I am not an overly cynical dude. Let's just get that straight. There seems to be this rush, among general movie audiences, to come to the defense of a movie like "Terminator Genisys" or "Jurassic World." Movies that come from franchises that are very much beloved and have been around for several decades. The problem with "Genisys" or "J World" is not the fact that they're the 5th and 4th movie of their respective franchise. The problem is that the well ran dry on these franchises 2-3 films ago. There's a reason why James Cameron put the "Terminator" franchise behind him after he made "Judgment Day." Same for Steven Spielberg with "The Lost World." There's simply not much more to do with these franchises.
Even if there was more to do, with "Jurassic World," and especially "Terminator Genisys," at no point are we given a reason why either of these films should exist. Neither of them exist on their own merit. I tried to find the good in "Jurassic World" and in the end, I was ambivalent on it. So maybe it's not fair that "Genisys" has come out less than a month after "J World." Maybe that affects my view of the fifth Terminator film since both movies attempt to do the same thing: attempt to recreate what originally made "Terminator" or "Jurassic Park" so great. Only problem, like when you make a sequel to a successful comedy, it's just not as fun, exciting, or entertaining the second time around. And with "T5" and "JP4," it's the fourth and fifth time around. Enough's enough at this point.
With "Genisys," we get Arnie back as the T-800. Kyle Reese, Sarah Connor, and John Connor are back though played by different actors this time around. Even the T-1000 is back, at least in the first half. John Connor sends Kyle Reese back to 1984 to save Sarah Connor only for Reese to find out she's well aware of what's going to happen to her by the time Reese finds her. In fact, Sarah's already best buds with the T-800, who was sent back to 1973 to save Sarah Connor when she was just a kid. Skynet sent a T-1000 back to kill her, but in the end, he just wound up killing her parents leaving T-800 to essentially play the role of a surrogate father.
So when she meets up with Kyle Reese, the plan shifts to them going into the future to stop Skynet. from happening... something they already tried in "Terminator 2." And see, that's ultimately my problem with this movie. There's simply no reason for it to exist if it's just going to be a lifeless rehash of the same shit. And I mean this movie really is lifeless. Poor pacing, bad plotting, terrible acting from Jai Courtney, lack of chemistry between him and Emilia Clarke, Arnie completely phoning it in. He only really seems to enjoy repeating his famous lines from the first two films.
Alan Taylor directed the worst movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and with "Genisys," he's once again demonstrated his lack of cinematic touch. Both "Thor: The Dark World" and "Genisys" are simply too dull, lack a dramatic backbone, and the action feels perfunctory. I came away from "Genisys" completely hating what I just saw, but I've come to soften my stance just a little bit. Why? Because it's too easy to hate on this movie. I'd rather just pretend it never happened.
Grade: D
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