Terminator Genisys

Genuinely baffled that a film as banal and familiar as Age of Ultron can be Universally celebrated while Terminator Genisys receives nothing but disdain and outright hatred. While Genisys may pale in comparison to the first two films in the franchise, it at the least tries to do something interesting and looks great doing so whereas AoU went through the motions in such a formulaic and bland manner that I had forgotten most of it by the time the end credits started to roll, and don't get me started on the flat mid 9i0s TV like look of the whole thing.

There's nothing in Genisys that is likely to blow anyone away and it's never going to be anyone's favourite film in the franchise but for a big budget summer blockbuster it's far better than it has any right to be. Arnie is on top form and obviously having fun, he plays the role just right and it's easy to believe that a machine can grow to love. The whole "Pops" thing seems to have offended a lot of people but it makes perfect sense within the contest it's used. It's a term of affection that Sarah has for the machine who is her father, her protector. One of the big aspects of the films has been the machines ability to learn and the manner in which Arnie adapts in the film is well done. It's just a shame that Emilie Clarke is so flat as Sarah, at times she looks uncannily like Linda Hamilton but she never quite captures the essence of what made Sarah Connor so ferocious and bad ass.

Jai Courtney isn't half bad here and shows some of that talent that he rarely gets a chance to, but he's a little underserved by the script aswell as viewers nostalgic memories of Michael Biehn. It's Jason Clarke and J.K. Simmons who have the most fun, they ham it up just enough that it never feels as if they're treating the material with contempt. It's their scenes alongside Arnie's where the film really shines and if the sequel involved Simmons and Arnie teaming up well I'd be first in line.

The story here is a little on the ridiculous side, with the film trying to pay homage to the original film as it strives to tell a new story. There's nothing inherently wrong with the story being told, it's just a little muddled and could do with another 10 to 20 minutes runtime. That one of the films most important moments occurs mid credits is unfortunate as most will miss it. The action, while shot with a PG13 rating in mind is rather well done. The set pieces are all rather spectacular and while there's no blood or gore to speak of the film never feels like it needs either. Sure an R rated Genisys could have been far better but added violence does not equate to more adult.

For the fifth entry in a franchise, Genisys is rather good fun and is leagues ahead of tedious fare such as Age of Ultron. It's never going to be remembered as fondly as the first two films but it's perfect for a lazy afternoon watch.

readyletsgo

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Genuinely baffled that a film as banal and familiar as Age of Ultron can be Universally celebrated while Terminator Genisys receives nothing but disdain and outright hatred. While Genisys may pale in comparison to the first two films in the franchise, it at the least tries to do something interesting and looks great doing so whereas AoU went through the motions in such a formulaic and bland manner that I had forgotten most of it by the time the end credits started to roll, and don't get me started on the flat mid 9i0s TV like look of the whole thing.

There's nothing in Genisys that is likely to blow anyone away and it's never going to be anyone's favourite film in the franchise but for a big budget summer blockbuster it's far better than it has any right to be. Arnie is on top form and obviously having fun, he plays the role just right and it's easy to believe that a machine can grow to love. The whole "Pops" thing seems to have offended a lot of people but it makes perfect sense within the contest it's used. It's a term of affection that Sarah has for the machine who is her father, her protector. One of the big aspects of the films has been the machines ability to learn and the manner in which Arnie adapts in the film is well done. It's just a shame that Emilie Clarke is so flat as Sarah, at times she looks uncannily like Linda Hamilton but she never quite captures the essence of what made Sarah Connor so ferocious and bad ass.

Jai Courtney isn't half bad here and shows some of that talent that he rarely gets a chance to, but he's a little underserved by the script aswell as viewers nostalgic memories of Michael Biehn. It's Jason Clarke and J.K. Simmons who have the most fun, they ham it up just enough that it never feels as if they're treating the material with contempt. It's their scenes alongside Arnie's where the film really shines and if the sequel involved Simmons and Arnie teaming up well I'd be first in line.

The story here is a little on the ridiculous side, with the film trying to pay homage to the original film as it strives to tell a new story. There's nothing inherently wrong with the story being told, it's just a little muddled and could do with another 10 to 20 minutes runtime. That one of the films most important moments occurs mid credits is unfortunate as most will miss it. The action, while shot with a PG13 rating in mind is rather well done. The set pieces are all rather spectacular and while there's no blood or gore to speak of the film never feels like it needs either. Sure an R rated Genisys could have been far better but added violence does not equate to more adult.

