My Review of Terminator Genisys

It's been about a week since I watched Terminator Genisys.

It was a decent Terminator movie, better than both T3:Rise of the Machines (2003) and Terminator Salvation (2009) —both of which weren't very good in my opinion—but I need to point out that I used the word "decent" for a reason.

Genisys had several problems for me. The foremost of which was its crowded nature. For some reason the film decided it needed to account for both T1 and T2 in its first half despite being a new take/reboot. Essentially, it sandwiched both movies into about 40 minutes or so, which made things feel quite cluttered and hectic.

After it got through that mess the movie evened out and became a more enjoyable watch. One of the casualties of that first part, however, was the under-utilization of J.K. Simmons, who is just an awesome actor at whatever he does and could have made this film much better if only the script had called for it. The film also under-utilized the T-1000, which is still such a badass concept that I think it could have made the end sequence of this movie so much better.

Emelia Clarke and Jai Courtney both did a decent job portraying Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese respectively, though Mr. Courtney's performance was the stronger of the two. The issue I had with Ms. Clarke is that she makes for a great young, inexperienced ruler (Daenerys Targaryen) but wasn't convincing as the complex maturing-girl/soldier she was supposed to be. She didn't do a bad job, it's just she wore the burden of being the mother of the world's savior a little too lightly.

Despite the issues Genisys will entertain Terminator fans. Arnold Schwarzenegger's return to the series is this movie's strongest point. I didn't expect it but he really shines here proving that this is the role he was born to play. I recommend seeing it just for him, but don't expect too much of the rest of the film.

On a positive note, I do hope they make more of these. The rebooted universe is just different enough that I'd be interested in seeing another story set in it.