Terminator GENISYS (2015) PG-13


“The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves.”

Directed by: Alan Taylor
Written by: Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier
Based on the characters by: James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd

When John Connor (Jason Clarke), leader of the human resistance against Skynet, sends Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 to protect his mother, Sarah (Emilia Clarke), 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 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) by her side. Faced with unlikely allies and dangerous new enemies, Reese sets out on an unexpected new mission: reset the future.-WWW

Wow.  I still have a hangover.  This is NOT the best ever installment of the Terminator series, but it is good enough. I guess it helped that we watched it in an IMAX Theatre. Yes, I believe it helped a lot.  

RJ and I have seen all of the first four(4) Terminator films and The Sarah Connor Chronicles(played by GOT's Lena Headey) together, although I must say that I did watch them with my friends and other members of the family too.  
This fifth one for me is exciting, mostly because of the two unrelated Clarkes, Jai Courtney, Lee Byung-Hun, Matt Smith and of course, good old Arnold S. They had to adjust the Timeline to 2017 because it is already 2015 and we all know that what they predicted that would happen in 1997 never did. 

The critics gave mixed reviews, but let's talk about my observations:

A lot of women, not all, do not want to be labeled as damsels in distress so the modern day writers need to adjust certain characters so that they would not be accused of being politically incorrect.  This is what happened with this story.  They had to make Sarah Connor able and ready to fight earlier than she was supposed to. She's no longer a waitress, but is raised by T-800(Model 101) since she was nine, who worked and tried to blend in, so that he could be her guardian and so that they would have enough money eleven(11) years later, to fight the big fight. 

There were many scenes that if you think too hard, would give you headaches, so I advise you not to think too much.  I know a lot of you are geniuses so you probably would say, "That's so improbable!" You would probably even change the script in your head.  Go ahead, do so, and pitch for the other installments after the next one. Just like Terminator Salvation, this movie has an actor as a body double for Arnold Schwarzenneger, so probably, even if couldn't run anymore, as long as it's not yet Rapture or Armageddon or whatever, this movie will have more sequels.  Don't also try to look for a religious or biblical reasoning here.  This is NOT that type of story.

Towards the end of this fifth installment, one of the characters will be speaking to his or her younger self with some sort of warning.   I felt that they only did that in this movie because of the imminent sequel(actually, if you stay during the credits, you would know for sure that there is a sequel). Otherwise, if their future was totally changing and the story ended right then and there, there would not be need for that scene.  

I was half-wishing that Kate Brewster-Connor would appear somewhere to explain a certain situation, but probably she'll be back in the 6th installment because she was nowhere in sight. She's a vital part of the story, because she's John's wife, right?  Altered timeline or not, everything happened much, much later after the two of them led the resistance side by side, so I think there should be a Kate Brewster in the next installment.  

Game of Thrones' Emilia Clarke is a beautiful 28-year-old young woman, but to me she looked like she was in High School(in A Game of Thrones she plays a teenager and got awards for her role as Daenerys).  In reality, she was around twenty in 1984, but she looked much, much younger.  I guess it does not matter because she still delivered.  She was awesome as the rebooted Sarah Connor.  Did I see the onscreen chemistry between her and Jai Courtney? Of course. They look good together and I can't wait to see their next movie together.

Lee Byung-Hun is good here, but I hope he would be given more good guy roles in Hollywood.  He is a natural.  

Matt Smith is good as the bad guy who thinks he is good.

Jason Clarke is versatile as ever.

Bryant Prince played young Kyle well.

Would I watch this again? Probably, but not soon, unless someone asks me to go with him or her.  












View from the IMAX Theatre 



My ticket ;-)

From Wikipedia:

Cast

Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator / T-800 (Model 101): A reprogrammed terminator sent back in time by an unknown agent, to protect Sarah as a little girl, who ends up being a father figure for her. Sarah calls him "Guardian" and "Pops" interchangeably.

Brett Azar as young T-800 in 1984 (body double with CGI makeup) & young "Guardian" (body double)

Aaron V. Williamson as Refugee / Terminator (body double)

Jason Clarke as John Connor / T-3000: Leader of the Resistance, who, in the original timeline, is the son of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese. John Connor is compromised by a T-5000 and transformed into a T-3000, programmed to serve Skynet and ensure that the Cyberdyne Systems would receives its technology to reverse-engineer.

Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor: The Guardian's protégée, who is raised by her mentor and she is determined to stop Skynet herself after the deaths of her parents.

Willa Taylor as young Sarah Connor

Jai Courtney as Kyle ReeseJohn Connor's right-hand in the Resistance and Sarah Connor's love interest. He is originally sent to protect her from a T-800, but, after the timeline's alteration, he ends up fighting alongside with her and her cyborg guardian.

Bryant Prince as young Kyle Reese

Lee Byung-hun as T-1000

J. K. Simmons as Detective O'Brien

Wayne Bastrup as young O'Brien

Matt Smith as the T-5000 / Skynet: An advanced terminator who has traveled various timelines and dimensions to infiltrate the Resistance, posing as a recruit named "Alex".

Nolan Gross as Skynet

Courtney B. Vance as Miles Dyson

Dayo Okeniyi as Danny Dyson

Gregory Alan Williams as Detective Harding

Sandrine Holt as Detective Cheung

Michael Gladis as Lieutenant Matias

Griff Furst as Agent Burke

Teri Wyble as Mariam

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

EX with BENEFITS (2015) R-13

What did I feel about the ending of MEANT TO BE? (GMA 7)---plus some thoughts about Encatadia and DTBY

When The Love Is Gone (Graded A by the Film Ratings Board) R-13 Romance/Drama- 2013