Terminator 5: Genisys

[Neon Ignition]

http://www.darkhorizons.com/news/36568/jason-clarke-talks-genisys-villain

Some chatter from Jason Clarke about yesterdays reveal.

In terms of the whole of T1-4's direction it does kind of tie in to the pieces, I guess it's whether it makes sense as a whole.

Obviously, from where just T1-2 leave things it's utter madness

[Dogg Thang]

The Terminator marketing people are looking to pick up an award for worst photoshopping...

[CMcK]

Saw the trailer for Genisys before Age of Ultron and having gone from dismissing the film I an now a bit more interested. I think they might have given a little too much away in the recent trailer but it does look like it will fit into the existing Terminator universe.

[Neon Ignition]

Ahead of T5, MGM is re-releasing the original film at cinemas next month

[Kit]

The Terminator marketing people are looking to pick up an award for worst photoshopping...

Based on her chest alone this looks like a completely different woman.

[noobish hat]

I heard the UK release of this is going to be called Terminator Mega Dryve.

[QualityChimp]

I can't believe none of us made that joke earlier! Smooth moves, noobs!

I saw the first trailer and I was intrigued. I tried to avoid the second trailer after you lot said it was spoilerific.
However, I couldn't avoid it as I've been to the cinema loads of late and I think it's a real shame they wasted the twist in the trailer. It could have been it's strongest word-of-mouth draw.

From what I can tell from the trailer, the new Terminator

->Open Spoiler<-

is John Connor

, not just a copy because Sarah Connor says

->Open Spoiler<-

"What did they do to you, John?"

and he says something like

->Open Spoiler<-

"I'm something more than human now!"

I'm not sure why I'm bothering to spoiler it if the makers can't be arsed!

The most intriguing bit of Salvation was where he fights the 80s Arnie (well, 2 seconds of CGI then a load of shots from behind!), so the idea of ret-conning the series interests me, especially as T3 undid all the good work of T2.

[Dogg Thang]

^Yep. If the movie was half decent (not convinced), those plot points could have had some impact. And yet they have given them all away. Quicker just to watch the trailers than see the whole movie.

[Neon Ignition]

Genisys has one thing that T3 and Salvation didn't have...

The formal James Cameron stamp of approval

[QualityChimp]

Genisys has one thing that T3 and Salvation didn't have...

The formal James Cameron stamp of approval

Can James Cameron's stamp of approval be trusted?

On Terminator 3:
?In one word : Great. There was a small part of me that hoped it wasn?t good ? but another part of me hope?d it succeeded. And it did. And I?m so glad it did. Jonathon?s made a great movie. Arnold?s in great form. I really like what he?s done with it?.

If he had done it, would he have handled it differently: ?Yes. That?s only natural. I mightn?t have structrued it the same, nor may I have ended it the same way ? but coming in where he has, such a hard thing to do, and I give Jonathan points for it?.

[Neon Ignition]

True, it raises the question of would he have made a third entry better himself too.

Then again he made True Lies....

... then again, he made Avatar

[Leon Retro]

I just looked at this for the first time. Seeing Emilia Clarke is playing Sarah Connor is a joke. She's 5'2 - and Linda Hamilton is 5'6. Emilia is a baby-faced little cutie. It's casting like this that puts me off a film. I have nothing against Emilia, she's OK in GOT, but she's a petite, cutesy person and not suited to an action role.

[Neon Ignition]

Reviews are starting to pop up and they seem to be pretty consistently so-so. Seems like Arnie has escaped the criticism again despite his age, instead the issues raised are mostly related to the messy storyline which is apparently far too busy setting up T6 and T7 to focus on smartly explaining what is going on. I've seen a couple of mentions that it doesn't trouble T1 and T2 but is better than T3 and T4

[Finsbury Girl]

12A - no deal, another kiddie movie like T2

[Neon Ignition]

So, I've just watched Genisys and I'm just going to be up front and honest about my opinion of the film and how I've approached it as I've no doubt that most of the internet is going to tear the film a new one by default.

