Terminator: Génesis

Paradoxes puzzle and abound, contradictions, conflict, chaos all confound, no rhyme or reason to the madness, no method to the flatness, just concept caged confusion to astound.

It's all a bit cobbled and confused, inconsistent, quite erratic and diffused, some spectacular set pieces, the action seldom ceases, but the arc, the arch, the story's all bemused.

Arnie is back again in a Terminator movie, and while all the special effects and explosions are back in all their twisted glory - the story just makes no sense whatsoever.

It's really not even comprehensible. I mean, I tried and all. However the story writers decided to seriously complicate the plot from a "Back to the Future" understanding of time travel and fast forward it all the way to a "Primer" levels of time travel. The end result is an incomprehensible mess of a story.

If the plot is just so utterly jumbled - that even IF I were to sit down and motivated to even try to understand it - it really doesn't matter. The end result is a story we don't understand. A story we don't care about. A story about people we don't understand and couldn't care less about - because we have no idea who what or why anything is even happening. It's as if the movie wants to say "Things are going to blow up! Just accept it!".

Terminator Genisys is a pure example about how movies can ultimately say nothing about the human condition and for all the special effects effectively mean zilch - and be all the worse for it. There was some subtle theme about being too trusting of technology with all our connected devices in there but it was so limp-wristed, so pathetically tacked on, and half-hearted that it deserves to be ignored.

But by golly, by jingo, by jimminy willers, there were a lot of explosions!

The story starts a bit confusing, but after a short time it's back to business. It's a great addition to the series and it's nice to see Arnold back in this role. The special effects are not always the best, but most parts look great. The new type terminator is great, but the old T800 is still not obsolete. The story is convincing enough and can be the prelude of new additions to this series. I hope Arnold will be part of these. It's a pity 3D is still the norm in most cinemas. This movie is best viewed in normal 2D. It's dark en there are no special benefits in 3D. The movie gives also a good critical note about our dependency of our smart-phones, tablets and the Internet integration. Genisys might be more true that we realize ;)

A destruction of a franchise trying to reboot it and failing for the third time. If you look closer Mr. James Cameron finished the franchise in the second. And many tried to re boot it twice creating spectacular failures. The third however is another same scenario film that establishes the same losing streak. Like I said a lot funds wasted for something useless without any premise.

The story tries to innovate bringing all the stories together but misses out the basics. Creating a good film.

Anyway the story ends with a hope of a new universe. Let's hope how it'll perform. No expectations though.

If it wasn't part of such a genre redefining franchise as Terminator, Genisys would be a perfectly serviceable action sci-fi. Sure the dialogue is clunky as hell, the convoluted time travel conceits don't ever really make sense and despite one decent twist it's a tad predictable. But hey this is blockbuster cinema and the action is great, the film rattles along at pace and the acting is genuinely not bad (Courtenay spending a large part of the film topless didn't hurt either!). But you can't escape the legacy. This IS supposed to be part of the Terminator mythology. Despite Arnie's best comedic efforts (he steals most scenes he's in) you can't get past what an inferior addition this is to join at least two of the most iconic sci-fi films of the 20th century. Whilst enjoyable enough in its own right, hopefully this will be the last attempt to resurrect the past Terminator glories.