Terminator Genisys is not very good. But, Arnold was great. You think that would be enough to make a good Terminator movie, but when the movie is bogged down with non-convincing drama, zero originality, and a distinct lack of action, not even Arnold can save it. That was not a typo I wrote, there is a LACK of action in Terminator Genisys. I’m aware Terminator 2 isnt exactly wall-to-wall action scenes, but it was also not filled to the brim with non-stop expository dialogue. Not only that, the exposition in Genysis has been said many times before in previous Terminator movies. Skynet, Cyberdyne, time travel, destiny, etc.; its all ploddingly mulled over in Genisys. There are a few pretty damn memorable moments, and a great use of Arnolds trademark “I’ll be back”, those moments however are few and far between. I wasn’t expecting Genysis to be as good as Terminator 2; but when the director and writers are clearly trying to make the movie as awesome as T2 by having so much ‘philosophical’ dialogue and an involved story with tie-ins to the previous movies, and they fail, it’s a bigger failure than dumbing down the franchise and making Genisys a shallow popcorn flick. Genisys reaches out so much and has practically nothing new to offer.
Genisys begins in the war torn future of man vs. machine. John Conner (Jason Clarke) sends Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back in time to 1984 to protect Sarah Conner (Emilia Clarke) from the original terminator from the first movie. However, something in the timeline gets altered and 1984 Sarah doesn’t need protecting anymore, she is already aware of the impending man vs. machine war and has a plan to stop Skynet before it gets uploaded. She has also been protected during her entire youth by a T-800 terminator model whom she has grown a fatherly attachment toward and calls Pop’s. Kyle, Sarah, and Pop’s acquire an important chip from ANOTHER pursuing Terminator (sent to 1984 to kill Kyle) so they can travel to the future and stop Genisys (basically the new Skynet) from being uploaded into all our cell phones and online devices, thus preventing the machine wars all together. John Conner (who is now a Terminator/human hybrid) follows them through time to put a stop to their plan of destroying Genisys.
You got all that? It’s an overly convoluted story which honestly feels like 3 movies in one. Genisys tries really hard to expand the mythos of the Terminator world. It works in some ways, and I applaud them for trying to tie all the movies together, but it leaves so little to the imagination. H.P. Lovecraft said the scariest fear is fear of the unknown, and Genisys reveals way too much of everything to the point where its not scary or interesting anymore. And, worst of all, gets in the way of the action! Terminator 2 was written in such a way where the action scenes felt important and necessary and manifested organically from the story. Genisys is mostly LOTS of dialogue, followed by a somewhat decent action scene, which often feels shoehorned in to appease the audience.
But , lets quickly say the things in Genysis that kicked ass; the intro was good, Asian T-1000 was really cool, Jason Clarke played a good John Conner, the main villain felt scary, Arnolds line delivery was spot on, and the action scenes were filmed nicely. So, Genisys had a lot going for it, I just wish the story wasn’t so boring.