You probably have two sorts of Terminator viewer:

1 - The type who views Terminator 1 and 2 as a cinematic masterclass and holds them in grail like regard. Unless Cameron is directly making a true in every way third entry himself anything else is a sin to the screen.

2 - The type who views Terminator 1 and 2 as cinematic classics but despite the bumpy road of T3 and T4, still has an interest in seeing what is going on in the franchise to go and see T5.

If you really, really have a hard time drawing a mental line with T1 and 2 even at this point in the franchise then save yourself the trip, it doesn't at all live up the the original two entries and it will do nothing to help soothe your anger if you can't get over the series continued lower quality bar existence.

If you're able to enter the film from the stand point of accepting T3 and T4 exist and the franchise has continued on, you simply want to see something that to some degree improves on the quality bar T4 left things off on then you might find enough to come out with a bit of a smile.

I'll do the same as the last time I posted and give a general view followed by a spoilered view for those who've seen the film.

T5 seems to pretend that T3 and T4 didn't happen however it doesn't expressly rule them out of the canon either, it's just kind of vague about their events. I'm not precious about the nonsense timeline in this series, T1 on it's own made no sense and T2 didn't completely wrap things up as much as hardcore franchise fanatics wish it did so I enter each entry with a view that the timeline is completely open to change and inconsistencies. The writers seems to agree, T5's storyline is banana's, focusing heavily on the timeline as the trailers have all shown. It leads to some of the films best and weakest moments.

Despite the homages to T1 and T2 this probably feels most like a successor to T3. It's an action film first and foremost with some stupid humour. Not quite as cringe worthy cheesy as T3's but the delivery is off. Despite the net rage at T5's lighter moments it's all stuff that T2 set up and left the door open on, the delivery was just much better in that film. In the end I'm alright with the film I think (though it won't be troubling my best film of the year list), I can accept it for the dumb splashy action film it is.

Best way I can put it is to rank them as I'd probably personally rank them, rewatch change of opinion possibility aside:

T2>T1>>T5>T3>>T4

SPOILERS

->Open Spoiler<-

If you put the plot holes out your mind it even gives you a rough ending to the franchise if T6 and T7 never end up happening. If they do happen, there's a final sequence with Arnie which could prove, if handled correctly, very interesting to see play out on screen.

If the series does continue on to these last two films though, it leads to a very curious timeline whereby the events of the four existing films never happened. Unless anyone noticed details I missed it now seems that:

??? sent back an unknown Terminator model (presumably a T800) to kill child Sarah Connor in the 70's but was stopped by the T800 from Genisys. 'Pops' (urgh) trains Sarah as she grows up until 1984 ready for the arrival of the T800 from the first film and they save Kyle Reese from a T1000 which is in 1984 somehow sent back by ??? presumably to kill Reese given it's ready and in place at the time of his arrival. They survive and send themselves to 2017 to stop the now heavily delayed Judgment Day created by the change of events in the past which led to Miles Dysons continued work (presumably slowed down by the events of T1 never happening). Events of T5 occur and now the future is unknown though presumably Judgment Day still looms given the sheer volume of plotholes and there clearly being two ??? players with time machine access who are changing the timeline.

I'm guessing the plot holes are so many to leave lots of room for Ooo reveals in T6 and T7. As far as I can tell though there really is no way the whole thing could ever come to any other end than what T3 said twelve years ago, that Judgment Day is inevitable. You can change the timing of events but they will always happen no matter what.

Probably the biggest question I was asking myself was why Connor was struggling to complete the time machine at Cyberdyne for three years in 2017 but Sarah could build one out of spare parts in a sewer in 1984

As I said, I've no doubt it will get torn apart by many but I can deal with the films daft action nonsense. I enjoyed it more than the previous two films and at this point, that's enough.