1984 saw the release of James Cameron’s Terminator – a “tech-noir” film that revolutionised the action/science fiction genre and put the relative unknown director on the map. In 1991 James Cameron followed his original with the sequel T2: Judgement Day – a film that is still hailed to this day to be one of the best action films ever. The film re-wrote the lore and the rules, it told us that the future isn’t a set path that it can be changed.
This was however all shat away in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines by one simple line “Judgement Day is inevitable”. It was as if the film makers were giving the audience a middle finger saying “No, we can’t have closure to the series and it is a franchise that will just keep being drained until it is a decaying, withered corpse – logic to the previous films be dammed!” The famous line: “There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves” became a steaming and stinking lie, how can there be a fate that we can make for ourselves if they all lead to the same outcome. Coincidently this is the first film in the series that wasn’t directed by James Cameron – it was directed by Jonathan Mostow. The fourth instalment was Terminator: Salvation – a film that proved to be anything but. Directed by McG, this film had some interesting concepts – but it was all potential that didn’t live up. The series then produced a tv series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, that lasted for two seasons.
Soon after the franchise fell into the black hole that franchises go once their decaying corpses have been sucked dry and milked of all it can give. That is until July 1 2015, when Terminator Genisys was released. The film is an attempt to correct the mistakes in the past with a new style of film sequel I like to call – the retcon. This style has been made popular by Star Trek and X-Men: Days of Future Past. Even James Cameron has said that this film is successful stating, “the franchise has been reinvigorated.” Is he correct? Is the film good? Well wait and find out.
Directed by Alan Taylor, this film sought out to re-invigorate the franchise and try to get that old mummified skeleton to dance one last time, just to see if she still has some juice. The plot of Terminator: Genisys follows Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney), Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) and a re-programed Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) as they battle the terminators that have been sent to eliminate them from the time line. The main premise of this film is that the timeline has changed – something has happened to cause Skynet to send Terminator’s back, presumably in response to the previous films. Here in lies one of my main issues with this film – the film’s logic has very little… well, logic. The only way that this film makes sense is if you just accept that T2 doesn’t exist. Which is fine, but then this film has copious amounts of references to T2, such as the use of the T-1000. Okay, so then T2 does exist in this timeline. But if T2 exists in the timeline then Judgement Day was averted right? Well then you say, but wait! Maybe all the films are still in continuity, there’s nothing really contradicting Terminator 3 and Salvation, right? Wrong! The opening monologue has Kyle Reese state that Judgement Day was in 1997 – the original Judgement Day given in Terminator 1 and T2… You know the one that was simply “delayed”. So I guess it’s just implied that averting Judgement Day failed – and John Connor is alg with that and doesn’t even want to attempt to fix everything again, by… Oh I don’t know, telling Kyle Reese about all the events that led up to Genisys? Tell him information that could change the future before sending him back to bang his mum.
It’s all really a confusing mess of contradictions. Rather than cleaning up the time line it just muddled it further. This is the issue when you just start cherry picking bits and pieces of continuity and hoping whatever you make will stick. I blame this squarely on the script and how it just seemingly ignored all these holes in logic in favour of “oooo look don’t you remember that line? Ooo and how about that T-1000, he was pretty cool ae?” It comes off as a little kid reciting all their favourite moments from the series. A good writer could have woven in a logical story that doesn’t make an audience member questions the films place in continuity and to just let them go on with the ride. X-men: Days of Future Past does this really well – with the conceit that Past and Present (or Future I guess) are happening concurrently.
This is all a real shame because Terminator Genisys has a lot of good ideas in it. It is action packed, well-acted (for the most part) and is exciting – when you are not questioning the existence of the film. The core idea of the plot is fantastic – I thoroughly enjoyed visiting familiar set pieces and locations in the early part of the film. Once the film goes into its main plot and revelation of what Genisys is, part of my brain was just willing to let go of my main issue and just try to enjoy the film for what it was.
Surprisingly for the most part the film wraps itself up in a nice bow and gives a good amount of closure – which is surprising for a movie that is meant to kick off a series. Well there is one dangling plot thread – but I groaned as soon it was bought up (the start of the film) because I knew that the character’s being vague about it would mean it wouldn’t be answered until the sequel. I won’t spoil it – but if you have seen the film you know.
Onto the character work – as much shite as I gave the writing, I must say that some of the themes and ideas bought up in the film were very interesting. One of the biggest surprises was how emotionally invested I got in the Terminator character this time around. I saw emotional growth and an arc for this robotic character. This is character work for a character that hasn’t been seen since T2. The central theme, ironically enough, is the struggle of knowing your destiny and having no power to change it. This all harkens back to the saying “There’s no fate but what we make for ourselves” and it is about how Sarah Connor struggles to conform to that ideal although she knows that she births John Connor and must bang Kyle Reese. It is all felt through the actors performances, Emilia Clarke is perfect as Sarah Connor – there were scenes in the film I completely forgot that she wasn’t Linda Hamilton, she fit in the role that well. Arnold was even able to add some dimensionality and somewhat subtle humour to the role of the Terminator. The only odd one of the bunch was Jai Courtney who just came off as generic action hero.
Overall this film, despite its flaws, has me hopeful for the future of this series. Yes, the logic in the film doesn’t make sense. But, if you pull away from that and just try to see this film as an individual piece on itself, it is very enjoyable and it is true that the future is unknown. I mean obviously Skynet will return and obviously the characters will need to fight the computer once more – but, as to how that battle will play out – I do not know. I recommend people to see this one, but maybe just wait for DVD – rather than rushing to go see it.
So there it is, my review of Terminator: Genisys. Incase you haven't come across me before, I recommend you go through my back log of articles - some of them are even dangerously close to being passable :0. So be sure to click on that red glove and comment with your opinion. Now that my shilling is out of the way I bid you beatiful people adeu and now it is time to end this awkward send off.