Sunday, July 19, 2015

Terminator Genisys (2015)

Director: Alan Taylor

Writers: Laeta Kalogridis, Patrick Lussier

Composer: Lllorne Balfe

Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, J.K. Simmons, Dayo Okeniyi, Matt Smith, Courtney B. Vance, Byung-hun Lee, Michael Gladis

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The rules have been reset.

Plot: John Connor sends Kyle Reese back in time to protect Sarah Connor, but when he arrives in 1984, nothing is as he expected it to be.



My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Yes.

I need to checklist this one...

What I liked...

Schwarzenegger is the best thing about the picture.  He's fun without being as godawful campy as he was in T2.  I also dug what they did with his character and how he fits in the new timeline.

The story works well as it continues (not re-booting) and fits well in the franchise.  After the amazing first film, this is my second favorite.

The effects are outstanding. I was blown away with the de-aging of Arnold particularly.  Loved it.

What I didn't like...

Emilia Clarke was OK as the new Sarah Connor but she had a few moments where her delivery was really flat.  Her voice is close to being monotone and it annoyed me.  I would've like some more charisma from Courtney as Kyle Reese.  He did a good job but he was missing that little something that would have elevated his performance and the character.  J.K. Simmons stole most every scene he was in but he wasn't in it as much as he should have.  And if you're a Matt Smith fan, he's maybe got 2 minutes of screen time.

MUST WE continually have Arnold say, "I'll be back." in every goddamned film?  And that line, "Come with me if you want to live." needs to be retired from every film, a Terminator picture or not.  Ugh.

Balfe's score worked nicely but it would have been nice to hear more of Brad Fidel's original theme throughout the picture instead of barely an utterance until the end credits.

I didn't rush out to see the film because the trailer didn't excite me enough.  And WHY THE FUCK did the studio make a trailer giving you a huge fucking spoiler that's a huge game-changer in the Terminator universe?  These people are fucking retarded when it comes to understanding how movies work.  They did the same fucking thing with T2 by showing you in the trailer that Arnold is now a good terminator.  Wouldn't it have been a huge mind fuck to discover that in the film when it looks like he's out to kill Sarah and then suddenly see the reveal?  It's the same thing here.  My guess is the producers/studio didn't have enough faith in the film or the audience and threw everything into the trailer.  They should (as is often the case) kept that a mystery and presented it differently.  Jesus this shit pisses me off.  Because of the trailer I was turned off to the picture.  My curiosity wore me down and I saw it a few days ago before it left the IMAX 3D screen here in town to make room for ANT-MAN which I'm planning on seeing in a couple of days.  I was really surprised by GENISYS and I found it genuinely entertaining and I thoroughly dug Arnold.  He was great.  It's too bad the film is under performing at the box office.  I'd like the franchise to continue as long as it maintains the fun this one provided.

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