Movie: Terminator Genisys
My Rating: 3 stars
I’ve watched all the Terminator movies to date, so when a new one comes out I practically feel obliged to watch it. It doesn’t even really matter what kinds of reviews it’s getting. I’m in too deep, so I’m not going to stop now. I’m not quite sure how the story in this movie is supposed to differ all that much from previous ones. All the standard elements are present. Kyle Reese goes to the past again, to meet up with Sarah Connor again, to father John Connor again, and to stop the robot war once and for all . . . again. It’s well-worn ground. But, there’s something to be said for the classics.
Of course, this installment of the franchised does have a few novelties to offer. CGI technology keeps getting better and better, so the killer robots just keep getting more impressive. And, this movie was getting a lot of buzz because the special effects wizards managed to develop a technique to rejuvenate Arnold Schwarzenegger. That way he could play a brand new terminator from the past, as well the old, busted model in the present, after it’s been aging for decades. That’s fun enough to see. Nothing to get too excited for, though. Then there’s the decision to cast Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones as Sarah Connor. She’s pretty popular these days, so that casting decision was definitely going to get some attention. The last item of note is that this time around, the bad terminator is played by a sexy Asian man, Byung-hun Lee. We’ve had sexy white guys, and sexy white ladies playing this villain. So it’s great to see someone else get a chance to be the beautiful, evil, killing machine. But, all of these are just little details that help color the story in the film.
This movie really wasn’t all that different from all the Terminator movies that came before it. I guess there’s not really any reason to watch it if you’re not already really into these movies. Some of its precursors are definitely better. But, I like the franchise enough to keep checking in with it every time there’s an update. And, I wasn’t disappointed. So, that might be reason enough to go ahead and check this one out.