Starring: Emilia Clarke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jai Courtney, Jason Clarke
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Runtime: 126 mins. Reviewed in Jul 2015
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Fuelled by nostalgia, this ‘reset’ of James Cameron’s iconic franchise never scales the same lofty heights set by the series’ first two films (1984’s ‘The Terminator’ and 1991’s ‘T2: Judgement Day’). Not even an infectious return from Schwarzenegger can rescue this under the weight of its onslaught of digital effects and idiotically complex plotting.
The set-up is familiar – John Connor (Jason Clarke) is the leader of the future human resistance against Skynet, a fleet of artificially intelligent machines bent on wiping out mankind. His right hand man is Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney), whom he sends back in time to protect his mother, Sarah Connor, from a Terminator dispatched to kill her. Kyle expects to find Sarah terrified and alone in 1984, but arrives to find a very different timeline.
He is met by a gun-toting, machine-slaying Sarah (Emilia Clarke), who has teamed up with an older Terminator that she calls ‘Pops’ (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Kyle struggles to comprehend how the past has changed without altering the future, whilst battling against more Terminators sent to kill them. When a chance to destroy Skynet before it ever exists presents itself, Kyle, Sarah and Pops must embrace further time-hopping to save humanity once and for all (or at least until the next film comes out).
I have oversimplified the story mechanics in the above summary in order to get it to an easily understood level, and this is perhaps an approach that writers Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier should have taken. Instead, the film is so bogged down with justifying its time- and logic-bending twists and turns that it detracts from any enjoyment in the ride, and yet still fails to address all the questions it raises. To list them would be spoiler prone, but in trying so hard to be clever with the time-travel conceit, its ends up drawing attention to its shortcomings. Most of the best lines are nods to the original films, delivered with winking charm by Schwarzenegger.
The ‘Austrian Oak’ is surprisingly the best thing about the film – his charisma, buried in many of his recent films, is back to its former level, and he gets all the movie’s laughs and most of its heart. Emilia Clarke is better than expected as a Sarah who has been thrust into a saviour role since the ripe age of 9, and Australian export Jai Courtenay lives up to his recent form as a passable action star. Jason Clarke, another Australian, is sadly inconsistent in what could have been a rich role, and is often oddly repulsive (though this is sometimes appropriate for his character’s journey).
Visually, the film struggles. The special effects are as good as expected, but in a franchise once at the cutting edge of practical and CG technology, the overuse of digital stunts and explosions is disappointing. It lacks unique flair too, with director of photography Kramer Morgenthau shooting in a personality-free style which smacks of any number of yawnable contemporary action films. Director Alan Taylor’s background is in television, where one’s ability to stick to a predetermined visual language is prized, and it shows. Even the music’s few moments of brilliance are iterations of the iconic score from earlier instalments.
‘Terminator Genisys’ is touted as the first in a new trilogy of ‘Terminator’ films. What made the early films so brilliant was how new and raw the talent of James Cameron was – if they want to breath some real life into this soulless reboot, they’ll need to rediscover that ambition which drove Cameron to imagine an unstoppable killing machine all those years ago.
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