Terminator Genisys Review- By Michael J. Carlisle

Title: Terminator Genisys
Year: 2015
Director: Alan Taylor
Country: US
Language: English

In an alternate timeline, in the year 1990, Sega's Game Gear goes head to head with Nintendo's Game Boy and devastates the competition. Nintendo's stock has fallen so greatly that the heads of Nintendo are forced to sell their company to Sega. 20+ years pass, due to competition with Microsoft's X-Box One (Playstation does not exist as Sega joined  them on a CD add-on venture in the late 90's, thus not making enemies out of them) Sega decides to collaborate with Skynet and releases the Genisys. Little do the executives know, the Genysis will trigger the end of the world as we know it.

Alright, I lied. That plot synopsis is more intriguing than the actual premise however. John Connor (Jason Clarke), leader of the human resistance, sends Sgt. Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) and safeguard the future, but an unexpected turn of events creates a fractured timeline. Now (SPOILERS!) there are three Terminators in 1984, and Sarah Connor was saved by a good Termie when she was a child, and John Connor is evil when they time travel to 2017? I'm already confused.

More Spoilers
If Connor gets attacked by Skynet in 2029 while Kyle Reese in the midst of time traveling to 1984, how does that change the past? How does that create an alternative timeline?  How does John Connor exist in alternate 2017 (let alone be evil) if Kyle and Sarah hadn't made babies yet? How does Reese remain in alternate 2017 if he stopped Skynet and thus had no reason to go to the past in the future? So are there two Kyle Reese's in 2017? Why do Kyle and Sarah decide to stay together if they know it'll create John Connor who is either Humanity and Skynet's last hope?
End of Spoilers 

Compared to the first three Terminator movies, Terminator Genisys is a complete clusterfuck. Random events happens for illogical and unexplained reasons. Though the series has always had canonical inconsistencies, this picture ups the bullshit to 11 and then some. Kyle Reese has been completely squashed as a viable character, as with John Connor and the T-1000 (Spoiler- who dies very easily in this flick)  Sarah Connor's mystique has faded a little, she doesn't look like a hardened paramilitary character Linda Hamilton played, but she has some of the strong qualities we know and love from T2.

This is strange to say, but even though Terminator 2 was made in 1991 its special effects looked far better compared to 2015's Genisys.  This is because the Director replaced animatronics with CGI, and the creative way T2 made liquid metal  (a computer simulation of the movement desired and then use a computer paintbox program to give it surface color and texture) with even more CGI.The use of CGI has been done correctly before, but its quite obvious that the Special Effects team half-assed their work as many scenes look more cartoon-ish than believable. 

In an interview, Screenwriter Laeta Kalogridis has said that the main inspiration of the film was the second-half of Back to the Future Part II. If that's the case then the writing team managed to make both Terminator and BTTF series look bad. Arnold Schwarzenegger pulled off a funny and heartfelt performance, but his acting could not save this sinking ship. Fun mindless action, but if you turn your brain on just a little your head might explode. Piss on it! 1/5