Terminator: Genisys follows Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) time-traveling back to 1984 to stop a Terminator sent from the future to kill Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke). Sarah Connor just so happens to be the mother of John Connor, (Jason Clarke) the leader of the resistance that fights an army of robots called Skynet in a post apocalyptic future. Instead of traveling back to save Sarah Connor, Kyle is transported into an alternate timeline, where Sarah Connor is a fearless warrior that is protected by a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) sent prior to 1984 to protect her. As they attempt to figure out what causes the alternate timeline, they rush to stop an artificial intelligence called "Genisys" (Skynet in disguise) from launching a catastrophic assault on humanity while also fending off John Connor, who is now a new version of a Terminator. Now usually, I would consider the whole "John Conner-conundrum" a "spoiler," but since the studio decided that they would release that bit of info any chance they could get in every trailer/ tv spot, I see that I am doing no damage whatsoever. Dumb move on the part of the studio, because that John Connor/ Terminator plot could have been a really good twist for the story. Too bad, I guess.
Anyway, the plot gets really confusing and somewhat repetitive as the plot progresses, (Which is predictable when it comes to time-travel stories) but for such an ambitious plot device, I was disappointed in how conservative they were with the time-traveling concept. For example, the only years Kyle, Sarah and the Guardian explored was 1984 (the past), 2017(not our present but I guess it was suppose to be?), and 2029 (the future). The best movie out of the Terminator franchise was and still is "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," so why not give us the chance to explore the nostalgia of the 90s? There were plenty of Easter eggs and nods of the original Terminator movie. The only nods to "Judgment Day" are basically small characters name-dropped in 2017 and the existence of the T-1000. This is unacceptable. What is also unacceptable is how surprisingly generic the action is. The basic blueprint of Terminator: Genisys's action scenes are basically: Shoot the indestructible robot with as many bullets as you can! (It won't do damage, but it's better than doing nothing...) Robot vs. Robot fight scene! Keep shooting! Human vs. Robot fight scene! Car chase! Are we out of ammo yet? Nope! Keep shooting! Chase scene but with helicopters! Robot vs. Robot fight yet again! and etc. Although there are a few cool moments in those action scenes, for me personally, they're not as memorable as the ones in "The Terminator" or "Terminator: Judgment Day." Besides its notable negatives, the positives of this movie do come from the cast itself. The character interactions are great between Jai Courtney, Emilia Clarke, and especially Arnold Schwarzenegger, who delivers a just as memorable performance as he did in Terminator 2. Arnold is a more humorous character in this film than he was in previous iterations, but he still kicks ass as an older model of a T-800. He is by far, the best character of the movie. Another thing I also liked about the movie is even though the action is somewhat generic, the finishes to them are spectacularly different in their own unique ways. Whether it's a bullet to the robotic neck, an acid bath, or a dive-bomb to a helicopter, I admire the different methods of defeat that keep this film from repeating itself.
If you want to go and see Terminator: Genisys, that is your choice and yours alone, but if you want to skip seeing Terminator: Genisys, believe me, you're not missing anything special. I give Terminator: Genisys a score of 3.5 out of 5.
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