When the Terminator movie rights went up for sale and pulled back into the world of movie making, you had to assume that with the big bucks spent on the rights, they would drop quality dough on the story.
But on the bright side, no matter what comes of this new rendition of Terminator, the rights will likely revert back to James Cameron in 2019, but whether he makes another film or leases out the rights is another filmmaker remains to be seen.
With that said...
When Terminator Genisys begins we get treated to some new background story from the future that leads up to events where we watch Reese get himself teleported back to 1984 to save Sarah Connor.
But this new tale, this reboot of the franchise, has a few ideas or twists up its sleeve, because if you've seen the synopsis of the film, it reads as follows:
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When John Connor (Jason Clarke), leader of the human resistance against Skynet, sends Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 to protect his mother, Sarah (Emilia Clarke), from a Terminator assassin, an unexpected turn of events creates an altered timeline. Instead of a scared waitress, Sarah is a skilled fighter and has a Terminator guardian (Arnold Schwarzenegger) by her side. Faced with unlikely allies and dangerous new enemies, Reese sets out on an unexpected new mission: reset the future.
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With this in mind, we're treated to a few familiar scenes and familiar situations, but all compacted into this one reboot film.
The first hour is fairly fast-paced, but feels like two hours, while things are jumbled together to give us our first act.
Throughout the entire film we are repeatedly treated to scenes that are either coincidental, or meant to be repeatedly pay homage to the original films. Plus there are some familiar lines in the film placed throughout, but uttered and muttered in different moments and different places.
There were a few twists here and there that are actually surprises, and generally speaking, it wasn't a bad time killer to sit back and spend a few hours to see what the did with the franchise.
They easily explained away why Arnold looks like an old Terminator, while Emilia Clarke's Sarah was OK, but I was looking for her dragons! (GoT fans will get that one.)
Arnold was Arnold, as he reprised the role that made the franchise what it is today.
J.K. Simmons was quietly brilliant in his bit part, and it was a surprise to see Doctor Who's Matt Smith in the flick.
Don't let the middle act confuse you, but this is where the various time streams tend to entangle with each other and start to pan out in the present.
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The masses over on IMDb gave the film a 6.6/10 while the professional critics over on Rotten Tomatoes scored it at a 26%. But you know how critics treat genre films.
As it stands, at most, I'd give it a popcorn 6/10. I think I'm being generous there but it is what it is.
It was fun to see Arnold in his career making role again. I'll give it that.
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