Terminator Genisys *** (2015, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jai Courtney, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke) – Movie Review

The fourth rebooted Terminator movie with Christian Bale, Terminator Salvation in 2009, did not please enough fans. So Arnold Schwarzenegger has a rare opportunity to grab back his original franchise in director Alan Taylor’s Terminator Genisys.

In effect, that makes this 2015 effort more of a retread than a reboot. That’s good, but oddly, though, Schwarzenegger takes backseat to the three main drivers – Jai Courtney, Jason Clarke and Emilia Clarke.

Jai Courtney stars as Kyle Reese, who is sent back in time by John Connor (Jason Clarke) to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke). But when he arrives in 1984, nothing is as he expected it to be. For a start, there are a couple of Arnold Schwarzeneggers, one the bad 1984 version and one the good 2015 movie version, called ‘Pops’. ‘I’m old, I’m not obsolete.’

The screen-writers believe everyone in the Genisys has seen and remembers the Terminator (1984). Patrick Lussier and Laeta Kalogridis’s screenplay plays cheerfully with the Terminator mythology and is full of ambition, intelligence and ideas, unfolding in multiple realities and eras, and requiring a familiarity with the previous movies.

This is a risky route to go but I liked it and it pays off by and large even if it is a bit muddled in the handling and occasionally confusing. The audience is expected to stay alert and awake. The actors keep you in there, with all four working hard to make the movie work and the show entertaining.

Courtney is a good, solid hunky hero, Jason Clarke a good unstoppable villain, Emilia Clarke a good heroine, handy with a gun, and Arnie is, well, Arnie is Arnie, old not obsolete. I’m surprised he’s OK with calling himself old and being called Pops. But, that’s cool of him. Byung-hun Lee is another effective presence as the villainous cop and T-1000, but it more of an appearance , mostly CGI, than an actual acting required gig.

But what will help most with keeping you involved is Lorne Balfe’s pounding score and the fantastic CGI images, looking totally brilliant in 3D IMAX. Kramer Morgenthau’s cinematography and Neil Spisak’s production design are outstanding. On a technical level the movie cannot be faulted, just praised. Unfortunately, though, the script has unresolved problems. As well as not quite finding a way to keep the narrative clear and sci-fi credible, the writers can’t come up with much in the way of decent dialogue.

Schwarzenegger recently said he employs a writer to pen extra witty banter for him in the hope of new famous catch-phrases. Is ‘nice to see you’ really the best they could do? Bruce Forsyth used it decades ago! Hey, what about that as a movie idea, Schwarzenegger starring in the title role of The Bruce Forsyth Story? You know a film’s dialogue is lame when they employ J K Simmons and he’s floundering around not getting laughs.

Nevertheless, the 125 minutes goes racing by. Suddenly the movie’s all over and it feels as though it’s never really started. That may sound a backhanded compliment but it is a compliment none the less. I quite enjoyed it. I should really have enjoyed it but I enjoyed it enough. I’ll be back for Terminator 6.

By the way, The Terminator (1984) is in cinemas again. Having seen both movies in the same week, I’d say that is both a good and a bad thing.

Terminator Genisys is rated 12A in the UK and PG13 in the US for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and gunplay throughout, partial nudity and brief strong language.

Director Tim Miller’s 2019 The Terminator reboot starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton is the sixth film in the long-running sci-fi series, with Skydance producing and Paramount distributing. The release date is 22 November 2019. James Cameron returns as producer.

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© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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