Terminator Genisys

Each further rewriting of the notoriously well-known history is riskier, but the path in this direction is more than promising. Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier confront iconic scenes head-on, showing us explicitly the use of time travel and giving Arnold Schwarzenegger a chance to break his metal jaws himself – and he fulfills this deadly task perfectly. At the moment when it is clear that Mr. Schwarzenegger will not leave any scene without proclaiming it properly, Terminator: Genisys becomes almost a family spectacle, which perfectly suits the fact that the changes concern exactly those storylines that used to disappoint me with their pessimistic outcome. Even a heretical thought crossed my mind that this ending could be a complete conclusion and end the whole saga with a thirty-year gap. If I am really just naive and the subsequent installments will crush my optimism, it will be a great pity. The Terminator no longer chills you like it used to, but considering that it doesn't even try to do so, such a transformation is accepted surprisingly easily in view of zero expectations. Especially since Emilia Clarke throws Game of Thrones far behind her and becomes a Sarah Connor straight from the most ambitious fan fantasies. (07/11/2015)

A pretty good instalment. There is just the issue that the story with its leaps from the past to the future and from the future to the present made such a mess of it that it is hard to set it to the timeline of the previous instalments. Especially of the third instalment, which it completely ignored. On the other hand, it is made better by Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose sparse acting is good enough to not only entertain, but also awake some nostalgia. Just enough for three stars. (03/29/2016)

Meh The Fifth Terminator pretty much disappoints in pretty much everything. Arnold is pushed to the background at the expense of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese's story, which admittedly isn't very compelling, nor are the two actors. The script makes virtually no sense and the paradoxes and problems associated with time travel are all openly disregarded, and when it stops playing on a nostalgic note after half an hour, it ends up being a generic action sci-fi flick that relies more on quantity than quality. There's plenty of action, but it is usually no more than average, and at some points they go way too over-the-top (the helicopter chase was something truly terrifying). The film plays second league in all aspects and hopes to bludgeon you with references, Arnold, and lots of explosions, shootouts, and fights. And it doesn't quite work. The result is a more or less uninteresting hundred and fifty million action sci-fi flick where there's always something going on, but you probably won't be entirely sure you're enjoying it. Not enough for Terminator, but speaking for myself, I'm not too surprised. (06/30/2015)

An absolutely un-charismatic film. It’s also archaic in the worst possible way. I'm sorry, but if I got my hands on a legendary franchise and a hundred and fifty-five million to spare, I'd go the route of innovation, not recycling. To hell with logical lapses and rewriting timelines, that's the least of the film’s evils. What bothers me about Genisys is that they built a bunch of cheap actors around Arnold (who’s the only goof thing!) and wrote absolutely bloodless characters who just go through bigger or smaller action sequences, so that you can clearly see where it will all lead. By the way, this whole dramaturgical system of most studios, i.e., going for craft certainty, is perhaps the most striking here. This is because of Alan Taylor, who obviously knows how to keep the crew on set under control, just like I do with my cat when I don't want him to walk on the table (do remember any film that had the name of the director of the action scenes in the opening credits?). If the sterility of Thor: The Dark Worldwas kept afloat by Kevin Feige's production scheme, in this film Taylor shows his creative cluelessness to the fullest and the new Terminator looks as if the desperate editors in the editing room glued together something that should at least resemble a two-hour film. PS: The fact that Cameron praised it means that either his brain has definitely turned blue or he's a sell-out. (08/08/2015)

The script must have been written by Jára Cimrman, based on one of his plays. So it's clear, you are my son, but you could actually be my father, or brother, and if the time paradox allows, father and son at the same time, along with my mother, who’s actually my daughter. Whatever. Time paradoxes have always been there, they are part of the sci-fi genre. What I just realized is that the Terminator has no place in today's cinemas. What seemed revolutionary and innovative at the time of the release of Cameron's first two Terminators, which enchanted awestruck audiences with the metamorphoses of the T-1000 model thanks to digital effects that were at the dawn of their age, now, in an age overcrowded and overstuffed with CGI atrocities, no longer impresses anyone and has nothing to offer beyond that. And when you present the core of the story, those time paradoxes I mentioned earlier, as clumsily as Alan Taylor does, then there's a problem. Especially since the film doesn't have a single (!) memorable action scene that you'll remember years from now. Unlike, for instance, Terminator 2, which is a textbook of the action genre. And Arnold? Due to the plot, his presence here is rather symbolic, all he has to do is show up and throw in a few one-liners and fans will be satisfied. But he's fine, and it has to be said, the only (surprising) bright spot of the whole film. If the Terminator has to age, it should certainly be in the way Arnold has demonstrated here. (07/14/2015)