I love Arnold Schwarzenegger. I love the first two "Terminator" movies. I was incredibly excited (or optimistic) when it was announced by Megan Ellison that he would be stepping back into his iconic role for what she described as a definitively R-rated, direct sequel to the original films.
Ellison is the producer heir who has recently thrown money behind lots of hard-sell films (from P.T. Anderson to Kathryn Bigelow) and has had almost all her gambles pay off. When she departed the project shortly before production and left it to her brother, the less-revered of the siblings (she produced Foxcatcher; he executive-produced GI JOE 2), I saw that as a bad sign. I'm not happy to say that I was right.
Many are upset that this is PG-13. While it doesn't bode well for the integrity of the film itself (especially when Megan Ellison boasted about it being a return to adult filmmaking after the PG-13 Terminator Salvation in 2009), I think fanboys in particular tend to be rather petty when it comes to ratings. It is what it is, and there have been many, many excellent PG-13 action films made in the last couple decades. A movie doesn't *need* gratuitous violence and language to be inherently good, and there have been plenty of films that include those elements that ended up being total garbage.
Just look at Die Hard 5. It killed John McClane, it killed the Die Hard franchise, and yet it was rated R; the PG-13 Live Free or Die Hard was not only a financially more successful film, it also scored much better with audiences and critics.
How apt, then, that the supposed co-star of Die Hard 5, Jai Courtney, is also present in Terminator: Genisys. This is a "movie star" who is so devoid of screen presence, so empty and so boring, that it's a wonder why Hollywood has decided in the last couple of years that he should be forced down our throats as the Next Big Thing. He is a poor man's Sam Worthington, and I actually feel bad for Worthington by even saying that. I generally don't ever take a strong dislike to actors, and I'm inclined to give most a chance to prove themselves. But everything I've seen from Courtney has been offensive, from his lazy performances to his arrogant comments off-camera (he had a few choice quotes during the Genisys press tour that I found rather telling of both his lack of respect for the series and his ego), and I went into Genisys hoping it would be the film to prove me wrong about it. Spoiler alert: it wasn't.
This guy is supposed to be the new Kyle Reese, previously played by Michael Biehn and Anton Yelchin in the first and fourth films respectively. Terminator Salvation has very few fans, but you know what? It had a strong cast, Yelchin made the character his own to the degree that he could while still honoring Biehn's interpretation, and the movie at least *tried* to give its own spin on the Terminator mythology.
Genisys backtracks. It plays with the mythology but doesn't really provide a unique perspective.
The movie opens with the future war, which is crammed with plenty of poor CGI sequences. (Another victory for Terminator Salation was that it had a surprisingly cool opening shot of Christian Bale in the helicopter as it crashes and is attacked by a Terminator. This movie doesn't even have that much.)
You know the drill by now: Connor sends Reese back in time to save his mother... only when he arrives, everything has changed, and Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) is now a war-ready action heroine, and they are immediately pursued by an Asian T-1000.
I won't recap the plot anymore because I will inevitably run out of my 1,000 word limit (Word says I'm getting close). What I will say is that it's here where Arnold comes "back," and yes, he is by far the best part of the film. One almost wonder whether they deliberately sabotaged the movie with two charisma-free leads in Clarke and Courtney so that Ahnuld wouldn't be upstaged.
But as much as I love the guy, I had the same issues with him here that I did in Sabotage, the film I thought was most likely to reinvigorate his career until I actually saw it. Simply put, he hasn't aged particularly well, and this shows pretty clearly in the fight scenes; in many, he seems to have been lazily digitally imposed over stunt men, and it's distracting more than anything. He has kind of a creaky, croaky screen presence (something he tried, and failed, to put to good use in Maggie), and although the filmmakers attempt to capitalize upon this by making the new Terminator a "Guardian" Father Figure for Sarah (she even refers to him kind of obnoxiously as "Pops" throughout the film), we're constantly reminded of how much more fluid and convincing he was in the first two films, both as the menacing, horrific cyborg and as the reprogrammed father figure to John.
And that's the ultimate problem with Terminator: Genisys. It has nothing new to say. Despite all its claims to the contrary, it's ultimately spinning the same tale through the prism of the older films, doing nothing other than to remind us of how superior they were. John Connor being turned into the villain (which isn't even a spoiler now since it's on the poster and in the trailer) isn't much different than the original ending to McG's film. The "Guardian" being a father to Sarah is no different than the Terminator being a father to John in T- 2. It's not a reboot so much as an homage-packed retreat, following the same beats but lacking the heart and technical ingenuity. This isn't a horrible film, but you know what? T3 was better.
