Terminator: Genisys (2015)

Director: Alan Taylor

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke

When John Connor, leader of the human resistance, sends Sgt. Kyle Reese back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor and safeguard the future, an unexpected turn of events creates a fractured timeline.

Oh, why oh why did they greenlight this project? ‘Genisys’ is a rehash of all the previous films and offers nothing new or original. Byung-Hun Lee tried so hard to mimic Robert Patrick’s performance as the liquid metal T-1000, but he simply couldn’t pull it off as brilliantly as Patrick did. Emilia Clarke was very weak as Sarah Connor (so stunningly portrayed by Linda Hamilton in the previous films). Clarke was simply not convincing.

As for the plot, it was pretty much been there done that. This installment is completely unnecessary and the more they tried to explain where they fit in the timeline, the more they confused the story. So, John Connor – humanity’s last hope – is now the bad guy??? This was cliche upon cliche and the visuals were not so great. The original Terminator movies were made over two decades ago and yet the CGI and visuals are far superior to the effects in this 2015 film. They use too little practical effects and rely too much on CGI, making the film look like a video game. CGI is definitely getting worse – probably because it is becoming more freely available and cheaper.

Lets face it, if this was an original film, it would have been an ok watch, but as part of the franchise it was a yawner. I honestly don’t know if I’m going to remember this, as there simply was nothing special or memorable about this film. (The only very good scene, was the bus chase scene). The action scenes were bland and boring. Oh, and off course Hollywood’s inclination to destroy as much as possible prevails. Yawn…next…!