For the fifth entry in a franchise, Genisys is rather good fun and is leagues ahead of tedious fare such as Age of Ultron. It's never going to be remembered as fondly as the first two films but it's perfect for a lazy afternoon watch.

Finally! Well said! I really enjoyed it in the cinema.

Joshua J

Well can only speak for myself but AoU was garbage as well. They are both equally garbage.

Edit: Actually AoU was much worse. They killed Ultron with a fecking Care Bear Stare. smh

Kermit.de.frog

Joshua J wrote: »

Real chance to make a great film here and they blew it. First half hour I was really into it then they sacked the writer and hired the writer of Twilight and turned it into some cringey contrived love story. It really could've been so so good. Pity.

The first half hour is actually very good in my opinion. In fact i'd go as far as to say it is excellent.

I agree completely with you. The film seems to fall off a cliff after that and become pretty awful which is even more disappointing after such a good start.

I didn't know they changed the writer! Makes sense now.

Joshua J

Kermit.de.frog wrote: »

The first half hour is actually very good in my opinion. In fact i'd go as far as to say it is excellent.

I agree completely with you. The film seems to fall off a cliff after that and become pretty awful which is even more disappointing after such a good start.

I didn't know they changed the writer! Makes sense now.

They didnt sack the writer I was just giving out like it's what they did. The first half hour and the rest are like two different films to me.

BrookieD

watched this he other day. not half as bad as other seem to make out, way better than AoU and some others this summer. Is it the best in the franchise, no but third best maybe..

Arnie was having a blast with the material and bringing back his staple formula. The remake of the 1984 sections was brilliantly well done. I was looking at a frame by frame comparison and was very impressed with the dedication go into this. Sure the actors were different but not having the original film the directors hands were forced. Final 3rd of the film turned into a CGI fest but sod it, its summer and thats part of what i wanted.

Mr Freeze

AoU and this are both crap.

Its just not nice to see Terminator going from bad (T3) to worse after such an amazing 2 films.

All the marvel stuff is the same, witty back and fourth between heroes, then have a crappy villain and his easily dispatched army of minion attack a city, and then get really easily defeated & CGI everywhere. ( Gaurdians was great tho).

Wedwood

Mr Freeze wrote: »

AoU and this are both crap.

Its just not nice to see Terminator going from bad (T3) to worse after such an amazing 2 films.

All the marvel stuff is the same, witty back and fourth between heroes, then have a crappy villain and his easily dispatched army of minion attack a city, and then get really easily defeated & CGI everywhere. ( Gaurdians was great tho).

Seriously though, how many movies can you really do about time travelling robots who go back in time to alter/save history/future?

The second Terminator movie worked because it ran basically the same story in reverse where all characters were 'opposites' of the previous movie.

They really should have left it at two movies, we're now at scraping the barrel sequels like the 4th and 5th of the original Planet of the Apes movies from the '70's.

OU812

Wedwood wrote: »

we're now at scraping the barrel sequels like the 4th and 5th of the original Planet of the Apes movies from the '70's.

I disagree. The only POTA movies in the original quintet that doesn't fit is number 2. It starts out ok & then goes off in a mess.

Numbers 3, 4 & 5 bring us back to the start of 1. It's a perfect circle which tell us that without Taylor etc going to the future, the future would not have happened. Taylor's ship enabled Cornelious & Zira to travel back in time which in turn meant their son Milo/Ceaser became the leader of the uprising.

SouthTippBass

Wedwood wrote: »

Seriously though, how many movies can you really do about time travelling robots who go back in time to alter/save history/future?

As many as it takes! We will get our future war Terminator movie some day. First 20mins of this movie was ****ing awesome, I would love a whole movie of that.

e_e

Mr Freeze wrote: »

All the marvel stuff is the same, witty back and fourth between heroes, then have a crappy villain and his easily dispatched army of minion attack a city, and then get really easily defeated & CGI everywhere. ( Gaurdians was great tho).

But you just described Guardians perfectly there.

I know this isn't the thread for it but I'm always baffled by people calling Guardians a great breath of fresh air for Marvel just because it has a talking raccoon and a tree in it. Has all of the same issues as Avengers but it's especially disappointing because of how much it promises to be different but falls drastically short.

