Franchise Flashback: “Terminator: Genisys”
For last week’s review slate, I checked out “Terminator: Salvation” for the first time and it was an OK watch. So now, since I’m finally near the end of the “Terminator” franchise, I’m going to be talking about “Terminator: Genisys,” which despite some decent action sequences, ended up being really confusing at times.
When John Connor, leader of the human resistance against Skynet, sends Kyle Reese back to 1984 to protect his mother, Sarah, from a Terminator assassin, an unexpected turn of events creates an altered timeline. Instead of a scared waitress, Sarah is a skilled fighter and has a Terminator guardian by her side.
Faced with unlikely allies and dangerous new enemies, Reese sets out on an unexpected new mission: reset the future.
Before I checked out “Genisys,” I’ve read in quite a few places online that this entry of the franchise really wasn’t that great. And, while “Terminator: Genisys” does feature some truly fun action scenes and the return of Arnold (after not physically appearing in “Salvation”), the overall plot of the movie can be really confusing.
One of the best aspects of this movie is actually seeing Arnold return to his iconic role as the T-800. Throughout the movie, the unique subversion of his character - acting as a surrogate father figure to Sarah Connor this time around - is actually kind of entertaining. His running line, I’m old, not obsolete,” along with his awkward attempts at human smiles and comedic protective nature, gave this movie a decent amount of heart and charm.
The first act of the movie is easily one of the best moments of this sequel since this is a pain-staking, shot for shot recreation of the early scenes of the first iconic movie - such as the Terminator arriving at the observatory or targeting the punks. This also leads into one of the best action set pieces of the movie - seeing the older T-800 fighting the younger 1984 version.
The timeline tinkering in this movie can be both fun yet confusing. The idea of a hardened Sarah Connor who already knows about the future threat - and had her own Terminator waiting for Kyle Reese - is a somewhat fun twist on the classic lore that can be sort of entertaining.
“Genisys” also introduces confusing concepts like “timeline convergence” and “nexus points.” One concept that’s confusing is when Kyle Reese travels back, he suddenly receives childhood memories from an alternate 2017 timeline that he never lived.
The movie’s attempts to explain this with heavy exposition dialogues are really disjointed and extremely hard to follow. One of the biggest blunders of the movie is the fact that the marketing spoiled John Connor’s transformation into a Terminator (the T-3000) which would’ve been a really great twist.
The overall audience response to “Terminator” Genisys” was largely lukewarm and divided, leaning heavily toward disappointment for long-time fans of the franchise. While it fared better with general audiences than it did with critics, it ultimately failed to capture the enthusiasm needed to sustain a previously planned trilogy.
MPA: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi violence and gunplay throughout, partial nudity and brief strong language (running time 126 minutes)
Initial release date: June 21, 2015
Streaming services: Paramount Plus/Pluto TV/various PVOD services (as of working on this review)
Paramount green-lit two sequels to this film before it even opened, because regardless of how well it would do at the box office or with critics, all film rights to the Terminator series would revert back to James Cameron in 2019. However, both sequels were canceled after the film's critical and commercial failure, paving the way for Cameron to produce Terminator: Dark Fate (2019). Unfortunately, the latter turned out to be an even bigger loss at the box office.
Due to Arnold Schwarzenegger's age, it was decided, instead of CGI to make Schwarzenegger look 30 years younger, that it should be written into the screenplay that the living human tissue that is generated and grown on the Terminator androids, giving them their human forms, can age like normal humans, and the Terminator in this film is older and has gray hair.
The body of young Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie (also seen in the film's first trailer) is provided by actor and bodybuilder Brett Azar. Azar won the role following an open casting call looking for a person who can match the closest to Schwarzenegger's physique in the first film. Azar never thought of the idea of being in this film until he was persuaded by his manager Mike Lyons to audition. According to Azar, aside from being judged having the closest physique (the first round of auditions involves body and muscle measurement), it was his audition video of him reenacting the Terminator's arrival at the Griffith Observatory and his perfect lip-syncing of Schwarzenegger's line, "Your clothes, give them to me. Now." at the three punks resulted in him winning the role. His face was replaced with Schwarzenegger in post-production. Schwarzenegger was Azar's bodybuilding idol and Arnold gifted him cigars and several bodybuilding magazines after the first day of shooting. He would serve this same role in the following film, Terminator: Dark Fate (2019).
This is the first film that Arnold Schwarzenegger is not credited as "Terminator" in the ending credits. Rather, he is named "Guardian."
Robert Patrick turned down the opportunity to return in the role of the T-1000 liquid metal Terminator because he felt he wanted to leave his performance in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) alone and that it is a stand alone performance. He felt due to his age, he wouldn't be able to do all the physical work and the running, due to the fact that he has a bad hip.
Director Alan Taylor was dismayed that the second trailer for the movie already revealed the big twist of John Connor becoming a Terminator fighting for Skynet. He stated that he was notified beforehand and did not approve of it, but he was overruled by people from the marketing department who wanted to show the movie wasn't a mere reboot of the previous ones.
Tom Hardy was the first choice for John Connor.
The first of all Terminator movies that includes a hidden scene during the ending credits.
This is the first film in the series to actually show characters being sent back in time, and the machine that does it.
Jason Clarke is the sixth actor to play John Connor in the many portrayals of the character. This has lead to people referring to him as the "Rusty Griswold" of the Terminator series as five different actors have portrayed that role in the many films.
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