice" and the renditions of the main theme, and some of the action sequences can be underwhelming with the overuse of explosions and breaking through walls. However, there's actually so many good things in the film that really keep it from being a waste of time. The story is engaging enough and does offer a more unique experience to the average "Terminator" film, the tone does, to its credit, offer some fun and laughs for the average blockbuster, Pops and Reese are solid characters helped by their fantastic actors, the cast in general never throws it in when it comes to their acting at all, Taylor's directing shows the same ambition as the writers with the various looks and feels of the film depending on the setting, the cinematography by Morgenthau is pretty good, the visual effects are excellent with only a few scenes having lower quality effects, and the action is very engaging and off-the-walls with a handful of cool sequences and moments in the action. I gotta say, I actually think this movie got better the second time I watched it. I will always prefer "Dark Fate" as the true continuation to the franchise and an amazing film in its own right, but "Genisys" acts as a big-budget fanfic that, although flawed by its vision and scope, you can't help but admire the effort put into it.
Verdict: 6/10. An above-average watch that will satisfy action-lovers and people who want a spin to the beloved franchise. Personally, it's my 4th favourite film of the series and doesn't deserve half the hate it regularly gets.
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