Family Encyclopedia >> Entertainment

The Terminator Genisys Movie Review for Geeks... Arnie is back, unfortunately

The whole time he was watching Terminator Genisys , the same phrase kept coming back to me... “We have to go back in time and kill the screenwriter..”

Terminator Genisys It is the latest edition of the Terminator series, a property rivaled only by the Extraterrestrial Series to turn two great movies into one horrible franchise. The last two entries., Terminator 3:Rise of the Machines and Terminator Salvation It clocked in at 70 percent and 33 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively, and they're being pretty generous with the 70 percent.

Early trailers hinted at promising signs for Terminator Genisys . Arnold Schwarzenegger has touched the T-800 again, and the movie is trying something cool:rewriting what happened in The Terminator , portraying a timeline of many iterations of time travel. The cast also includes talented actors like Emilia Clarke, J.K. Simmons, and Matt Smith (of Doctor Who fame).

I avoided reading reviews before seeing the movie to avoid bias so I didn't really know what to expect going into the movie. ago Genisys Are you successful in redeeming the franchise? Can a genius idea and a star-studded cast save the series?

That's right Terminator Genisys worth watching?

The short answer is no. No way. Terminator Genisys It's one of the dumbest movies I've ever seen, and I've seen The pf . The longer, more detailed answer is below, so read our bug-free review for geeks to find out all the gory details.

The performance

Good actors are only as good as their script and direction. Compare Liam Neeson in Schindler's List and Star Wars Episode 1:The Phantom Menace , for a poignant example. Clearly, something similar was happening at Genisys .

Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Targaryen from Game of Thrones ) She looks like she is acting at gunpoint. More importantly, she totally lacks the physical presence and force of personality you need to play Sarah Conner. She compares her to Lena Headey (also from Game of Thrones ) in the excellent Terminator television show, who consistently looked willing and able to kick his teeth down your throat if necessary .

Generic protagonist Jai Courtney (Kyle Reese) (who you'll remember from the most recent Die Hard The movie) clearly has no idea where he is. In The Terminator Kyle Reese projects a kind of hardened vulnerability. His performance conveyed a lifetime of trauma, and a certain amount of disgust with the luxury of pre-apocalyptic life. In Genisys , Kyle Reese projects literally nothing. He looks like a stack of biceps inside a trench coat..

The love story between Reese and Sarah Connor in Genisys It's one of the least convincing romances I've ever seen.. And, to reiterate, I have seen. The pf .

Jason Clarke does a believable turn as the grown-up John Conner, but he even occasionally chokes on the downright awful dialogue the writers keep shoving into their mouths.

Matt Smith is there, for no apparent reason.

Pretty much just J.K. Simmons and Arnold himself appear to be enjoying themselves. One of the few bright spots in this film is seeing Arnold wander around with his mouth full of scenery, excited to be allowed to do this again.

The plot

Time travel has consistently generated the most fresh plots in the Terminator movies John Connor sends his best friend to die to make sure his own parenting is really cool. This is the plot in Terminator 2:Judgment Day about having to kill innocent scientists who will one day create world-ending technology.

Genisys adds a new element to the realm of time travel, allowing time travelers to retrieve memories of their alternate selves when the timeline drifts due to a "nexus point"...or something. I'll be honest, I'm having trouble Remembering teak, Arnold was forced to mumble his way.

The point is that it's a weird and insultingly magical piece of mythology designed to give the characters information they could have gotten in much cooler ways. In The Sarah Connor Chronicles , The writers wanted to solve the same problem to give their main characters hints that the future has changed. His solution was to have a mortally wounded time traveler appear, and scrawl the nearly legible messages on the garage in blood before he died. I think we can all agree that that's way cooler than so-called "nexus points."

Then there are the terminators themselves. Since Terminator 2 , the Terminator The franchise has had a complex relationship with the humanity of its machines. Both Judgment Day and the TV show hints at the possibility of sensitive and emotional terminators, but they don't do much more than hint. That's a very good thing, because actually giving us a sentimental Terminator would be a huge mistake, and betray the chilling characterization the movies have created. Without getting too far into spoiler territory, I'm sorry to say that Genisys does exactly that.

The strength of terminators is that they are machines. What is it like to be an intelligence that lacks emotion, morality, and even boredom? Is such a machine a person? Thinking machines:what neuroscience and artificial intelligence can teach us about consciousness. Thinking machines:what neuroscience and artificial intelligence can teach us about consciousness. The construction of artificially intelligent machines and software teaches us the workings of consciousness and nature. of the human mind itself? Read more ? Could it ever be These questions are more relevant than ever, in a world where our ability to create intelligent machines is becoming more powerful at an astonishing rate , and we're fighting to give more and more control to machines that we often don't fully understand.

What happens when a self-driving car from Google has to make a moral judgment with the risks of life and death? Or a military robot? Can we trust software to weigh the complexity of one life against another when it can't reliably determine which audio device to send to? These are interesting questions that the Terminator The franchise, at its best, can answer.

