Terminator Genisys Had So Much Potential, But Failed For These 6 Reasons

With James Cameron serving as a consultant and the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terminator Genisys had all the ingredients to be the Terminator film I’d been waiting to see since Terminator 2, but unfortunately, it turned out to be one of the franchise’s worst. Between Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines being an uninspired carbon copy of T2 and the absolute failure of Terminator Salvation, the franchise that was once synonymous with groundbreaking science fiction was in a bad place in the early 2010s. Terminator was also dealing with behind-the-scenes changes, which eventually led to a new movie finally entering active development in 2011.

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Terminator Genisys was supposed to be a return to form for the Terminator franchise, with iconic characters such as Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese being brought back into the mix in addition to the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Given the strong marketing campaign, the exciting new cast led by Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke, and the fact that Cameron had publicly backed up the film, I really thought Terminator Genisys was going to be the satisfying movie that none of the T2 sequels managed to be. However, that was not the case at all.

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6

Terminator Genisys Relied Too Much On Nostalgia

Genisys Recreated Several Moments From The Previous Films

James Cameron recently talked about how Terminator must learn how to move away from the franchise’s established iconography, which is precisely one of the biggest problems with Terminator Genisys. Rather than a new addition to the Terminator movie universe that would move the saga forward, Terminator Genisys felt like a “Terminator’s greatest hits” compilation. From a new spin on the “Come with me if you want to live” line to an alternate T-1000 played by Lee Byung-hun, Terminator Genisys had very few fresh ideas and relied too much on nostalgia.

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Given that Terminator is about time travel to some extent, I would have had no problem with Terminator Genisys playing with the timeline and referencing a couple of iconic moments from previous iterations of that world. However, the 2015 film did not have much else to offer beyond that. As a result, Terminator Genisys comes off as a lesser version of the first two movies for most of its runtime. The fact that the film was all about new versions of the T-800, Sarah, Kyle, and John contributed to Terminator Genisys being more a nostalgic trip down memory lane than a proper reboot.

5

Terminator Genisys’ Travel Shenanigans Were Too Complicated

Terminator Had Never Been Just About Time Travel

Terminator may be a sci-fi franchise about time travel at its core, but those were never the only elements that made the James Cameron films so good. Countless time travel movies never found the same success as Terminator, and that is because Cameron played with genres in the first two films and only used time travel as the backdrop for an action-packed story. The Terminator was a slasher in which the killer was an unstoppable robot, whereas Terminator 2 was a full-blown action movie with lots of shooting and explosions.

Terminator Movies	Rotten Tomatoes Critic Score
The Terminator	100%
Terminator 2: Judgment Day	91%
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines	70%
Terminator Salvation	33%
Terminator Genisys	26%
Terminator: Dark Fate	70%

The first two Terminator movies were quite simple and easy to follow. Even if you were not a fan of science fiction or didn’t care about time travel and paradoxes, you would still have a lot of fun with both The Terminator and Terminator 2. I cannot say the same for Terminator Genisys, whose story is entirely structured around alternate universes, changes to the timeline, and time loops. There is nothing special about the action Terminator Genisys, especially compared to all the other superhero blockbusters that were taking over Hollywood in the mid-2010s.

4

The John Connor Twist In Terminator Genisys Was A Huge Mistake

John Was Captured By Skynet And Turned Into A Terminator

Turning John Connor into a Terminator working for Skynet could have worked in a better version of this movie, but Terminator Genisys’ biggest twist was a disaster throughout. Firstly, the evil John Connor reveal was spoiled by the trailers, which pretty much killed the chances of it working in the actual movie. Without at least some element of surprise, there was absolutely nothing interesting about John being secretly evil. Terminator Genisys also makes no effort to justify the twist – we are simply told that John was captured by Skynet and turned into a human-terminator hybrid.

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In Terminator: Dark Fate, which ignores all of the Terminator projects not directed by James Cameron, John Connor is killed shortly after the events of T2.

I don’t mind Terminator trying new things with John Connor. After three movies that were all about him, we didn’t need yet another story about John Connor and his family being humanity’s only hope. Still, when a character that important is brought into a film, the story needs to treat them with enough respect. If Terminator Genisys really wanted to commit to John Connor turning evil, that should have been the sole focus of the story and not a third-act twist that seemed to be there simply for shock value.

3

Terminator Genisys Didn’t Have A Clear Villain

The Reboot Lacked Focus

The Terminator movies are as good as their villains. Before he was everyone’s favorite good-guy killing robot, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 was the antagonist of The Terminator – a genius casting choice that led to something really special. Likewise, Robert Patrick’s T-1000 from Terminator 2 is one of the greatest movie villains of all time. Even if Terminator Genisys couldn’t possibly top those two original Terminators, the film needed better villains.

Terminator Genisys lacked focus, especially when it came to the villains. Lee Byung-hun’s T-1000, who could have been a great main villain for the entire film, is reduced to a generic antagonist who is only there so that the heroes have something to run away from. The T-3000 joins the action way too late into the movie, and despite being described as a much more powerful Terminator than the others, is easily defeated. That is not to mention Alex, Matt Smith’s character in Terminator Genisys, whose purpose neither the actor nor the audience was able to understand.

2

Terminator Genisys’ Recast Strategy Didn’t Work

Genisys Failed To Justify Its New Versions Of The Characters

Custom image by Yeider Chacon

Emilia Clarke could have made for a great Sarah Connor in a different movie. However, recasting all the iconic characters while keeping Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 did not work. Seeing the classic albeit older version of the original Terminator interacting with different actors who were supposed to be slightly different versions of Sarah and Kyle felt strange, even more so since they were often recreating moments from the original films.

The ultimate result of all of Terminator Genisys’ problems is that the film often feels like a Terminator parody.

Terminator Genisys should have put more effort into showing how different these new versions of the characters were supposed to be. Emilia Clarke’s Sarah Connor was raised by a Terminator and trained her entire life for the eventual fight against the machines. However, she ended up being not that different from Terminator 2 Sarah Connor, the only difference being how much earlier in the chronology of the story things were happening.

1

Terminator Genisys Often Felt Like A Terminator Parody

Terminator Genisys Was A Lesser Version Of The Original Films

The ultimate result of all of Terminator Genisys’ problems is that the film often feels like a Terminator parody. By redoing so many iconic scenes and lines from the franchise, Terminator Genisys made it easy for us to compare the reboot to the original installments and constantly reminded us of how superior the latter are. Seeing Schwarzenegger as a Terminator is always fun, but unfortunately, Genisys had the worst version of the character by a large margin.

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Although the movie also keeps reminding us that Genisys – the new version of Skynet – will go online soon, there is no real sense of urgency because everything feels recycled. The humor does not land either, with moments like the Terminator trying to smile like he did in T2 being particularly unfunny. Paying homage to the Terminator franchise is one thing, but Terminator Genisys missed the mark when it came to referencing the previous films.

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Terminator Genisys

PG-13

4/10

5.2/10

Release Date

July 1, 2015

Runtime

2h 6m

Director

Alan Taylor

Writers

Laeta Kalogridis, Patrick Lussier

Prequel(s)

The Terminator, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Terminator Salvation

Cast

See All

Emilia Clarke
Jai Courtney

Sequel(s)

Terminator: Dark Fate

Franchise(s)

Terminator

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Source: https://dinhtienhoang.edu.vn
Category: Entertainment

6 Terminator Genisys Relied Too Much On Nostalgia