Barely two weeks after Jurassic World injected one last gasp of life into the ailing Jurassic Park franchise, along comes Terminator: Genisys, an attempt to do the same thing. The parallels are undeniable — both franchises started as instant classics, only to falter stupendously in a couple of worthless sequels. Now, both series are back with a sense of modernity and an aim to please longtime fans. The results are surprisingly similar with both films.
Terminator: Genisys starts strong, with the classic “future war” setting the stage. As far as first impressions go, it’s a good one, as Genisys effectively captures the visual flair of the 1984 and 1991 counterparts. The future is eternally dark, lit only by spotlights, lasers, and evil red Terminator eyes. The bad taste left by Terminator Salvation — which talked up a big “future war” game but gave us something relentlessly generic — is washed away.
The opening minutes of the film tell the Terminator story as if the sequels never happened. Judgement Day happens in 1997, John Connor emerges as a war hero, and Skynet sends a Terminator back to 1984 to kill his mother, Sarah Connor, before he’s ever born. To retaliate, John Connor sends back his own warrior, Kyle Reese, to protect Sarah and stop the Terminator. As a bit of fanboy of the first two films, seeing this side of the story on screen was genuinely really cool.
From there Genisys begins to forge its own identity. Something happens to disturb the timestream and Kyle Reese arrives in 1984 to a very different set of events from the first film. It’s worth noting that despite the title, this isn’t a reboot of the franchise. In fact, the remainder of the film directly plays off of differences from the previous films in ways that make it impossible for newcomers to appreciate.
Terminator: Genisys is a film for fans of the franchise, through and through. And I say that in the most genuine sense — Terminator and T2 are brilliant, but even the most deluded lovers of these films have to admit that T3 and Salvation were pretty awful. Genisys feels more like a proper, respectable third film –or, at least closer in spirit to The Sarah Connor Chronicles TV series than the last two sequels.
But much like Jurassic World, the modernity that gives the film a fun sense of self-awareness also infuses it with a healthy stream of crummy CG effects and limp action. The 80s and 90s were amazing times for action films — something that the god-tier Mad Max Fury Road violently reminded us of — and Terminator: Genisys fails to stroke that one particular bit of nostalgia. There are a lot of wacky ideas in Genisys that keep the plot engaging and fun, but the action mostly just gets in the way, failing to punch up the plot and suspense the way the first films did.
It’s impossible to get into plot specifics without immediately spoiling some of the surprises, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least give a shoutout to Schwarzenegger. I was really worried when I saw the initial trailers that he’d be too old to successfully pull off this role again, yet here he is, owning the character he was born to play. Most of the cast deliver workman-like performances, getting the job done but not much more. Schwarzenegger pours his heart into it, though, making every scene he’s in an absolute joy to watch.
In my review of Jurassic World, I called it the second-best Jurassic Park film. It’s not necessarily the highest praise, but calling Terminator: Genisys the third-best Terminator film feels equally poetic. Do I think this franchise has the potential for something better than Genisys? Absolutely. (My idea? Stretch the first 10 minutes into a full-length future war prequel and hand it over to George Miller to direct) That said, Genisys hits some high notes that the third and fourth films never came close to, making this crusty old franchise something worth getting excited about again.
