Metal Fatigue: Review of Terminator: Genisys

After all the build-up, Terminator: Genisys is here at last. But will it save the franchise or damn it yet again? Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows casts his eye over it…

Terminator: Genisys

Director: Alan Taylor;

Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney

The Terminator has had seemingly the most erratic cinematic history in modern cinema. The first film back in 1984 was a trailblazer as it was a low budget sci fi film with some brains and an inventive plot and script. Its sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day in 1991 also set the bar very very high for post-apocalyptic dystopian Hollywood sci fi movies. The second sequel, Rise of The Machines, was a valiant effort but it didn’t quite gel and neither did the last attempt to reboot the franchise, Salvation, in 2009. So here we are in 2015 with Terminator: Genisys, yet another attempt to restart the engines on Cameron’s cybernetic creations. Director Alan Taylor is no stranger to large lavish productions: he directed Thor: The Dark World. However despite a strong start, Terminator: Genisys suffers from many of the problems that the two previous entries in the series have. Jason Clarke is John Conner here and he isn’t quite as heroic as the other versions of Connor we’ve seen before, which works quite well and Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese works well enough as the heroic lead here. But the return of Arnie as the good Terminator, despite a few nice one-liners, feels like the character has become just a comedy turn. One of the other major problems here is the recasting of Sarah Connor. Linda Hamilton was a credible Sarah, looking like a woman who could take care of herself. Emilia Clarke is fine as Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones but she doesn’t look like she could hold her own for five minutes against any of the threats on screen here. So what we have, yet again, is a Terminator film that feels like a retread of what we’ve seen before with none of the panache or pizazz of the first two films. Visually, there are some nice touches and Taylor obviously knows how to direct action. But the script is weak in places and Clarke’s presence is a definite minus point here. It’s not a terrible film but it does feel like a desperate attempt to get audiences interested in a franchise that perhaps has run its course. It’s unlikely that it’ll be back.

JOEL MEADOWS