Good to have Arnie back but not so much all else.
Terminator Genisys
Grade: C
Director: Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World)
Screenplay: Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island), Patrick Lussler (Drive Angry)
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger (Maggie), Jason Clarke (The Great Gatsby)
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 125 min.
by John DeSando
It’s good to have Arnold back in the Terminator franchise not just because he is the original but because, as Guardian, he lends some color to an otherwise flaccid summer blockbuster, Terminator Genisys. Although he has no memorable line like “I’ll be back,” he does mention more than once that he’s “old but not obsolete.” He kicks enough butt to verify that claim. His confrontation with his younger self is amusing CGI but not a major part of the action and not spectacular enough to warrant returning for a second viewing.
This fifth iteration of interminable Terminator movies uses the old time machine gambit to go backwards or forwards in time to save the world. Also the endless mission to reconcile Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke), the intrepid mother heroine; her son, John Connor (Jason Clarke); and his father, Kyle (Jai Courtney) seems to mutate like a wounded cyborg, over and over so that you’re lucky if you know who’s on first much less second.
Anyhow, the CGI is super as we’ve come to expect from this child of the James Cameron FX family. Yet, that is not the part of blockbusters that thrills us anymore—I, at least, long for character development and human conflict, both of which are not in ample supply here, but they are there.
Although this Terminator has enough sparks between Kyle and Sarah to justify their eventual mating, it’s Sarah’s and Guardian’s spark, like daughter and father, that is the true romance of the film. His being a machine doesn’t keep him from protecting her both physically and emotionally, and nicely done by Arnold, who is still very much a movie star at 67 years old.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
