Terminator Genisys (2015)

The first two Terminator films are among the best of their genre and are brilliant films also in their own right. Rise of the Machines started the series' decline and had its faults but also had some good things that made it better than its reputation, while Terminator Salvation although with its moments was even more disappointing. While not a complete disaster, the latest in the Terminator franchise is the worst yet and sees a once classic series at rock bottom.

Are there any good points? Not many, but yes there are. The best thing about Terminator Genisys is Arnold Schwarzenegger, while more subdued than he can be he is rock-solid and has the most intensity and charisma of the entire cast. Despite not having a lot of screen time and being mute, Byung-hun Lee is nonetheless credible as T-1000. Some of the scenery is quite atmospheric and striking.

Everything else was severely wanting. The rest of the cast are not good at all, with Jai Courtney being by far the worst actor for Kyle Reese of the series in a performance that is both insipid and annoying (which didn't entirely surprise me seeing as out of the little I've seen of him he's always struck me as a lazy actor with an arrogant ego). Just as much as the anaemic Emilia Clarke faring the worst of all the actresses playing Sarah Connor, who behaves in a way that you'd expect a stereotypical bratty and vapid high school teenager to act but not Sarah Connor. Jason Clarke is not quite as stiff as Christian Bale was in Terminator Salvation, but it is still a shock to see the role of John Connor being performed and written so blandly. The chemistry between them is also barely there, most of the time it's even non-existent. JK Simmons is basically wasted, and his dialogue and character are forced and out of place.

The characters are like personality-less ciphers, with none of what made them so memorable before as characters and no convincing conflict, in a film that definitely could have benefited from less characters and more development (which is non-existent) . The script is overstuffed and confused, as well as tonally unbalanced with overly-complex scientific jargon, cheesy one-liners (even Schwarzenegger's don't work particularly well this time), misplaced comedy (that's even more distracting than in Rise of the Machines and used with even less subtlety) and too many ideas barely explored. The story, as well as having a stitched-together episodic feel, is at best a head-scratcher, with it being confused to being at times incoherent as a result of doing too little with too much. It's also very dull, not just because of the leaden pacing but because there is not much new and little interesting is done with the ideas presented in the film and it completely lacks atmosphere, thrills, mystery or suspense, and any drama is both heavy handed and lacking in heart.

Direction from Alan Taylor is lazy, favouring spectacle over depth and story and character development. And unfortunately the spectacle is not that good. The special effects are not terrible, but they at best never rise above just-passable (the worst of the series in this regard, they are quite poor actually in the beginning section and fake-looking too in other parts), are used with little to no imagination, and there is too many of them (sometimes in places where they were not even needed). The action sequences are equally painfully unimaginative, are sloppily edited, are leadenly and predictability choreographed and contain no tension or thrills whatso

Fmovies: The story ended with T2, Cameron told all the story needed and moved on unlike fans of this sorry forced franchise and the three studios that each picked up the rights and made one contrived cash-grab after the next before passing it on one after the other like a dirty whore.

This is the worst rehash of old ideas ever resold to a desperate fanbase. A baby-faced Sarah Connor who looks like she should be getting ready for a prom date unlike the hardened paramilitary character that Lind Hamilton trained like a madwoman to deliver in looks and performance. Some 8-ball headed actor trying to pass of John Connor, an Asian Robert Patrick doing all the same stuff we saw 20 years ago and an old age pensioner Arnorld Schwarzenegger being made to do everything in CGI his awful frame lost the ability to do decades ago.

Only Hollywood would flog a dead horse so continuously and still find an audience however small and desperate, to watch and cheer every single swing of the lash.

In 1984, fans of sci-fi with action were surprised by "Terminator", one of the best films of this genre in the cinema industry. Followed by the excellent sequel "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" (1991), the franchise apparently ended in 2003 with "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines". However, in 2008, it was released the series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" that also worked well showing how Sarah and John Connor survived along the years. In 2009, the exhausted franchise was revived by Hollywood with "Terminator Salvation".

Unfortunately "Terminator Genisys" is a typical example of the present days of Hollywood that insists in destroying great films from the past with the mediocrity of the present writers. This time, the studio does not only destroy the franchise but also the character John Connor and the initial vulnerability of Sarah Connor. The number of inconsistencies and paradoxes in the "butterfly effect" of the story is amazing. The best part of this movie is the smile of Pops. My vote is four.

Title (Brazil): "O Exterminador do Futuro: Gênesis" ("The Terminator from the Future: Genisys")

Terminator Genisys fmovies. The new Terminator wasn't terrible! I'm surprised. Though it had its flaws it was much better then Terminator 3 and Salvation... and I actually enjoyed it mostly. I probably won't be watching it like 30 times like Judgement Day, but its not like I expected it to ever live up to Cameron's work....

First off, the action was good and so was the pace, the film never became boring even with how complex the story was so it certainly gets points for that.

The film itself runs like the greatest hits of the the franchise which is both good and bad.

The pros: Revisiting 1984 (the first terminator timeline) was a lot of fun for obvious reasons.. You get more things like crazy manoeuvres from the T1000 etc and Arnie gets to kick some ass and even be funny at times....

The cons: How many times do they have to repeat lines from the previous films? Sarah Conner says: "Come with me if you want to live" Really? Again? Really? Come on, having that as an obligatory line in each movie is actually annoying. "I'll be back" is just like an obligatory oh, we'll just squeeze that in there, the audience will love that! Nope, not really, see in the first Terminator that had impact! Like the impact of a car coming through the wall! This is there just for the sake of it...

Aside from that, I think JK Simmons character was borderline pointless, you could nearly have cut him out of the movie and barely noticed! A crying shame for such an excellent actor.. Generally the script could have done with more tweaking, some plot towards the end just seemed outright silly, but I will say the chemistry between Arnie and Emilia was actually pretty good!

Overall: It's no Judgement day but you know what, it was actually a decent film and it was great to see Arnie as the Terminator again, and not saying "talk to the hand" . I can see why James Cameron endorsed this as the true sequel to T2...