Movie Review: Terminator Genisys…about time this program got terminated

I am sure I have upset a huge fan following of this popular franchise by making such a statement – but let’s face it, Terminator has had its day in the sun. This is not the time to hit the reset button. Instead, like the T-800 realized it was time to go, in Judgment Day , so too must the franchise now willingly melt down into its own extinction. But – I don’t make them – so we have yet another version of it to sit through

Except, that Genisys isn’t exactly a remake. Somehow the creative teams of all these popular franchises seem to believe, that those who did it earlier, didn’t tell the story well enough or take it in the right direction. So now, we have reboots that tell alternate storylines.

Despite being a simple enough premise, the storyline for the Terminator series has gotten more and more convoluted. In the initial part, this ‘reboot’ gets it somewhat right – paying homage to the first two movies on multiple occasions, owning up to the fact that they’ve made it all too complicated and then just like the unpredictable programming of the terminators themselves, it goes completely off track and introduce new angles that add to the confusion as well as the frustration.

Genisys isn’t sure what it wants to focus on – how the story could’ve been different or the relationship between man and machine or the quality of special effects that make for such engaging action – so it ends up giving a bit to everything and as a result leads you nowhere. The movie starts off on the right note and the action and effects all appear in sync. But one bizarre twist after another and you soon wonder what really you are meant to appreciate.

If it was all mindless action, I guess there are still the masses it would appeal to but with so much dialogue and explanation crammed in, it isolates even that section of its audience. Emily Clarke is a very unconvincing Sarah Connors especially after what we’ve seen in T1 and T2. While she plays the tough act, she looks too dainty and delicate to be convincing, despite her  best attempts. If she had dragons at her command (she plays Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons in Game of Thrones in case you’ve’ been living under a rock) she could still appear menacing but with only her doing the pump action shotgun routine – it doesn’t cut it. Arnold Schwarzenegger, on the other hand seems completely at ease, playing the mechanised machine he is now so accustomed to, especially since he admittedly plays an older version of it.

While Arnold’s character repeatedly claims in the movie that he may be old, but he is not obsolete, I think its about time we took a hard look at this franchise. At the very least it needs new characters, a fresh storyline – this terminator has been thrashed around too many times and has lost its core – physical as well as emotional – its time it was shutdown for good.