Terminator Genisys, the new film in the Terminator franchise is surprisingly enjoyable, for all of ten minutes. The film begins exactly where fans wanted it to begin, the conflict between man and machine, it seems like, finally audiences will see the epic struggle teased in the first two films. It is, unfortunately short lived, as we are then subjected to two hours of what must be the most convoluted, contradictory time travel plotline in cinematic history.
Unfortunately the trailer had given most of the surprises away, a tendency the Terminator films have a nasty habit of doing. So while I will avoid spoilers where possible, the honest truth is that there are not many to give away in fairness. The main problem the film has, is that it has none of the ominous threat of the first two films.
What made Terminator and Terminator 2 so great, was the fact you had an unstoppable killing machine hell bent on destroying humanities future, by hunting characters who we felt were extremely vulnerable, Sarah Connor in the first and John in the second. There was a true feeling of terror and fear for the characters lives. Never once throughout Genisys do you truly feel these characters are vulnerable, you actually fear for the machines.
I can understand what the writers were trying to do, by exploring the past and recreating the events of the first two films, but is that what audiences really wanted? I mean we’ve seen those films and seen them done much better thanks to Mr Cameron. Surely changing these events creates a massive paradox, as ultimately, doesn’t John Connor’s existence depend on the machines? If the Terminators didn’t exist, then one never would have been sent back to kill Sarah Connor, which in turn means Kyle Reese would never have been sent back to father John.
So even if we choose to ignore this fact, and the whole point is to stop judgment day from ever occurring, the film chooses to skip over the whole explanation and simply asks the audience to pretty much just accept it. No amount of exposition ever truly explains this to the audience. As surely if the mission is to stop judgment day, then the Terminators who were sent back in time to protect/kill the characters, wouldn’t exist in the first place?
The film leaves you with a lot more questions than answers, and the more you think about the whole time travel debacle subplots, the more it doesn’t make any sense. However if you can completely switch your mind off, and sit back and enjoy the action, you will leave thinking the film was ok (at best).
#Peace.Love.Terminator
