TERMINATOR GENISYS – REVIEW – THE FUTURE ISN’T SET

Terminator Genisys is the 4th sequel to the 1984 classic and being that only one of its sequels has been good, it has a lot to live up to. So, is it any good?

YES

It’s hard going into a film like this and not seeing it as it is, a sequel to one of the greatest movies of our generation “Terminator 2: Judgement Day”. T2 is a masterpiece in its own right, and to tarnish that would be sacrilege.  The most powerful statement of the franchise is “The future is not written, there’s no fate, but what we make for ourselves”. T3 tore that statement apart by saying that “Fate is not real, our paths are chosen for us”… Seriously… Fuck you Terminator 3.

Don’t even get me started on Salvation. It had so much potential, but it was bogged down by an abysmal script and a director called McG… Really? I mean what kind of name is that? Is that his birth name? Did his parents think the birth certificate was order sheet for McDonald’s delivery?

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Terminator Genisys re-establishes that statement and uses it for the bases of the story line. The future isn’t written, anything and everything can change, and it has. It sets itself apart from Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation by heading down a new road, taking what we know about the franchise and turning it on its cyborg skull. Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) is sent back in time to 1984, the same date and time as the original Terminator film, however things have been altered. Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) knows who he is; she’s been in preparation for his arrival, along with Pops a Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) sent back in time to protect her as a child. This rift has also changed the events of Judgement Day causing a new threat to materialize and destroy the human race.

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There are a lot of underlying messages in this film. Pops (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a like a father figure to Sarah, he cares for her, warns her (including a few disapproving remarks towards the Kyle and Sarah relationship) and would do anything to protect her.  Its things like this that keeps this movie about robots punching other robots grounded. We care for the characters, we want them to succeed. Not that there is anything wrong with some punchy punchy, I just like to have a little bit of realism here and there. Adding to this is the blossoming relationship between Kyle and Sarah. While their acting might have been a little midday movie, you could see the struggle they had, showing their feelings to one another, knowing all too well the events that would occur if they were to get a little frisky.

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I would have loved to see certain things in Terminator Genisys happen on screen as they were meant to for the first time, rather them being ruined by the second trailer. I won’t spoil it in case you have missed the trailer, however it’s a big plot point and would have stood for a great reveal in the movie as a lot was established to contrive it.

Can we make it a point from here on out to only watch the first trailer for blockbuster movies and avoid the rest like the bubonic plague?

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While there is a whole lot of good in this film, it’s somewhat hard to look past certain things. In the scenes showing a post Judgement Day, we are exposed to a world of ash, dirt and filth. Yet immediately after this, still in this desolate future we see concentration camps run by T800’s. These camps I would imagine to be similar to the events of the Holocaust. However here, humans are dressed nicely, clean shaven, well fed and morally pretty happy. I mean, am I to believe they have these T800’s in chefs hats, cooking and feeding these guys, knowing all too well they are being rounded up to be killed? Who is washing their clothes? Is it out of the budget to wipe some mud on their faces?

Overall Terminator Genisys is a nice move for the franchise. I had my doubts leading up to the release, but if you can forgive the franchise for its last two instalments, you’ll find a lot to love in this new sequel.

TERMINATOR GENISYS is in theatres across Australia on July 1

We will post a more spoilery talk on the film in coming days so please stay tuned

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