Terminator Genisys

I don’t know if Terminator Genisys is a sequel, a prequel, or a reboot but I’m not sure such distinctions matter anymore. This latest Terminator movie depicts the events that occurred prior to James Cameron’s 1984 sci-fi classic and then reconstructs that film’s proceedings into an alternative timeline, much the way J. J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) recast and reimagined that iconic series. Here however, the most important character is not replaced with a younger surrogate. The original Terminator Arnold Schwarzenegger—who did not take part in the previous attempt to restart the series, Terminator Salvation (2009)—returns as an older, greyer, slightly less indestructible killer cyborg, programmed to protect the mother of mankind’s future savior rather than murder her.

The inventive repurposing of the aging moviestar, in what was arguably his definitive role, makes this picture exciting even if nothing else does. With shot-for-shot precision, director Alan Taylor restages the opening scenes of Cameron’s original with new actors: Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor, Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese, and some random dude in the Bill Paxton role of the punk who tries to tangle with the Terminator when it first arrives buck-naked in downtown LA from the uncertain future.  Schwarzenegger’s T-800 looks exactly as he did in 1984, but there’s now another T-800, known as The Guardian, whose features more closely resemble the Arnold of today. How all this happens and why some characters look the way they do all gets explained … and explained… and explained… and explained, later on. 

These endless expository discussions betray this new picture’s hollow raison d'être. I’m certainly a viewer who appreciates a sci-fi film (especially one involving time travel) that makes the effort to establish the rules of its universe and then strictly follows their internal logic. But to reach this goal, Taylor and screenwriters Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier employ the most ham-fisted approach imaginable: the characters simply stand around explaining to each other why they’re in each scene and how much they don’t want to do what they know they inevitably must do. And what makes all the talk of timelines and alternate realities extra tedious is that it’s almost entirely unnecessary for the plot.

From the first prolonged sequence, set in 2029, in which Kyle Reese volunteers to go back in time to protect the mother of Human Resistance leader John Connor, we get scene after scene that would never make it past a first draft of a screenplay were it not for the hope that fans of the first films might be thrilled to see the backstory. Unfortunately, as with most prequels, seeing on screen what we once imagined for ourselves turns out to be a tremendous letdown. And for viewers who don’t know or care about the original movies, all the yammering about what’s going to happen or might happen differently must be even more excruciating.

The visual approach and acting style of Terminator Genisys are every bit as clunky as the writing.  Special effects technology has advanced to the point where filmmakers (with the blessing of stars and/or studios) can recreate scenes from classic movies in a fully dimensional way and seamlessly introduce new characters and new action into them. Unlike the embryonic digital techniques of films like Forest Gump and its contemporaries, where you could always tell when old film was being manipulated to serve a new function, here anyone unfamiliar with the original material would have no idea what’s repurposed and what’s new. But just as the digital dinosaurs in the Jurassic Park sequels fail to instill the wonder we experienced when we first saw that movie (and, surprisingly, still feel when watching it), these types of cinema trickery no longer dazzle and amaze because they’ve become every bit as commonplace as the idea of revisiting a nostalgic piece of pop culture.

Seeing the now 68-year-old Schwarzenegger play an older, wiser, and more emotional Terminator is quite entertaining, but this is probably the last time the “aging action star trope” Schwarzenegger has capitalized on for the past five years will feel fresh and interesting.  The rest of the cast may as well be computer generated.  Broadway star Emilia Clarke (best known for her role in HBO’s Game of Thrones) looks like a younger, airbrushed version of Linda Hamilton but she never makes us care about Sarah Connor’s survival like Hamilton did.  Jai Courtney (A Good Day to Die Hard, Divergent, The Water Diviner) brings none of Michael Biehn’s humanity or guy-next-door sex appeal to Reese. And Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty, The Great Gatsby, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) is utterly incapable of pulling off the ludicrous plot twists the filmmakers devise for John Connor. The only actor to bring energy to the proceedings is J.K. Simmons (doing the predictable post-Oscar-win turn in a crappy blockbuster), but Simmons overacts to such an embarrassing degree that he stands out like Daffy Duck trapped in a still life painting.

I must admit that I haven’t kept up with The Terminator franchise since the second installment, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). There have since been two non-Cameron pictures (one with Schwarzenegger and one with an actor digitally altered to look like Schwarzenegger) and a TV series that focused on Sarah Connor and a young John Connor in the years that immediately followed the events in T2, but there seems to be nothing in this film that requires knowledge of those projects. Reentering the narrative as late as I am, I can say that Terminator Genisys didn’t degrade my memories of the original pictures (the first of which I consider a masterpiece of genre cinema). But the filmmakers here don’t seem to understand that their primary job is to create a new and exciting story, and not simply to pay homage to the preexisting one (or ones). The absurd, tacked-on ending (which does violate everything the film sets up about the older T-800 and the way time travel works) seems to imply that Schwarzenegger will return for more sequels.  But I don’t think I’ll be back.