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HOLLYWOOD — Moviegoers enjoy talking about two types of movies: those that bask in life-changing wonderment or the epic misfires that rank somewhere between terrible and gloriously awful.
What we hate talking about, and as a result often regret even seeing, are the lukewarm movies, the movies that evoke almost no emotional response but aren’t so offensive we feel the need to warn people to stay away. These are the movies that just exist, and among them, you can now count “Terminator Genisys.”
Like always, let’s break this up a bit and talk about the highlights.
The overview
“Genisys” clocks in as the fifth movie in the Terminator franchise. Each movie includes humans fighting against machines in an epic battle for world domination, and the game winning strategy for either sides always consists of going back in time to murder or destroy key players of the other team. Nothing has really changed since the original movie, though the tech and convoluted timelines become more exaggerated with each chapter.
Redefining sequels
Melinda Sue Gordon/Paramount Pictures via AP
"Terminator Genisys" is one of those sequels like “Star Trek” and “X-Men: Days of Future Past” that maintains all previous movies in the franchise did happen, but the timeline moving forward is no longer bound by their events. In other words, they realize franchise fans hate the word “reboot” so writers go the alternate universe route.
Unfortunately for “Genisys,” Terminator actually does deserve a reboot. I’d say it deserves the respect to be left alone, but “Rise of the Machines” and “Salvation” have already taken us past that point. So “Genisys” just kind of hangs out there, offering nothing new and promising nothing new in the future. Any big reveals “Genisys” hopes to wow you with by intertwining with the original movie simply fall flat and do nothing to justify the existence of a fifth chapter.
The Arnold factor
The ex-governor is taking a lot of heat for his return to the franchise, and it’s not entirely baseless. However, his performance here is a lot better than the trailers suggest and his role as a literally aging piece of technology could’ve been an interesting message device had writers spent any time with the idea.
Instead, the creatives behind “Genisys” focused on the never-original question, can a machine love? Branding the T-800 as a father figure to Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke), “Genisys” sticks with its formula of copying and pasting from previous chapters while avoiding anything new or unproven.
It’s easy to point at Schwarzenegger and say his character has lost the appeal it enjoyed from “The Terminator” and “Judgment Day,” but when all is said and done, it’s director Alan Taylor and his league of writers that need to raise their hands and take ownership for minimizing one of the most iconic characters in sci-fi movie history.
J.K. Simmons
Melinda Sue Gordon/Paramount Pictures via AP
You know who’s in this movie and makes every scene he’s in a little better? J.K. Simmons.
His place in the story couldn’t be any less important, his cop character is actually named O’Brien, and every time he’s in peril you’ll find yourself thinking, “Oh dang, he probably dies here.” But while totally expendable, he acts as a reminder that “Genisys” could’ve been a really fun movie. Sadly, that also means he may have been better left on the cutting room floor. Reminding audiences they could be watching a better movie is often worse than just lulling them to sleep.
Conclusion
"Terminator Genisys" is that movie you’ll forget you ever saw. Someone will ask you one day if you watched that fifth Terminator movie and you’ll reply, “Yes. Wait. Which one was that again?”
It has Schwarzenegger, big explosions and naked time travelers, but what it doesn’t have is anything to make it stand out from the previous four movies. Fans of summer action will have a fine enough time in theaters, but Terminator fans will be unimpressed and the rest of the world will find themselves confused with no motivation to look for answers.
There are definitely worse films to be dragged to this holiday weekend, but if you have a say in the matter, you may just want to call in a pizza and watch the one that started it all on Netflix.
Travis Poppleton has been covering movie news, film reviews and live events for Deseret News and KSL.com since 2010 and co-hosts the FlixJunkies podcast. You can contact him at tspoppleton@gmail.com.
