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Summer Movie Series

Terminator Genisys (2015)

Rated PG-13

Paramount Pictures

You know me, I’m a sucker for time-travel flicks. That fact, coupled with director James Cameron’s persuasive knack for depicting action—whether on a shoestring budget (like his original 1984 Terminator film) or a big-bucks bonanza (his standard-elevating 1991 sequel Terminator 2: Judgement Day)—bowled me over twice. Cameron’s certainly the key because despite his films remaining among my favorite sci-fi actioners, I didn’t cotton to the subsequent sequels (Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, 2003, and Terminator Salvation, 2009) directed by others.

This latest effort, which basically ignores parts 3 and 4, attempts to follow-up the Cameron films. At first we’re wondering if we’re seeing the same films again, more a reboot than a direct sequel.

A future world-ravaging battle between humans and machines is in its last throes as the human resistance has finally beaten the sentient machines that launched the battle back in the ‘90s that left billions of humans dead. Leading this resistance is legendary warrior John Connor.

It’s discovered that in its final hours, the defeated machines have launched a Hail Mary operation using a “time-displacement” contraption to send one of its deadly “Terminator” cyborgs (Arnold Schwarzenegger) backward in time to kill John’s mother Sarah before she births him, thus taking out its enemy before he’s ever born. John counters this operation by sending his faithful human soldier Kyle Reese backward to protect Sarah and defeat the Terminator. This is basically the same plot as the original film. In the early-going, some scenes are shot-by-shot. In the original, Kyle not only helps save the day by sacrificing himself to destroy the robot, but in his spare time impregnates Sarah to create the franchise paradox of being the father of the leader who sent him to protect his mother. Now, stay with me. It transpires in the sequel (Terminator 2: Judgement Day) that this was all for naught because the machines send another, more advanced time-jumping Terminator (an incredible Robert Patrick) to strike at John himself, while John’s still a boy; the resistance, not to be outdone, sends a reprogrammed Terminator (Schwarzenegger again) as protector of young John.

This latest film twists itself in knots to entertain both these scenarios, trying to serve up the best of both films. To that end we get two different versions of Schwarzenegger’s T-101 Terminator; a variation on the advanced T-1000, the liquid-metal morphing Terminator from film 2; plus a hybrid of each of these machines, its identity and mission I’ll leave for you to discover. This time around Sarah is portrayed by Emilia Clarke (“Game of Thrones”). Her introduction heralds a plot deviation that final puts this film on its own course. She’s capable and tough, but Linda Hamilton’s waitress-cum-muscled machine killer remains the definitive Sarah Connor.

We’re dealing with multiple time jumps, the old standby alternate timelines and surprisingly effective pathos (if you’ve kept up with the franchise) wrung from Sarah plight of foretold doom, Reese’s plight of longing for his best friend’s mother and the T-101’s plight of protecting, learning from and loving humans. At points the film becomes more convoluted than necessary, trying too hard to lend gravity to its sci-fi confection, forgetting to have fun. But it’s closer in spirit to the franchise’s best efforts than its worst ones. Director Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) present some decent action sequences. Taylor’s movie does effectively use stock footage and cutting-edge CGI to recreate Schwarzenegger’s ‘80s terminator, while incorporating an age-appropriate Schwarzenegger into the mix. The older, broken-down version of the Terminator saves the film from the preposterous idea of a 67-year-old Schwarzenegger as an action star.

To James Cameron’s credit, it must be said that nothing in this film outdoes the stunt work and then-groundbreaking f/x of his original films, which are decades removed from this film.

If you’ve long followed this series you’ll probably enjoy this as an improvement over films 3 and 4 with its attempt to again give story and characters equal weight to the action. If you’re fed up with this whole time-travel, Schwarzenegger action shoot-em-up, there’s not much here that’ll light your fire. The film’s good enough to leave me suspecting that had Cameron directed it he might well have pulled off a cinematic hat trick.

More Summer Movie Reviews:

Inside Out

Jurassic World

Tomorrowland

Mad Max: Fury Road

Avengers: Age of Ultron

| Marvin Brown’s Movie Review Archive