Terminator Reboot: More Laughs Than Inventive Action
In the near future, after the machine uprising, a global war, and the destruction of most of humanity, the humans, led by John Connor (Jason Clarke), manage to destroy Skynet, the network controlling the robots. However, moments before, the machines manage to send a humanoid robot into the past to kill the warlord’s mother and prevent his birth. Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney), one of Connor’s closest friends and allies, is sent back to 1984 to stop the Terminator. But as Kyle travels through time, the past, present, and future change. He discovers that Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) from 1984 is not a timid waitress but a determined warrior, raised since childhood by a Terminator T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) sent back in time by humans, who became her protector and mentor after the death of her parents.
A Twist on the Terminator Tale
James Cameron, the creator of the Terminator franchise, suggested the idea that the T-800 Terminator could age externally like a regular human.
Back in 2007, when The Halcyon Company took on the fourth installment of “Terminator,” director McG decided that the film would focus on the future war between humans and machines, rather than time travel. It was an interesting, bold idea, but it didn’t translate into a worthy film. The 2009 blockbuster “Terminator Salvation” failed to recoup its production and promotion costs. As a result, The Halcyon Company went bankrupt, and the rights to the franchise changed hands again.
Bodybuilder Brett Azar, who won the casting call due to his physical resemblance to Arnold Schwarzenegger in 1983, played the body of the “young” T-800. The face of a young Schwarzenegger was recreated using computer graphics.
The new owners of “Terminator” from Skydance Productions took the opposite approach. Their “Terminator: Genisys,” directed by Alan Taylor (known for “Game of Thrones” and “Thor: The Dark World”), doesn’t invent the future but rewrites the past. The film begins almost like the first “Terminator,” spending more time with Reese and Connor in the future. But when a naked T-800 arrives in the past and demands clothes from 1984 punks, he is suddenly attacked by an “older” T-800 who arrived to protect Sarah Connor (the mechanical components of these robots don’t age, but the biological shell changes like a regular human body).
Kyle Reese wears Nike Vandal sneakers in the film, the same as in the first “Terminator.” Since this model has been discontinued, the costume designers couldn’t find new Nike Vandals. So Paramount convinced Nike to release 25 retro pairs specifically for the film.
From this point on, the film turns everything we know about the timeline of the franchise upside down. Sarah is raised by a T-800, several different types of Terminators are found hunting her in 1984, and Kyle Reese, instead of saving an “innocent girl” and teaching her martial arts, receives lessons from her on how to fight advanced Terminators.
Actor Matt Smith is known for his role as the Doctor in the sci-fi series “Doctor Who.” In that show, the main character fights against a civilization of robots trying to conquer the Universe. In “Terminator: Genisys,” Smith played the “human” avatar of Skynet, fighting against humans.
A Postmodern Collage
Seemingly, the film charts a new course. But in reality, it’s a postmodern collage of “greatest hits from previous installments.” The film is striking for its almost complete lack of imaginative staging and design. You can count on one hand the action scenes in “Genisys” that don’t have direct analogs in the first three films of the franchise. And the previous combat sequences, especially in “Terminator 2,” look better than their new clones. Even though Taylor had more advanced effects and a larger budget ($170 million!).
Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the film is its main villain. Since it’s mentioned in the trailers, we can write that it’s a cyborgized John Connor, captured by robots when humans were close to victory, and sent to the 2010s to ensure the triumph of “Genisys.” The film presents him as a fundamentally new, super-cool Terminator model, but Connor is structured much like the T-1000. Only he’s not made of liquid metal but of nanoparticles. This affects the computer graphics depicting his “evolution,” but not his combat abilities, and Clarke’s character is only slightly more dangerous than Robert Patrick’s character from “Terminator 2.” Some upgrade!
One might expect the film to try to extract maximum drama from the fact that Kyle and Sarah’s son became their main adversary. But after the initial shock, the heroes quickly decide that since John has fallen under the control of a computer intelligence and cannot be saved, they must kill him. This agonizing question is not raised again, and John doesn’t even try to exploit the parental feelings of the heroes. He behaves exactly as any Skynet Terminator would in his place.
By the way, about Jai Courtney and Emilia Clarke as Reese and Sarah. We understood everything about the first in the failed blockbuster “A Good Day to Die Hard” (a courageous actor, but he’s being pushed into leading heroic roles in vain). But the queen Daenerys from “Game of Thrones,” who returned her hair to its dark color, is charismatic enough to play Sarah Connor – if we didn’t know how brightly Linda Hamilton played this role. In addition, the star lacks height. She is 10 cm shorter than Hamilton, and next to her tall partners, Clarke looks like a little girl.
Arnold’s Hilarious Performance
So, does “Genisys” have no unconditional merits? It does. That merit is named Arnold Schwarzenegger. Despite his age, charisma oozes from the actor, and he adorns any scene in which he participates. And it’s not just his stern appearance. The T-800 in “Genisys” is a hilariously funny character, something between an unwavering Terminator, a robot Werther, and a CIA dad from “Meet the Parents.” Every other phrase of his evokes a smirk, and every third – Homeric laughter. It seems strange to recommend a new installment of “Terminator” because of how funny the T-800 smiles when he tries to imitate a human, but believe me – Schwarzenegger’s comedic performance is worth it. And it doesn’t affect the coolness of the character. Just as it didn’t in “Terminator 2,” where the T-800 also had funny scenes.
In general, “Terminator: Genisys,” unlike James Cameron’s films, looks not like a dark sci-fi action movie, but like a frivolous sci-fi adventure with a lot of humor, few deaths of significant characters, and many plot absurdities. How do you like this gem, for example – in a franchise where the whole point is that the threat must be nipped in the bud, the hero says: “While the program is being written, it’s safe. Let’s go fight it when there are only a few days left until activation!”?
You can enjoy such a movie. But mostly it will be the pleasure of new encounters with familiar robots and action scenes, from Emilia Clarke’s piercing gaze, from Schwarzenegger’s comedic “burn”… And from the comedic scenes of J. K. Simmons as the only California cop who knows about the existence of robots from the future. Well, better that than nothing.