Terminator Genisys
Director: Alan Taylor
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke
125 mins; Class 12;
KRS Releasing Ltd

It was the franchise that revolutionised sci-fi action movies, starting in 1984 with James Cameron’s The Terminator. Its follow-up – 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day – proved to be one of those rare sequels that was better than its predecessor.

It set the bar very high for action movies to follow, with its successful combination of never-before-seen, jaw-dropping special effects.

Two other so-so sequels and a mildly successful TV series followed and you would have thought that the storyline would be all tapped out by now.

So I was curious to know what Terminator Genisys would bring to the mix – and disappointingly, this ‘retcon’ or ‘reboot’ is evidence enough that it may be time to terminate the franchise and move on.

Much like the recent underwhelming Jurassic World, this latest foray into the Terminator universe feels more like a re-tread of what has gone before the story goes off in weird directions.

Schwarzenegger is the best thing about the film

The film opens in 2029, while the human resistance is in the throes of battle with the machines that have taken over the world. The iconic resistance leader John Connor (Jason Clarke) has figured out how to destroy the machines and end the war once and for all.

Yet, something goes awry, so he needs to send someone back in time to 1984 to protect his mother Sarah (Emilia Clarke). Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) volunteers for the task and off he goes.

So far, so Terminator 1984. But, as soon as Reese gets back to the past he realises that things aren’t quite what he expected. Sarah is not the defenceless waitress he travelled back in time to protect; she is a tough warrior who has teamed up with a benevolent Terminator she has nicknamed ‘Pops’, and is fully aware of what is going on.

So much so, she has plans of her own to thwart the impending judgement day, leaving Reese in unfamiliar territory, as the timelines he is aware of have been completely disrupted.

And therein lies the rub. The inherent concept of time travel allows for many different scenarios.

As a story it is rather humdrum, its underlying moral of the dangers of artificial intelligence lost among the muddled storytelling, with none of the tight narrative, character depth or visual flair that exemplified its predecessors.

Those unfamiliar with the story’s premise or its characters may struggle to figure out who’s who in what timeline and why. That the storyline meshes pieces of previous plots together, while messing them up in the process, will leave many fans feeling cheated, while seeing something they love being sullied.

Not even the action – and there is plenty of it – makes up for the flatness of the exercise.

Emilia Clarke has big shoes to fill in the role of Sarah Connor, the iconic heroine who fought her Terminator battles so fearlessly. But the actress makes the most of a severely underwritten role and pretty dull dialogue.

The other Clarke, Jason, starts off well embodying the charismatic leader of the future John Connor, but in a subplot comes across a tad one-dimensional.

Schwarzenegger is the best thing about the film. It is a character he is, of course, extremely comfortable with.

Even though he repeats many beats we’ve seen before (the fake smile, the lack of understanding of human behaviour while striving to behave exactly like that, the droll delivery of lines), it feels like we are welcoming back an old friend.

There is also the added bonus of seeing him in the 1991 incarnation of the role facing off against the 1984 one.

Throughout there is the sense that he is not taking the film – or himself – too seriously and he effortlessly adds some welcome light relief to the otherwise dull proceedings on display.

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