Ellison is the producer heir who has recently thrown money behind lots of hard-sell films (from P.T. Anderson to Kathryn Bigelow) and has had almost all her gambles pay off. When she departed the project shortly before production and left it to her brother, the less-revered of the siblings (she produced Foxcatcher; he executive-produced GI JOE 2), I saw that as a bad sign. I'm not happy to say that I was right.
Many are upset that this is PG-13. While it doesn't bode well for the integrity of the film itself (especially when Megan Ellison boasted about it being a return to adult filmmaking after the PG-13 Terminator Salvation in 2009), I think fanboys in particular tend to be rather petty when it comes to ratings. It is what it is, and there have been many, many excellent PG-13 action films made in the last couple decades. A movie doesn't *need* gratuitous violence and language to be inherently good, and there have been plenty of films that include those elements that ended up being total garbage.
Just look at Die Hard 5. It killed John McClane, it killed the Die Hard franchise, and yet it was rated R; the PG-13 Live Free or Die Hard was not only a financially more successful film, it also scored much better with audiences and critics.
How apt, then, that the supposed co-star of Die Hard 5, Jai Courtney, is also present in Terminator: Genisys. This is a "movie star" who is so devoid of screen presence, so empty and so boring, that it's a wonder why Hollywood has decided in the last couple of years that he should be forced down our throats as the Next Big Thing. He is a poor man's Sam Worthington, and I actually feel bad for Worthington by even saying that. I generally don't ever take a strong dislike to actors, and I'm inclined to give most a chance to prove themselves. But everything I've seen from Courtney has been offensive, from his lazy performances to his arrogant comments off-camera (he had a few choice quotes during the Genisys press tour that I found rather telling of both his lack of respect for the series and his ego), and I went into Genisys hoping it would be the film to prove me wrong about it. Spoiler alert: it wasn't.
This guy is supposed to be the new Kyle Reese, previously played by Michael Biehn and Anton Yelchin in the first and fourth films respectively. Terminator Salvation has very few fans, but you know what? It had a strong cast, Yelchin made the character his own to the degree that he could while still honoring Biehn's interpretation, and the movie at least *tried* to give its own spin on the Terminator mythology.
Genisys backtracks. It plays with the mythology but doesn't really provide a unique perspective.
The movie opens with the future war, which is crammed with plenty of poor CGI sequences. (Another victory for Terminator Salation was that it had a surprisingly cool opening shot of Christian Bale in the helicopter as it crashes and is attacked by a Terminator. This movie doesn't even have that much.)
You know the drill by now: Connor sends Reese back in time to save his mother... only when he arrives, everything has changed, and Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) is now a war-ready action heroine, and they are immediately pursued by an Asian T-1000.
I won't recap the plot anymore because I will inevitably run out of my 1,000 word limit (Word says I'm getting close). What I will say is that it's here where Arnold comes "back," and yes, he is by far the best part of the film. One almost wonder whether they deliberately sabotaged the movie with two charisma-free leads in Clarke and Courtney so that Ahnuld wouldn't be upstaged.
But as much as I love the guy, I had the same issues with him here that I did in Sabotage, the film I thought was most likely to reinvigorate his career until I actually saw it. Simply put, he hasn't aged particularly well, and this shows pretty clearly in the fight scenes; in many, he seems to have been lazily digitally imposed over stunt men, and it's distracting more than anything. He has kind of a creaky, croaky screen presence (something he tried, and failed, to put to good use in Maggie), and although the filmmakers attempt to capitalize upon this by making the new Terminator a "Guardian" Father Figure for Sarah (she even refers to him kind of obnoxiously as "Pops" throughout the film), we're constantly reminded of how much more fluid and convincing he was in the first two films, both as the menacing, horrific cyborg and as the reprogrammed father figure to John.
And that's the ultimate problem with Terminator: Genisys. It has nothing new to say. Despite all its claims to the contrary, it's ultimately spinning the same tale through the prism of the older films, doing nothing other than to remind us of how superior they were. John Connor being turned into the villain (which isn't even a spoiler now since it's on the poster and in the trailer) isn't much different than the original ending to McG's film. The "Guardian" being a father to Sarah is no different than the Terminator being a father to John in T- 2. It's not a reboot so much as an homage-packed retreat, following the same beats but lacking the heart and technical ingenuity. This isn't a horrible film, but you know what? T3 was better.