Terminator: Genisys - Part 8

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I enjoyed this less at home than in the cinema, I still maintain the first hour is really good. And the finale once they get to Genysis/Skynet as good, but everything in between is the problem and is just not compelling.

I didn't think Courtney did too bad for what he as given, but his Reece was written too whiny and too modern. He should have been more rugged and battle weary. It also would have been nice to see him reacting to how different the world was in the past.

And I still maintain it was a mistake to make John Connor the bad guy. The concept of what he was was decent, but the execution was off. And Clarke was much better as the good John Connir than he was as the bad one.

 

[TeeKay]

This is not even worth buying on blu ray for me. I wanted to rip apart the film to shreds in my review but it wasn't even worth my time. Still better than FF though but that's not saying much.

 

[Panthro]

I didn't think Courtney did too bad for what he as given, but his Reece was written too whiny and too modern. He should have been more rugged and battle weary. It also would have been nice to see him reacting to how different the world was in the past.

The original 1984 film also glossed over that angle. There was a scene that showed Reese having a temporary breakdown over being a man out of time but it was cut.

 

[Schlosser85]

There was a touching scene in the novelization of the original movie where Reese stares at a field of wildflowers and is dumbfounded like a little kid because he's never seen flowers before.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

The original 1984 film also glossed over that angle. There was a scene that showed Reese having a temporary breakdown over being a man out of time but it was cut.

In fairness, while the idea of the scene was very good, the acting in it wasn't, so I am not surprised it was cut.

There was a touching scene in the novelization of the original movie where Reese stares at a field of wildflowers and is dumbfounded like a little kid because he's never seen flowers before.

As above there is a deleted scene which shows something similar on the T1 home release. The acting in it wasn't the best though.

I thought it was something Genysis could have picked up on though as the idea is a good one. I also thought Reece would be eager to meet his parents. It would have been an interesting new dynamic to explore.

 

[samsnee]

This wasn't horrible. I still liked it better than Salvation. But Reese and Sarah were badly miscast. And I hate what they did to John. He shouldn't be a bad guy.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

This wasn't horrible. I still liked it better than Salvation. But Reese and Sarah were badly miscast. And I hate what they did to John. He shouldn't be a bad guy.

Seeing that in the trailer made me look at it in weird stare, it's stupid nonsense, but I strangely found it enjoyable.
The chase scene on the bridge is really good.

 

[Loki882]

I have two problems with this Kyle Reese:

1. Physically-Kyle Reese is supposed to come from a post-apocalyptic future where humans are forced to move mostly a night, hide underground, and crawl around like vermin. And Michael Biehn, while he was not a BAD-looking guy certainly, did kind of look like that kind of guy. A bit thinner/leaner, looking like he probably didn't have enough to eat (and didn't have a particularly balanced diet either), and a bit disheveled.

Jai Courtney, on the other hand, looks more like your standard action movie "macho man" who's perfectly cleaned, groomed, and works out a lot.

2. Personality-Biehn's Reese acted like a guy who'd been through stuff. A bit paranoid, socially awkward, twitchy, probably having a case of PTSD, etc. Courtney's Reese has none of that. He was kind of a *****e who was trying to be quippy.

I'm somewhat more forgiving of Sarah being different since that's written into the story. Her entire life from like the age of 11 was completely different, so it makes more sense that she'd be different from Linda Hamilton's version. None of that is so of Reese, at least from what we can tell.

 

[samsnee]

Yes it definitely not feel like the same Reese from T1.

I was surprised how little Arnold was in this. Didn't seem like he really had much to do.

 

[Tg11]

How they could have made Genisys better:

1- Changing the name of the movie altogether because it should not have been called Terminator Genisys plain and simple. Hell if they were going to keep the name of Genisys they should not have added a Y and replaced it with an I (Terminator Genisis) making it sound more cool.

