Terminator Genisys

Reset the future.

31 years ago the world witnessed the premier of a Sci-Fi film like no other: The Terminator!  a film so massively popular, that spawned a film franchise, a TV series, videogames, collectible merchandise (being sold until this very day) and an extended list of doppelgangers. Clearly, the talented eye of James Cameron had what it took to deliver a couple of fantastic man versus machine science fiction films.  Terminator Genisys attempts to make the franchise relevant for a whole new generation while paying homage to the old school fans of the franchise around the world. Since these films deal with time travel, and time travel it's still a science fiction thing, all the liberties this film took to explain why everything has been reset may or may not be everyone's cup of tea. Personally, it was my cup of tea, pour me some more please!

Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier ( T5 screen writers) have built an impressive scenario that balances paying homage to the first two Cameron films with the need for new creative possibilities beyond the original Terminator story arc. The film opens with a prologue, which tells of the death of three billion people on Judgement Day plus the origin and current state of resistance led by you know who. Then, one of the greatest Terminator mysteries is solved on screen: We finally get to know the time machine Terminators & humans used in the previous films to save mankind from ultimate doom. It is at that same moment that Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) steps into the time machine to go back in time to protect Sarah Connor, mother of the leader of the resistance (as if we didn't know this already but, hey! this film also wants to captivate newer generations)

I am fucking back.

Miss me?

Terminator Genisys tagline, "The Rules Have Been Reset" make total sense in the first ten minutes of the film. While Kyle Reese is inside the time machine being transported to that legendary date of  May 12 1984. However, before Reese's walking nude in the past asking "What day is it? The date!" John Connor (Jason Clarke) is brutally attacked by an infiltrated Terminator. Helpless, Reese travels back in time with a mission and a deadline. Now, will this attack on Connor have any influence in the past? Well, we're about to find out!

Although  Kyle Reese arrives stark naked in the same dark and grungy alley of Cameron's first movie, the 1984 which he finds himself in is vastly different. Somewhere else (maybe the greatest retro feels you can get are on this scene) , the T-100 which Skynet had sent to kill Sarah Connor is greeted and terminated by a T-800, which is no less than Sarah's guardian. Nevertheless Sarah Connor is no longer hapless and confused (as she was in The Terminator)  instead she's a tough warrior who has been resisting the Terminators since her childhood days! In another turn of events, while Reese is escaping the police He's welcomed by a very special kind of police officer: a T-1000!! just like the one from T2 Judgment Day!!

The new Sarah Connor & Kyle Reese.

John Connor's original scars return.

To its credit, the film does reflect the inevitable bewilderment of its fans in Kyle's struggle to reconcile the past he knows with flashbacks that he gained from the time jump – and for those who are wondering what's the science behind it, Sarah's T-800 offers some reasoning for the changes in the time line mentioning a "nexus point" as the possible cause. That same logic is also used to justify the new date for Judgment Day (Originally August 29 1997 in Terminator 2 & July 25 2004 in Terminator 3), which is now scheduled to take place in 2017 via an omnipresent operating system known as Genisys. Just as the original tapped into the zeitgeist's fears of technology, this reboot retains the same paranoia but updates it for the smartphone era of interconnected devices.

As we are soon told, Genisys is no more than a cover for Skynet to unleash global annihilation with the help of none other than John Connor himself, who after sending Reese to the past was captured and transformed into the latest Terminator trend: An organic metal alloy body. Jason Clarke does an excellent job of making the character fearsome and formidable. His John Connor makes a perfect foil to Courtney's Kyle Reese, whose fresh-faced earnestness makes him an endearingly empathetic hero. Then we have Game Of Thrones starlet Emilia Clarke, whose portrayal of a hardened Sarah Connor lacks the original  combination of grit and vulnerability seen in the first two films of the franchise. Nevertheless, this does not mean Emilia Clarke doesn't deliver. Her Sarah Connor has grown up fighting robots under the tutelage of an old T-800 which she fondly calls "Pops". I really liked her tough girl who's always ready rendition of the character. Unfortunately, she wasn't nude during the film (Game of Thrones fans will know what I'm talking about)

Come with me if you wanna live!

shit, shit shit!

What about Arnie? the franchise's most iconic star Arnold Schwarzenegger gets a pleasantly surprising breath of 'Terminator' roles with the parallel timelines – not only as the T-100 and T-800 we've seen him as, but also a much more visibly aged T-800 and a spiffy new upgrade right at the end. Schwarzenegger is still having fun turning his character's utter humorlessness into deadpan comedy – and besides trying to add new catchphrases like "bite me" and "I'm old… not obsolete" into the lexicon, also has a field day trying to look friendlier by putting on a robotic smile.

Now the man behind the chair, Alan Taylor, does a fine job keeping all the moving pieces together. As he did with 'Thor: The Dark World', Taylor demonstrates a workmanlike proficiency in summer blockbuster-making, alternating between deafening action sequences and obligatory exposition while interspersing the proceedings with cheeky self-aware humor and moments of obligatory poignancy. Unlike the entirely dour 2009 sequel 'Terminator Salvation'(we won't review it, it's so bad it hurts), Taylor pretty much keeps to the tone of the first two James Cameron movies, so much so that his rendition feels familiar and fresh at the same time. Except for a massive vehicular smash-up on the Golden Gate Bridge that culminates in a school bus dangling over its edge, there are no standout sequences here, but Taylor maintains a brisk pace throughout so you'll never get bored.

Hi mom, I'm back from the future!

...with a few surprising upgrades.

At this point in the franchise, it is perhaps too tall an order for any filmmaker to reclaim the aura of Cameron's groundbreaking originals, but 'Terminator Genisys' comes the closest of the three sequels since to their spirit. Even if it isn't outstanding, it is a fine piece of popcorn entertainment that is as good an introduction as any to the franchise as much as it will be nostalgia for fans, provided they can accept that the timeline they knew will be no more. And at thirty- one years (or sixty-seven for Schwarzenegger), one could certainly say that the Terminator is old, but as this sequel cum reboot shows, age does not necessarily make one obsolete. 

Overall, Terminator Genisys offers a new possibility in a universe that has been already established, whether in the past films Judgment Day was inevitable, this new film goes for the "life is what you make it" tagline so we're clearly entering a new trilogy were Skynet has grown smarter and meaner. Luckily our heroes are up to the challenge...

Sarah Connor in a very different nude timeline.

Don't let Pops find this picture Sarah!

Here's the first trailer:
 

Here's the second trailer: