FilmSnobReviews

Title: Terminator Genisys
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Director: Alan Taylor
Starring: Emilia Clarke, Jason Clarke, Jai Courtney
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins

What It Is: When the world is thrown in to chaos via Judgment Day the machines have risen and only John Connor (Clarke) can lead the resistance against them. When they attempt to change the future to prevent the events that lead to Judgment Day from happening. John sends his best soldier Kyle Reese (Courtney) back to 1984 when John’s mother Sarah (Clarke) was most in danger. Turns out however the terminator from the first film arrived early and has been teaching Sarah since she was 9 how to save the future from Judgment Day.

What We Think: Okay, so this is not an easy film to like, this stems from being so easy to hate. Everyone wants this to fail. Well it doesn’t, not completely. It certain is a whole lot better than Terminator: Salvation and I’d say more fitting to the aura of the franchise than Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. One thing that will polarize audiences is the fact that it undoes everything about the Cameron originals. In addition Skynet becomes Genisys, which is essentially a hologram of Matt Smith chillin’. Towards the end of the film it begins to all fall to pieces. Not only does the ending make little sense, but it trashes most of the franchises history. For me as a huge fan that is a gigantic no-no.

Our Grade: D+, This is by no means a failure, but it isn’t good. Jai Courtney is a bland as vanilla yogurt (once again), but more disappointingly is Emilia Clarke who just isn’t good. Jason Clarke is awesome, but many have questioned the origin of his characters transformation. If you’d like an explanation feel free to chat with me here in the comments or on Facebook or Twitter. I’d love to discuss my perspective on it. In closing I cannot recommend this too highly. It just doesn’t do anything great.