2- Staying in the 1984 timeline is another way that they could have made this movie more better hands down. The 1984 parts in this movie were probably the best parts out of Genisys hands down and had they based the movie here kept it more in this timeline then I think the payoff storyline wise would have been more worth it.

3- More of the 1984 T-800 Terminator model in the sense of the fight between Pops and the T-800 (1984 model) the fight should have lasted much longer and the fact that the 1984 T-800 model was killed by a sniper rifle like where was the payoff? They could have made the T-800 model the main enemy for a larger part of the movie, maybe lure the T-800 to the warehouse where they killed the T-1000. Maybe dump some acid on the T-800 would've been a refreshing way to see the Terminator lose his skin or maybe just leave him seriously burned ala Darth Vader, Freddy Krueger, or Two-Face. That could have made him more frightening in classic Terminator fashion, and since it's pretty much required to see the bad Terminator reduced to just the skeleton, maybe it could have gradually fallen off during the final standoff between the T-800 and Pops.

4- The T-1000 another unnecessary character

5- Matt Smith should have been the main villain all along rather than it being Jason Clarke's John Connor. It would actually make some sense too; instead of sending drones back in time to ensure its survival, why not go back and do it itself? Plus, he could have easily sneaked past John and his men; all he'd need to do is point out the stupidity of sending just one guy back to fight a Terminator and volunteer to help Kyle.

 

[Kanon]

I have two problems with this Kyle Reese:

1. Physically-Kyle Reese is supposed to come from a post-apocalyptic future where humans are forced to move mostly a night, hide underground, and crawl around like vermin. And Michael Biehn, while he was not a BAD-looking guy certainly, did kind of look like that kind of guy. A bit thinner/leaner, looking like he probably didn't have enough to eat (and didn't have a particularly balanced diet either), and a bit disheveled.

Jai Courtney, on the other hand, looks more like your standard action movie "macho man" who's perfectly cleaned, groomed, and works out a lot.

2. Personality-Biehn's Reese acted like a guy who'd been through stuff. A bit paranoid, socially awkward, twitchy, probably having a case of PTSD, etc. Courtney's Reese has none of that. He was kind of a *****e who was trying to be quippy.

I'm somewhat more forgiving of Sarah being different since that's written into the story. Her entire life from like the age of 11 was completely different, so it makes more sense that she'd be different from Linda Hamilton's version. None of that is so of Reese, at least from what we can tell.

I mostly agree, and those were the points that bothered the most of the movie. Specially personality wise, Kyle and Sarah were too lighthearted, tossing snappy dialogue... And while Sarah is not supposed to be light T1 Sarah, I expected her to be more like T2 Sarah.

 

[Loki882]

I was rewatching Jack Reacher the other day and a thought occurred to me. Jai Courtney would have been much better cast as a Terminator. He seems much more charismatic when he's playing a villain. He was a convincing "relentless badass" in that movie, and even his sometimes "woodenness" could be minimized by having him play a killer cyborg who's SUPPOSED to show very little emotion. Also he's got the physical build for it, while still conceivably being able to "blend in" to a population.

He'd have fit a role like that SO MUCH better than Kyle Reese. As for Sarah, she was kind of somewhere in-between T1 and T2 Sarah, which I didn't mind all that much.

 

[Jay Beezy]

I was rewatching Jack Reacher the other day and a thought occurred to me. Jai Courtney would have been much better cast as a Terminator. He seems much more charismatic when he's playing a villain. He was a convincing "relentless badass" in that movie, and even his sometimes "woodenness" could be minimized by having him play a killer cyborg who's SUPPOSED to show very little emotion. Also he's got the physical build for it, while still conceivably being able to "blend in" to a population.

He'd have fit a role like that SO MUCH better than Kyle Reese. As for Sarah, she was kind of somewhere in-between T1 and T2 Sarah, which I didn't mind all that much.

To that end, maybe Jai Courtney will fare much better in Suicide Squad than Terminator or Die Hard.

