Terminator Genisys

Thursday 2nd July - 20:00 - Leigh

(including guest review from The Film Lord)

Listen and understand!  That Terminator is out there!  It's can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with, it doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear, and it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead........unless there is some serious bond villain-esque exposition and repeat dialogue it needs to get across, then it will just meander and chat away, and probably bore you to death!

I would say "Warning, Spoilers Ahead", but the trailers for this film have done that anyway!

I had heard a couple of reviews of Terminator Genisys before going to see the film, and none of them were overly positive. Yet, I began to question to critics view,  I was really enjoying the film.  It starts with atmosphere-sucking Jai Courtney repeating Sarah Connor's lines from the first film, and then mirrors yet changes the first 20 minutes from Terminator. It explains why the T-800 arrives in 1984 in a kneeing position whilst Kyle Reese lands with a bang, it plays well on the nostalgia of the original and then throws another few terminators into the mix, the twist on Sarah Connor is great, even though the explanation really needs some work, I was thinking maybe the critics were being a little harsh on Genisys.  Then it all went wrong!

When our band of heroes move forward to 2017 and John Connor Terminator is introduced the film just lost all atmosphere, excitement and thrill and just became a run of the mill, exposition led, CGI filled, confused with it's own continuity, mess of a film.

 Jai Courtney managed to suck the life out of every scene in a way only he can and Jason Clarke's new and improved Terminator was just not menacing at all.  In the first two films Arnold and Robert Patrick have very few lines of dialogue, they are relentless, they walk into a room and shoot first and don't ask questions, even the terrible terminatrix from "Rise of the Machines" does not stop for a chat.  The fact that the John Connor-bot continues to repeat the same lines over and over and gives the rebels his full backstory, plans for the future and how he is going to do everything just takes the impact and power out of the character.

There were many points during Genisys that I felt bored, and at some of these points there was a lot of action happening on screen.  The CGI helicopter chase, the CGI Jurassic Park 2 bus scene, the CGI final big battle, just not interesting.  When you have seen practical effects and CGI combined with such impact as in Mad Max Fury Road, then these efforts just really stand out. The main plot changer from the start of the film that a Terminator was sent back to when Sarah Connor was a 9 year old and "Pops" was also sent back to protect is never explained, who sent them?  Also, going on Back to the Future's Doc Brown theory "I foresee two possibilities.  One, coming face to face with yourself would put you into shock and you'd simply pass out, or two, the encounter could create a time paradox, the results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum, and destroy the entire universe!"

I went in with low expectations for the film, hoping that they may be raised to just mediocre expectations.  Unfortunately, Genisys had so much potential to start with, but it's battery just ran out too soon.

Arnold on the other hand was great!
and yes, there is a mid credit sequence to set up the next film!

But, don't just take my word for it!

Guest Review: The Film Lord

Terminator Genysis leaves me with a conundrum, how I feel about this film?  

Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day are two of the greatest sci-fi (and in the case of the first Horror) films of all time. Now before seeing Genysis I’d already made up my mind that I didn’t like the casting of Sarah Conner or Kyle Reese. I also had no expectations that the film was going to hold up to the originals, I mean how could they. No all I needed was fun.  Just give me 2 hours of Arnold being the Terminator and my nostalgia will do the rest.

And did it deliver? Well at this point I’ve had around 12 hours to think about it and I can whole-heartedly say HELL YESS it did. 

What Terminator Genysis does so well is not only does it know how to play with your nostalgia but also how to layer its own story on top. It manages to do what many sequels forget to and that’s simply have fun…….. For about 30 minutes.

Then the second act begins and frankly what’s the point, if you’ve
seen a film in the last ten years then you’ve seen everything Terminator has to offer. Also about this Terminator, remember in the original film when Kyle and Sarah were actually running for their life, trying desperately to stay ahead of this unstoppable killing machine. Well not in Genysis , no this Terminator
willingly shows up every few minutes so our heroes can pump a few rounds of ammunition into him. No tension, no suspense and no sense of danger just “Hello did you really think, blah, blah blah” and yes with the amount of monologuing he insists on doing I was hoping at some point he’d kill them just so he’d shut up.

That being said the biggest issue this film has, apart from Jai Courtney, is for some reason they don’t explain the films central premise. To have to main crux of your movie be “someone sent a Terminator back before the events of the first film” only to then not actually tell you the identity of that “someone” is an insult to the viewer. That would be bad enough on it’s own but the film is littered with so many massive plot holes I can only assume the writer gave up trying to have it all make sense.

As for the casting well Arnold is the Terminator, plain and simple, yes his acting has gotten worse but when did you watch an Arnold film for acting. Emilia Clarke is no Linda Hamilton but she does fine with the little she has to do. Jai Courtney is well Jai Courtney if he’s not going to display an emotion then neither will I. As for Jason Clarke I don’t get him, he’s a serviceable actor but it say’s a lot when your main “bad guy” Terminator is upstaged by the one you throwaway in the first act (shout out to Lee Byung-hun)

Now it may sound like I hated the movie, I didn’t, I liked the premise, some of the action scenes were okay (some terrible granted) I laughed at the silly one liners, JK Simmons brief appearance was fun and it was great seeing Arnold being the Terminator again. It’s just such a shame because I do feel in places there’s been an actual attempt to make something more than your
standard blockbuster only to then fall into the same modern movie tropes.

Also note to all screenwriters, directors and movies bosses, cleaners, caterers and so on…. big overblown CGI endings aren’t as impressive as you think they are.

So how do I feel about this film? I honestly don’t know....