Unfortunately, Genisys is far from the Terminator franchise at its best.

Generally, Genisys it feels like a movie that suffered too many revisions to its script. Concepts are introduced that are never fully explained or used for anything important. Arbitrary-looking elements abound. The plot winds between the sets, marking Terminator References and tropes of summer blockbusters without any particular direction or urgency.

This feels like Terminator made by Michael Bay. Which, if you haven't read the memo, is a bad thing..

The technology

Even among movie robots How Hollywood has represented artificial intelligence over the years How Hollywood has represented artificial intelligence over the years Humanity has always had a love-hate relationship with technology, and robots they are not different. Over the years, there have been hundreds of movies about intelligent robots, and the portrayals have varied wildly. Read More Very often, when science fiction franchises explore the idea of ​​humanoid robots, they go to ridiculous extremes of biotech or nanotech, and make robots that are literally indistinguishable from humans (we're watching), Battlestar Galactica ). This can be useful for plot purposes, and saves special effects, but it can also make things a bit too abstract to really carry the "this isn't a person, it's a thing" punch.

the Terminator The franchise, in contrast, embraces the mechanical nature of its robots. The famous Terminator endoskeleton looks like a machine. You can see rods and joints and motors working below. Movies don't shy away from stripping away the meat and letting you see the moving parts. The T-800 endoskeleton doesn't seem too far from something Bostom Dynamics could build. 5 Advanced Humanoid Robots You Must See To Believe. 5 Advanced Humanoid Robots You Must See To Believe. Here we count some of the most impressive humanoid robots. never created. The future of robotics is drawing near and it's rarer than ever. Read more .

And, while today's robots struggle to pass for humans 7 Real Humanoid Robots That Will Give You Nightmares 7 Real Human Robots That Will Give You Nightmares Robots are starting to move, look and talk like people. Unfortunately, as with any cutting-edge undertaking, sometimes you fly too close to the sun. Read More We all know, on some level, that technology will come to an end. That's one of the things that makes the Terminator so terrifying. It feels like something we could really do in the future. Could the military really build a terminator? Could the military really build a terminator? Read more.

Every attempt to improve the Terminator (including, as much as I hate to admit it, the T-1000) has lost some of that magic. And unfortunately,Genisys The contribution (a new type of terminator that resembles a swarm of magnetic moths) is no different. It's a great piece of CGI (computer generated imagery), but it's not plausible enough to be threatening.

Then there is the attempt to modernize the Terminator Mythology by turning Skynet into an app, presumably as a nod to the population of viewers old enough to be annoyed by the slightly new technology. Let's be clear here:there are a number of technological developments that are scary. Why Scientists Think You Should Care About Artificial Intelligence Why Scientists Think You Should Care About Artificial Intelligence Do you think artificial intelligence is dangerous? Can AI pose a serious risk to the human race? These are some of the reasons why you may want to worry. Read More Smartphones and apps are not on that list. There has always been an anti-tech angle to the Terminator movies, but he's never been that dumb before.

The visuals

One of the few redeeming elements of this film is the visual effects, as they are truly impressive. The computer-generated Arnold is right at the top of the incredible valley. 5 Advanced Humanoid Robots You Must See To Believe. 5 Advanced Humanoid Robots You Must See To Believe. Here we count down some of the most impressive humanoid robots ever created. The future of robotics is drawing near and it's rarer than ever. Read more . Several of the sequences involving the T-1000 and the new Terminator model are quirky, and a joy to watch.

However, even here the quality is uneven. Several of the special effects-heavy scenes have staggeringly rough elements, especially the sequences set in the future. Some of them are so obvious that I wonder if the post-production process just ran out of money before finishing some of the scenes. Which is inexcusable for a big-budget blockbuster like this.

Final thoughts

The good one:

  • Well, yes uneven, special effects.
  • Enchanting performances by various actors.
  • Some nice ideas buried within the plot.

The bad guy:

  • Boring typing
  • Unconvincing acting
  • An incoherent mess of a plot.
  • A general failure to capitalize on the strengths of the Terminator franchise.

The verdict

Terminator Genisys It's a bad movie. Its After Earth bad. Could even be Battleship bad. Unless you're a die hard Terminator fan who just wants to see robots hit things, don't pay money for it.

Buy Terminator:The Sarah Connor Chronicles instead, and spend some leisure time watching pranks A Brief Guide to Drunk Watching [Weird &Wonderful Web] A Brief Guide to Drunk Watching [Weird &Wonderful Web] Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video have made bingeing a mainstay from the mainstream. Before you start binge-watching TV, you need to arm yourself with some important information. This short guide helps. Read more the entire series at home. It covers many of the same ideas in a more satisfying way and is generally a joy to watch. As for Genisys , I suggest waiting for the Rifftrax version..

MakeUseOf Terminator Genisys Fees 1 star out of 5 .

The Terminator Genisys Movie Review for Geeks... Arnie is back, unfortunately