FortuneChip

e_e wrote: »

But you just described Guardians perfectly there.

I know this isn't the thread for it but I'm always baffled by people calling Guardians a great breath of fresh air for Marvel just because it has a talking raccoon and a tree in it. Has all of the same issues as Avengers but it's especially disappointing because of how much it promises to be different but falls drastically short.

I think what also helps GOTG is that the lead isn't a jerk!
In the first Iron Man it was refreshing to see a narcissistic hero but it gets more tiresome and forced in each movie.
Tone is a lot more consistent in GOTG as well, I find it's jarring in AoU between severity and forced humour, I don't remember it being this obvious in Avengers.

ps3lover

Looks like the sequels and TV series have been put on hold indefinitely.

http://comicbook.com/2015/10/01/terminator-franchise-reportedly-on-hold-indefinitely/

OU812

Well that sucks. I was hoping for at least one more to wrap it up

TerrorFirmer

It made $440 million against a $150 million budget despite the overwhelmingly negative reviews. Even taking marketing into account, it still made money and it's clear that interest in a good terminator film is there. Those reports of the whole thing being put on hold are just vague 'a source says' type stories. I'd be very surprised if we didn't see another movie.

Mr Freeze

TerrorFirmer wrote: »

I'd be very surprised if we didn't see another movie.

I'd be surprised too, they know they make any old muck, stick Terminator on it, release it in China and it will most likely turn a profit despite how it performs else where in the world or what the critical reaction is.

spektorfive

The 150 million budget is only the production cost. Does not include marketing and many other costs. There also the issue of the rights returning to Cameron in 2018. If they start working on the next one in 2016 for 2017 is it really worth pumping more money into it and hope it does will just to hand the rights back to Cameron? who been very clear that his putting Terminator away for a while.

ps3lover

Also it had one of the highest opening days of all time in China and then proceeded to drop like a rock. That would tell them the movie wasn't well received over there and a sequel might not even open well.

Red King

Thank god. Genisys was a steaming pile whose only saving grace was Arnie.

The new actors were atrocious. The script was dire, the effects were nothing to write home about.

Just muck.

GAAman

Let me make sure I have this right here.

Terminator 1+2 happened.

Terminator 3 happened.

Sarah Connor chronicles happened which meant terminator 3 didn't happen (in that timeline)

Terminator salvation happened which meant Sarah Connor chronicles didn't happen.

Terminator genisys happened which meant salvation didn't happen.

Now genisys cancelled and in 2018 Cameron gets the rights back and possibly makes a new terminator which means genisys didn't happen and we're just supposed to forget most of the above.

Coming 2018....... Terminator Alzheimer chronicles :pac:

OU812

It's time travel... whatever happened happened... or didn't according to the point of view.

Personally, 1,2,3 & 5 happened, Chronicles happened in an alternate timeline & 4 never happened at all... Now I only need one to fit in before this where we see who sent hime back...

rob316

I watched this last night and my god it was atrocious. I honestly couldn't care about what was going to happen at the end. Couldn't take to a single character/actor, even Arnie was turned into this comedy act. The whole thing was just campy start to finish.

The plot was ridiculous and the actor playing John was really poor I felt. I read they want to hold the sequels to gauge feedback on this one from audiences, they will be along time going through that.

Definitely the worst movie I have watched this year.

Seanachai

rob316 wrote: »

I watched this last night and my god it was atrocious. I honestly couldn't care about what was going to happen at the end. Couldn't take to a single character/actor, even Arnie was turned into this comedy act. The whole thing was just campy start to finish.

The plot was ridiculous and the actor playing John was really poor I felt. I read they want to hold the sequels to gauge feedback on this one from audiences, they will be along time going through that.

Definitely the worst movie I have watched this year.

In fairness it is very campy and light in places.

OtisPeabody

Mediocre

Bacchus

Seanachai wrote: »

In fairness it is very campy and light in places.

Is that supposed to be a positive comment... about a Terminator movie.

