This is something one doesn’t say that often regarding a would be summer action blockbuster: Terminator Genisys’ biggest failing (though there are others I’ll get into) is that, story-wise, it was overly ambitious.

Seriously.

I know what follows is going to sound like a litany of what’s wrong with the film and you’ll be forgiven for thinking I absolutely hated it.  But it isn’t the case.  In spite of the fact that so much went wrong, I’d give the film a thumbs up.  A mild thumbs up, I grant you, but a thumb’s up nonetheless.

The biggest draw of Terminator Genisys, of course, is the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger in his most famous role as a robotic killer from the future come back to the “present” to either kill or protect (he’s done both) someone whose life has a great bearing on an apocalyptic future.  Upon its initial release, Terminator Genisys (TG from now on) received mediocre reviews from audiences (58% positive) and generally poor reviews from critics (28% positive) over on Rotten Tomatoes.  Further, the film, which was originally planned to be the first of a new trilogy of Terminator films, also didn’t do as well in the U. S. box-office.  My understanding is that it made good money overseas and therefore likely earned a decent profit for the studios.  However, I’ve heard the profit was not enough to continue the series as originally planned and therefore we will likely not see a TG 2 and 3..

When I heard this film was conceived as the first part of a trilogy, I was very worried.  Would this film deliver enough of a story on its own or would we have all kinds of cliff-hangers/plot points left behind to resolve in future films?  And if there is no next film, as it appears at this moment (this could, of course, change), will audiences be left frustrated and angry?

To allay that worry, let me say this: TG presents a for the most part very complete story.  There is at least one major plot issue left unresolved (and it is a big one) but its unresolved nature doesn’t destroy what you see here.  (I’ll reveal that point after the trailer below)

Now that I’ve finished my preamble, let’s get to the movie itself…

While it pains me to give away much of the movie’s plot, I give tremendous credit to the screenwriters of TG.  Instead of giving us a by the numbers sequel, they presented a story that doubled back in time and created a fascinating alternate 1984 universe.

The first part of TG takes place in the apocalyptic future we’ve come to know from the previous Terminator films.  We witness the defeat of Skynet at the hands of John Connor (Jason Clarke) and Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney taking over for Michael Biehn) before moving back to this alternate original Terminator timeline.

In this vastly different 1984 we meet up with Sarah Connor (the role made famous by Linda Hamilton is played by Game of Thrones‘ Emilia Clarke this time around) who is far from the meek waitress presented in that film and more like the battle ready version in Terminator 2.

Those opening scenes, which confound our expectations, are among the movie’s best but, unfortunately, this is also when the film starts to go off the rails.

As clever as this twisty-turny alternate timeline concept is, the screenwriters lamentably decided the dialogue between Sarah Connors and Kyle Reese should be “cute” and “humorous” and, for the most part, it is neither.  Worse, when all is said and done there wasn’t all that much chemistry between these two actors versus the originals.

Still, the concept of this new alternate timeline kept me interested in the goings on. We’re given an “older” Schwarzenegger Terminator and this aging is explained quite well.  We’re also offered some more surprises in the movie’s second half but, unfortunately, several of the movie’s trailers gave at least one of the biggest surprises away (Why would they do that?!  Why?!).  The international trailer I’ve embedded below, thankfully, keeps the surprises to a minimal.

As I mentioned above, the movie suffers from being too ambitious and I’ll get to that now.

To begin, the film introduces us to waaaay too many characters.  For example, we get a great actor like J. K. Simmons in a smallish role that, while interesting enough, could nonetheless have been eliminated entirely from the film with absolutely no ill effects.  We’re also introduced to several law enforcement/homeland security types, along with the a couple of high-tech scientists/industrialists, who have a few short scenes which also could have been eliminated or trimmed significantly.  Then there’s ex-Doctor Who Matt Smith’s role.  While important to this story, it amounts to (I kid you not) maybe two or three scenes for no more than 3 minutes of screen time in total.  Did he take the role because it would be more prominent in the theoretical second and third TG movies?  One wonders.

In fact, there’s so much storytelling and introduction of characters going on that at times the movie’s main draw, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator, fades into the background.  Sadly, his function in this film is to be involved in the action sequences and, when things are slow, provide yet more “humor” bits, many of which are forced and/or not all that funny to begin with.

Clocking in at a little over 2 hours, its clear that as clever a concept as TG presents, the film’s script could have used another pass to tighten it up but, of course, that was not to be.

In sum, Terminator Genesys is a decent though very flawed action film whose greatest triumph is in the way it cleverly reworks the previous Terminator films’ well-worn concepts and therefore tries to give audiences something surprising and new.

Sadly, because of bloat, I can only offer a mild recommendation.  It’s a decent enough film but it could have been –should have been- great.

Ok, now about that plot point that is left dangling…

SPOILERS FOLLOW!!!

 

You Were Warned!

Still there?  Ok, here goes…

So in this alternate 1984 we have a Sarah Connors who is fully aware of Skynet and her role in the revolution (ie, as the mother of John Connors and with an awareness that his father, Kyle Reese, is about to appear from the future).

She came to this realization, we find, because when she was a young child her parents were killed and this Schwarzenegger Terminator appeared and, apparently, rescued her and became her surrogate father.  He was the one that subsequently trained her to become the warrior she was and prepared her for the arrival of Kyle Reese and the other (bad guy) Terminator in 1984.

But these bits of the past are presented in a very nebulous way within TG. and we’re never told who sent this now older Schwarzenegger Terminator to “save” Sarah Connors when she was a child.

Note how I put the word save in quotations.  I do so because as a viewer I was left wondering if he actually did save her or, perhaps, was the one who killed Sarah Connors’ parents so that he could then raise her?

We never see who attacks and kills Sarah Connors’ parents when she was a child, only that the Schwarzenegger Terminator subsequently appears and takes her away.  Did he kill Sarah Connors’ parents because this allowed whoever sent him back to create this alternate timeline or did he fight off other Terminators?  If he did, who sent them back?

Alas, there are no answers provided within the movie itself and the older Schwarzenegger Terminator states that his memory of who sent him back was wiped out, presumably to keep the information away from Skynet.

What actually happened?  Nobody knows.