Terminator Genisys Review

Terminator Genisys stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Emilia Clarke, Jai Courtney, Jason Clarke, J.K. Simmons, Byung-Hun Lee and Matt Smith. Terminator Genisys is directed by Alan Taylor who some may know for his work as the director of Thor: The Dark World and a few episodes of Game Of Thrones. In this film John Connor sends Kyle Reese back in time to 1984, but when he arrives, nothing is as it’s supposed to be.

Terminator Genisys Trailer

Terminator Genisys Review

The Terminator franchise has been one of my favourite film series for a long time and I have always enjoyed the universe the films have been set in as well as the TV show. But like the recently released Jurassic World, this film also has a problem in that it is always going to be compared to one of the earlier films in its own franchise and for the Terminator franchise, that’s always going to be Terminator 2. However this film still manages to be entertaining and is able to stand its own ground quite well, in fact I believe it’s the third best Terminator film of all time.

Like many of 2015’s big budget blockbuster’s we get a mix of a ‘save the world’ storyline, some big budget action scenes, some big budget explosions, some A list actors, a few funny one liner’s and a small amount of flirting between one of the leading male and female characters for the love story component. Terminator Genisys has all of these features mixed together to create something fairly fun to watch, it is a bit silly at times, but it seems to be wanting to be the ‘fun’ movie everyone seems to really enjoy.

Emilia Clarke plays Sarah Connor, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays the Terminator, and Jai Courtney plays Kyle Reese | Terminator Genisys Review

This film is quite interesting in that it sees us visit Sarah Connor on a different timeline to the original films. With Arnold Schwarzenegger’s terminator travelling back in time and arriving to save Sarah Connor when she was only 9 year’s old, this causes things to turn out quite different. Sarah is now super prepared for any Terminator that tries to kill her, she is even prepared for the arrival of Kyle Reese. This is why things are so different when Kyle travel’s back, all the events are not as they were, that includes what had happened in the films we saw. It’s all very confusing to type out and explain, but I assure you, the plot is super easy to follow when you see things as they play out on screen.

As far as the action sequences go, the beginning part of the film had some of the best sequences, with the middle part being a bit dialogue heavy and then all action the whole way through till the end. Terminator Genisys is at its best when Arnold Schwarzenegger is on screen and battling against another Terminator. There’s a lot of references to the older films in the series as well, which fans will certainly enjoy.

Terminator Genisys – ‘We’ve been re-acquired’ clip

The actors are all quite entertaining. Most people would be going in to see Arnold Schwarzenegger as a terminator again, but Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney are both great as well. Everyone has their time when it comes to a few intense action moments and they all have at least one funny one liner each as well (with Arnold having many). It’s really a very entertaining film that is much more light-hearted than the first two films in the franchise, with things being in no way as serious as they once were.

The screenplay comes out okay in the end, although once you get into analyzing everything that happened you could probably find quite a few problems. But it’s not as bad as Jurassic World was which had quite a few issues. Characters (Kyle Reese/Sarah Connor) seem to acknowledge that they are being forced into a relationship at one point, unlike a certain couple (Hulk/Black Widow) in Avengers: Age Of Ultron. The time travelling may complicate things quite a bit for some people and at times towards the end it can get a bit predictable, but there’s not much that can be done by then.

Jai Courtney plays Kyle Reese and Emilia Clarke plays Sarah Connor | Terminator Genisys Review

The music is well composed and is done by Lorne Balfe who some may know for his work on various video game soundtracks such as Beyond: Two Souls. The music is a big part of a Terminator film and for the action sequences it seemed to make everything seem a bit more powerful at times. The choice of music for the ending credits is a bit strange though, what was with that?

In speaking of the ending credits, I would suggest you hold on to your 3D glasses for quite a bit as there is an ending credits scene to see which shows everyone something really important. The 3D is good in this film and I didn’t feel it was poorly made, but it’s not so phenomenally impressive that you need to see it that way. Either 2D or 3D should be just fine depending on your preference.

A T-800 in Terminator Genisys | Terminator Genisys Review

Overall Terminator Genisys is a very fun movie to watch that in many ways is very similar to many of the big blockbuster’s we’ve seen this year. As for a film in the Terminator franchise I would say it’s the third best Terminator film I’ve even seen, which is good enough. I really enjoyed the jokes in this one and I’m happy to see Arnold Schwarzenegger back again on screen as the Terminator. The film is packed with action sequences and it’s always fun to see two Terminator’s fight each other, while smashing through walls at the same time. It’s a high budget Terminator action movie, filled with as many jokes and references to earlier films that they could fit into the script, what’s not to like?

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