Terminator Genisys

Well the earlier parts of the Terminator franchise was able to set certain benchmarks in their visual representation, either in the visual effects department or the kind of destruction set pieces it used to have. Terminator Genisys in a way is the more elaborate movie in the franchise and sadly the most confusing narrative. With a goal that looks quite familiar, Terminator Genisys is an okay film that falls in the average category.

The movie begins in the year 2029 and a terminator has been sent to kill Sarah O’Conner by the Skynet (Beginning of Terminator 1). John O’Conner who leads the fight against Skynet allows his friend Kyle Reese to go back to 1984 to save John’s mother. The movie’s basic focus is the combined attempt of Sarah, Reese and the T 800 (Arnold) to stop the judgment day from happening by stopping the launch of Genisys, an operating system which kind of connects everything done by a humans. Apologies if I exposed too much.

The problem basically is in its narrative’s confusion. Too many memories, too many time travels and all that with characters which were already established by James Cameroon. Somewhere in the middle of the movie you will be like “hey can you just pause it for a second? I just lost it.” And honestly this is not the typical Nolan confusion which will leave you awestruck. There are a few moments were you would appreciate the creativity of the writers, but overall there isn’t much of an unpredictability or genuinity to this content. With very less of T 800 and zero hasta la vista, it is easy to say that this movie isn’t kickass for sure.

On the performance side, it is really sad to see Arnold Schwarzenegger in this shape. You might even feel that the film was written for him to play a hero in this age. Emilia Clarke had that energy to be the young Sarah O’Conner. Jai Courtney is just about okay. Jason Clarke was a really good performer in this man vs metal war.

Alan Taylor can’t really add that sort of edgy feel to this movie. The aggression and pace Cameroon used to give to these movies were replaced by chaos that lacked excitement. The script as I already mentioned creates some serious confusion. The new actors also looks far too different from the already established characters (Reese and Sarah on a portrayal level). I don’t think the “old but not obsolete” dialogue will create waves. Cinematography was nice and the visual effects showed quality (special mention for that CG Schwarzenegger).

So to sum it up, Terminator Genisys is an average sci fi film that has a few moments of creativity, but largely built on parts of many other future oriented movies which all of us might have seen. The rating for the movie is 2.5/5. Watchable – That’s it!