Deep Dive - Terminator: Genisys

Film: Terminator: Genisys

Release Date: July 1, 2015

Reception

Box Office

Trailer:
 

Synopsis: When John Connor, leader of the human resistance, sends Sgt. Kyle Reese back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor and safeguard the future, an unexpected turn of events creates a fractured timeline.

Analysis: The first act of this film attempts a redoux of the storyline of the first two films. There are enough call backs that fans to get enjoyment out of, but after that, the plot loses all of its traction. Multiple Judgement Day moments,

 Grade: 5.6/10

Analysis: As the film start off following the same path as the first Terminator, fans expect to see familar versions of the main characters. One of the first risky moves this film makes is how they almost flip the character traits of Connor and Reese. From the start, Connor is the one that is completely in the know, and Reese is the one that has to slowly come to terms with the path their future holds. It's an interesting dynamic, but overall it falls a little short to the arc that we saw out of Sarah Connor in the first film.

Grade: 5.9/10

Name: T-3000

Bio: The T-3000 is an extremely advanced model Terminator series produced by Skynet in 2029 during the period shortly before the final battle.

 Evil Plan: Units of the T-3000 were humans who had been transformed through exposure to a type of machine-phase matter. All of the humans exposed to the phase matter were driven insane during the experimental stage and died, which makes John Connor the only known successful example. The T-3000 took John Connor's form back to the year 2017 to protect the launch of Skynet.

Analysis: The overall functionality of the T-3000 seems like a natural progression from the previous Terminators to date. Incorporating John Connor into the mix did add some levity to the battle from our main two characters, as well as open up the question as to if John Connor's existence actually supported the inevitability of Judgement Day. At the end of the day, I found myself wanting to see more of the intimidating under-skeleton, then the blabbering Connor.

Grade: 6.1/10

T-Pops

Sarah Connor of the House Connor, First of Her Name, the Waitress, Fan of Elton John, Killer of Terminators, Breaker of Timelines, and Mother of the Resistance

Time Cop

Analysis: The biggest question mark going into this film was whether or not a different actress could pull off the Sarah Connor character. I thought Emilia Clarke did a fine job in this movie. Arnold also had what felt like a limited runway in the film, but they did incorporate a few heartfelt scenes which added to the underlying emotional depth of the character.

Grade: 7.4/10

Analysis: I will give this film some credit for some of the extremely bold choices that they made. On paper, paying tribute to the first two films all while developing a brand new story sounds intriguing. I think the first act works fairly well, but as soon as the decide to try to jump to the year 2017 everything starts to fall off the rails. A for effort. C- for execution.

Grade: 6.2/10

Throwback Thursday

The gangs all here

Analysis: Terminator was exciting. Judgement Day was epic. Rise of the Machines was lazy. Salvation was too safe. Genysis was risky. Although this film fell on its face a bit, it did leave me with some intrigue as to what is still possible with this material. All of our hopes now lie with Dark Fate to put this franchise back on track.

Grade: 6.0/10

Cover Image: StudioCanal (Vivendi)