Terminator: Genisys

Though a slight cut above the last entry in this franchise, 2009’s Terminator Salvation, Terminator: Genisys is nevertheless an underwhelming, impotent entry in a series that’s suffering from a serious case of diminishing returns. The convoluted narrative, which essentially follows Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) as she and Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) team up with a friendly terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to take down Skynet once and for all, admittedly holds quite a bit of promise in the movie’s opening hour, as scripters Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier initially stress the central characters’ Back to the Future: Part II-like shenanigans – with the protagonists forced to experience the events of the first two movies in a radically different way. It’s clear even during this stretch, however, that Clarke and Courtney are simply unable to convincingly step into the shoes of their respective predecessors, Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn, although it’s equally obvious that Schwarzenegger steps back into the shoes of his iconic character with an ease that remains a consistent highlight within the proceedings. The complicated machinations of the plot become less and less interesting as time progresses, unfortunately, and it does, as a result, become increasingly difficult to work up any real interest in or sympathy for the protagonists’ endeavors. Director Alan Taylor’s inability to infuse any of the movie’s action sequences with genuine excitement or thrills exacerbates the less-than-engrossing atmosphere, while the endless (and rather tedious) climax ensures that Terminator: Genisys ends on as lackluster a note as one could envision – which, when coupled with the growing realization that the film’s villain is just lame, indicates that it might just be time to put this progressively ineffective franchise out to pasture.

** out of ****