Terminator Genisys Movie Review

Terminator Genisys (2015)

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Written by: Laeta Kalogridis & Patrick Lussier (written by), James Cameron & Gale Anne Hurd (characters created by)
Directed by: Alan Taylor
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, J.K. Simmons, Matt Smith, Courtney B. Vance, Lee Byung-hun
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
When John Connor, leader of the human resistance, sends Sgt. Kyle Reese back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor and safeguard the future, an unexpected turn of events creates a fractured timeline.

Verdict
It's not a bad action movie, there's just no way to escape the immense shadow of the first two movies, especially when this relies so heavily on them. Conversely, this is a terrible time travel movie that lacks a consistent logic. The movie does a lot, and that only detracts from what should be a relentless and unwinnable battle against a cyborg. Skynet must be defeated yet again. The first thirty minutes are homage to the original two films. The rest is a fight against the past that includes way too many contrivances and characters. The more I think about this, the less I like it. There are many unanswered questions and inconsistencies, and I suspect the answer why is some variation of to make a cool action movie.
It depends.

Review
This opens with a long voice over introduction, and we don't need it with this series. Who doesn't know what terminators are? Part of the fun in the first movie is not knowing what's going on. The voice over continues, providing yet another version of the John Connor legend while revising Terminator Salvation (2009).

The Terminator (1984) is the best of the franchise, but rewriting it and using it as the basis for another movie seems creatively lacking. The first part of this movie is the original with a twist. While I don't mind the idea, do we really need it? It's a strange concept as it uses many scenes practically unedited without adding anything. Then it throws concepts like the T-1000 from the second movie into the mix. We do see what happens immediately before the original movie when the machines and then the resistance send a terminator and a soldier back. That's only to introduce John Connor (Jason Clarke) to set us up for later.

Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) is sent back to 1984 to save Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke). The twist is that the timeline has been altered and Sarah already knows about the future and Skynet. She saves him along with her T-800 terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Somehow the timeline changed while Reese was going back, creating a nexus and giving him memories of two timelines. This movie makes up all kinds of things for the plot. Sarah was attacked when she was nine, and this T-800 saved her. To excuse the older looking T-800, we're told the flesh is human and ages.

Jai Courtney, Emilia Clarke, Arnold Schwarzenegger play Kyle Reese, Sarah Connor, T-800 "Pops"

It's an interesting setup, but why do humans keep thinking they can stop Skynet? This is the fifth movie, and they've yet to do it. How did Sarah know when Reese would arrive and that a T-1000 would also be sent back on this day? In the original movie the time displacement device was destroyed after Reese went in. In this movie we have two timelines, so we have to assume this Sarah is from the altered timeline, but if she is how would she know that Reese's appearance wouldn't be altered?

Sarah plans to time travel to 1997, but Reese tells her they need to go to 2017. How these altered timelines aren't more mixed up is simply movie magic. The dialog isn't great in this movie, with the pair sounding like bickering teens. Sarah's T-800, Pops, built his own time displacement device. They just needed the 1984 Terminator's microchip to run it. Despite the arguing, Reese and Sarah land on 2017 where the future has changed. Pops will stay behind and prepare for their mission in the future. With Sarah being the mother of John Connor, him not being born in 84/85 seems like a major plot hole. It seems like that too should create a magical nexus that severely changes everything.

In 2017 we have a cop that saw Reese and Sarah in 1984. He's regarded as deranged, looking for answers and credibility, but his plot could have been completely cut. This movie has too many characters.

Jai Courtney, Emilia Clarke play Kyle Reese, Sarah Connor

John Connor appears in 2017, and I immediately had questions. Behind the obvious of how'd he get there or when was he born, why would he have scars on his face? If the timeline was altered, which version is he from? It's got to be a trick. Reese and Sarah take a minute to doubt, but they're quick to believe him, a little too quick. It's especially egregious as this version of Sarah doesn't have a son!

I suppose it's fitting this movie becomes as convoluted, if not more, than the franchise. The simplicity of the first two movies fed into those plots. At this point, how many people have been sent back? We have four terminators, two when Sarah was nine as well as two in 1984, and Reese in this movie alone. Who knows if the other movies are a part of this timeline. If so that adds two from the second movie and two more from the third. These time displacement devices are working overtime.

T-3000 and T-800

Then, as always, the mission is to destroy Skynet. In this timeline, a terminator went back to 1997 to ensure the future of the AI by turning it into an app. It's no longer a military AI, but a social media program that will be installed across all devices; it's a Trojan horse called Genisys. The new  terminator in this movie, T-3000, has nanomachines for blood. I like this better than the T-X in the third movie. This Skynet was also working on a time displacement device. While I don't know why, I do like the symmetry of this device starting the story and being the key to stopping Skynet. Well, stopping it until at least the next movie. Skynet for some reason casts itself as a hologram to show it physically aging as well as to taunt Reese and Sarah as they try to destroy it. I don't think Skynet would waste the resources for that.s

While this movie is better than Terminator Salvation or Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), it's an order of magnitude worse than the first two. If you're wondering who sent the T-800 to save Sarah when she was nine or the T-1000 that attacked her, we never get an answer. How does the T-3000 get to this timeline when Kyle had to hit a magical nexus point to remember both? It's ignored as this movie manipulates the plot as needed.