Terminator: Genisys (2015) Review

"There aren't enough bullets in the world to kill me."
-John Connor



Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) is sent back in time to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) from the machines only to find she is a hardened survivalist and is working with a T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to survive.  With a new mission to destroy Skynet once and for all, they soon discover their ultimate foe, John Conner (Jason Clarke) himself.


What Works:

This movie gets a lot of flack, but I have to admit, I kinda like.  It's entertaining, all right!?  The action sequences are a lot of fun.  The Golden Gate Bridge sequence is really exciting and all of the stuff in 1984 is fun.

I like the reversal of everything we knew about the original Terminator.  It's fun to see Sarah be a badass from the start.  The fights they have have with the T-1000 (Byung-Hun Lee) are a blast.  I know it's just the filmmakers trying to cash in on our love for the first and second movie, but it works here.  It's entertaining and a creative use of fan service.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is always great as the T-800 and that doesn't change here.  He gets some really funny moments and every time he tries to smile, I crack up.

Finally, J.K. Simmons is in the film as a drunk detective who believes in time travel.  He doesn't get a ton to do, but every scene he has is gold.  He even gets mad about time-traveling robots covering their tracks.  Not many actors could have pulled off that line, but Simmons does it.


What Sucks:

First off, the writing in this film isn't great.  If you think about the logistics of the story too hard, it all falls apart.  It doesn't make sense, but if you turn off your brain, it's still enjoyable.

The CGI is really bad at parts, shockingly bad, I would say.  Terminator 2 looks better.  That's just sad.

The idea to have John Connor be turned into a Terminator is very stupid.  It's like a 6-year-old came up with the idea for the movie.  A machine-human hybrid is a fine idea, but having it be John Connor is pretty bad.  That said, having Kyle and Sarah run into a grown up John is pretty funny. 

Finally, Jai Courtney and Emilia Clarke don't have much in the way of chemistry.  We're supposed to believe these two fall in love and have a child, but I never bought it.  They spend most of the movie arguing.  It's either a mismatch or sloppy writing...or both.


Verdict:

Terminator: Genisys is a deeply flawed movie with nonsensical writing, stupid plot developments, bad CGI, and a lack of chemistry between the leads, but it's entertaining with some fun action sequences, a solid first half, plus Arnold Schwarzenegger and J.K. Simmons.  It's not a good movie, but it's better than people give it credit for.

 6/10: Okay 

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