The latest outing for the mechanised Armageddon, Terminator Genisys, has received some mixed reviews since its cinema release, but the most important question is whether or not it’s worth watching. Now that it’s available on DVD, Blu-ray and digital download the question’s even more relevant for anyone that was put off by some of the more negative reviews when it came out on the big screen. The reality is that while some of the criticism is valid it doesn’t mean the film fails to entertain, so we’d say on balance it’s worth sticking on.
The biggest issue though is the fact that it just doesn’t have same sci-fi horror genius that made the first two Terminator films such incredible classics. Instead, what you get is a science fiction action adventure that doesn’t have any real bite, which makes it much less intense. When you’ve got the potential of time traveling, unstoppable killer robots from the future you’ve got a lot of potential for intimidation, but on this score the film is completely lacking.
As a result of this, the cinematography and sound is geared more towards action as opposed to the fear factor, so you’re just not as tightly wound watching the film as we all were when the first two films landed in 1984 and 1991. For fans of the originals this was always going to land badly, but once you get over this disappointment there’s a certain amount of fun to be had in the film.
The story behind Terminator Genisys is an altered timeline reincarnation of the original film with Emilia Clarke (Game Of Thrones) taking on the challenge of filling Linda Hamilton’s exceptional robot-stomping boots as Sarah Conner and Jai Courtney (Suicide Squad) replacing Michael Biehm as Kyle Reese. The idea feels fairly cool on the face of things with the alternate timeline coming about by the arrival of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s reprogrammed Terminator much earlier in Sarah Conner’s life, so instead of being surprised by the arrival of the mechanical terrors, she’s trained, armed and fully prepared to kick their metallic rear frames.
It results in many twists and turns for the movie, which it more complex than the much-loved original two films. This includes a lot more intricacy when it comes to the time travel as it loops around itself with a fair amount of somewhat contrived theory. That aside, it means that the action is full force and two-sided right from the very beginning and while this is one of the reasons it lacks in cat and mouse intimidation it does mean that there’s plenty of fight in the film.
The best of this is the eagerly anticipated battle between the more youthful T800 Model 101 and his older equivalent, which Sarah has renamed as Pops. This is a solid section of the film, but sadly it’s over all too quickly as Sarah and Pop’s preparations have given them time to tool up in advance. It would have been more impressive for this to have been allowed to be more of a lengthy, edge-of-your-seat battle, but luckily a new T-1000 is on the scene, played somewhat limply by Lee Byung-hun when compared to Robert Patrick, to continue the fight. While this isn’t delivered to perfection there a few good moments to look out for as they try to bring him down.
The real nub of the plot progression comes in the halfway twist when you find out that John Conner, played well enough by Jason Clarke (Everest), has also been sent back as a new evolution of Terminator, the T-3000, in a bid to protect Skynet and its Genisys mainframe system. This then becomes the big battle, but his capabilities don’t necessarily feel all that terrifying, so you don’t get the same feeling that resistance is futile when Sarah, Kyle and Pops try to lead the fight back against the onset of Judgement Day.
The biggest shame for us is how little Matt Smith (Pride And Prejudice And Zombies) features in the film. It might have been much more sinister if his T-5000, Skynet character had been more of a presence throughout the film, but sadly he only has a fleeting appearance towards the beginning and then again at the end, which leaves him under-utilised. When he is onscreen he radiates vicious intent, which could have been more all consuming if it had been more sustained.
Visually, Terminator Genisys is impressive without being particularly groundbreaking or stand-out with the best sequence being the fight between the old and young Arnold Schwarzenegger. The cellular movement of John looks decent enough, but it doesn’t push the envelope all that much. However, the stunt action is pulled off with a lot of skill, mixing old school stunts with fairly seamless CGI to give the film a good amount of punch throughout.
We kind of expected it to lose some of its impact in the transition from cinema to the small screen on DVD, but it doesn’t really. It ends up being a fun watch with some limitations in terms of the storyline. It’s not the sci-fi horror that it perhaps should have been, but for nostalgic action junkies there’s a decent enough amount of entertainment in watching it at least once.
Terminator Genisys DVD review: 3/5