I watched this recently too. The opening future stuff was decent enough, I liked seeing the events that led to the original Terminator. However, everything from the moment they started showing the funky flashbacks as Kyle was going back in time was total pants. The Arnie vs Arnie fight was interesting for all of 10 seconds. I did actually like the T-1000 in this, the effects were cool and it genuinely created a sense of imminent threat to Sarah & Kyle. However, they dispatched it fairly quickly and we're left with the ridiculous twist of John Connor being a Terminator now who was sent back in time to destroy Apple and Google. Speaking of ridiculous... the same company making evil Android/evil-er iOS is also working on it's own time machine... cool side project.

Thargor

Bacchus wrote: »

Is that supposed to be a positive comment... about a Terminator movie.

I watched this recently too. The opening future stuff was decent enough, I liked seeing the events that led to the original Terminator. However, everything from the moment they started showing the funky flashbacks as Kyle was going back in time was total pants. The Arnie vs Arnie fight was interesting for all of 10 seconds. I did actually like the T-1000 in this, the effects were cool and it genuinely created a sense of imminent threat to Sarah & Kyle. However, they dispatched it fairly quickly and we're left with the ridiculous twist of John Connor being a Terminator now who was sent back in time to destroy Apple and Google. Speaking of ridiculous... the same company making evil Android/evil-er iOS is also working on it's own time machine... cool side project.

A cool side project literally down the hall, such a stupid film. Ill never forget when they were being stalked by a T1000, John Connor comes to visit them in hospital and instead of instantly thinking its a terminator they run up to him for hugs and kisses, same when Arnie shoots him in the car park downstairs, they turn their backs on it and start screaming at him that he's a murderer who had killed poor John! Just an abysmal film

rob316

My biggest gripe with the movie was the stupidity of the John Connor twist. This is a guy built up since the start as the saviour of the human race, protect is mother Sarah at all costs, the prophet that will fight Skynet and bring it down but no..... lets turn him into a terminator. :mad:

It's a story about killer robots and time travel, how can you **** it up so badly.

expectationlost

they tried to shove a whole load of "philosophy" into that one scene of them standing in carpark, there was no way yerman would suddenly join the machines...

Seanachai

Bacchus wrote: »

Is that supposed to be a positive comment... about a Terminator movie.

I watched this recently too. The opening future stuff was decent enough, I liked seeing the events that led to the original Terminator. However, everything from the moment they started showing the funky flashbacks as Kyle was going back in time was total pants. The Arnie vs Arnie fight was interesting for all of 10 seconds. I did actually like the T-1000 in this, the effects were cool and it genuinely created a sense of imminent threat to Sarah & Kyle. However, they dispatched it fairly quickly and we're left with the ridiculous twist of John Connor being a Terminator now who was sent back in time to destroy Apple and Google. Speaking of ridiculous... the same company making evil Android/evil-er iOS is also working on it's own time machine... cool side project.

No that was not a positive comment, my use of the colloquialism 'in fairness' is probably confusing. I was agreeing with the other poster about it being camp, which the more I think about it, it really was.

Frank O. Pinion

I'm one of the few who loved this film. Easily my favourite "Summer blockbuster" from this year.

I actually re-watched the first four films, one a night, starting last Wednesday, finishing with Genisys yesterday.

T1 was even better than I remembered. Iconic film. There was no change to my opinion of T2, I have seen it so many times. Best of the series.

T3 was a lot better than I remembered, I had only seen it once or twice previously and that was years ago.

Salvation...well, it's the "gritty" war film fans wanted for years, but it's just too different from the other three films. I know there's people who prefer T4 to T3, but T3 is just a much more fun film to watch. If I was ever doing a re-watch of the series again, I would not look forward to watching Salvation again.

Genisys, while not perfect, is so much better than T3 and T4, obviously not up there with the original two, but still an improvement over the last two sequels. I have no problem with people hating the film, but the terrible reviews, low ratings on places like Rotten Tomatoes, and its IMDB board filled with negativity, sucks any enthusiasm for discussing the film online out of me. I like what Mark Hughes of Forbes said, calling many of the negative reviews a result of "cynical nostalgia" that "distrusts change and anticipates failure", and branding the low ratings at aggregate websites as "ridiculously and undeservedly low". "Distrusts change and anticipates failure", seems to be the internet's reaction to any reboot/remake.

T2 didn't "need" any sequels, I didn't want sequels with Nick Stahl, and I didn't want sequels with Christian Bale and McG, but I do hope to see sequels to Genisys.