 

[Tg11]

Where Genisys went wrong:

1- How could John Connor be alive if Kyle and Sarah did not even "mate" in 1984? I mean if they didn't fall in love much less have sex then how can John even exist?

2- Skynet Alex was destroyed in the finale of the film when they blew up Cyberdyne so how could Alex survive or know how to save himself?

3- Detective O'Brien him having so much knowledge about the Terminators and just what they can do

4- If Skynet infected John then why would they even need to send the T-800 101 model back to 1984? Much less why even the need for the T-1000 which to me still makes no sense either

5- They never answered the question of who could have sent Pops back to 1973 to protect a 9 year old Sarah and had they answered this question then whoever sent Pops could be a central character and could have been another target for Alex/Skynet or even John to go after that person who sent Pops

6- The T-1000 even being in 1984 makes no sense especially when Skynet sent The T-1000 to 1994-95 when John was just 10 years old the T2 storyline that we all know about

 

[TheVileOne]

Emilia Clarke might be a good actress, but she looked like a little kid cosplaying as Linda Hamilton.

 

[TheVileOne]

Where Genisys went wrong:

1- How could John Connor be alive if Kyle and Sarah did not even "mate" in 1984? I mean if they didn't fall in love much less have sex then how can John even exist?

2- Skynet Alex was destroyed in the finale of the film when they blew up Cyberdyne so how could Alex survive or know how to save himself?

3- Detective O'Brien him having so much knowledge about the Terminators and just what they can do

4- If Skynet infected John then why would they even need to send the T-800 101 model back to 1984? Much less why even the need for the T-1000 which to me still makes no sense either

5- They never answered the question of who could have sent Pops back to 1973 to protect a 9 year old Sarah and had they answered this question then whoever sent Pops could be a central character and could have been another target for Alex/Skynet or even John to go after that person who sent Pops

6- The T-1000 even being in 1984 makes no sense especially when Skynet sent The T-1000 to 1994-95 when John was just 10 years old the T2 storyline that we all know about

I can only assume that was something they were planning to answer for the planned trilogy.

 

[Sundancer]

This wasn't horrible. I still liked it better than Salvation. But Reese and Sarah (edit: and John) were badly miscast. And I hate what they did to John. He shouldn't be a bad guy.

Yup. Couldn't even finish Salvation. I did like Arnold vs. Arnold though.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I think that's the most frustrating thing about Genysis, it has some really good moments but they are mixed with some awful ones.

 

[DA_Champion]

This movie waa bad fromthe first five minutes. The assault on skynet was dimly portrayed.

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

I have to disagree, I thought the first hour or so was great. Things turn dull once they go to 2017.

 

[Alien Anal]

So great? like T1-T2 great? whats the greatness you are measuring it to?

Im with DA on this. There was nothing about even the "future war" scenes of this film that I liked. I was shaking my head from the very beginning

 

[elgaz]

I've written long diatribes about latter day Terminator movies before, but Genisys suffers from the same problem as a lot of modern day films : it's a money-driven franchise, so they trying to appeal to everyone.

That's why we have humour in a film which is essentially dealing with the demise of mankind.
That's why we have a sexy and feisty female lead who appeals to males, despite the fact her character has been brought up pretty much on the run with a robot as a father figure.
That's why we have a muscle-bound, unmarked and very healthy looking male lead who appeals to females, despite the fact he's supposedly from a post-apocalyptic future where injuries, scars and eating rats to survive should be the norm.
That's why we have a supposedly unstoppable and emotionless killing machine - the T800 - cracking smiles and making penis jokes.

It's like they had a checklist of things which might appeal to mass audiences and ticked them off. Sexy leads? Check. Killer robot? Check. Jokes? Check. Plot which just about works? Check. Yet they never considered if the leads could act, if they had chemistry, if the plot actually made sense, etc.

What I love about Terminator 1 is that it wasn't compromised. It wasn't cracking jokes, it wasn't trying to be everything to everyone. The film was rated 18 here in the UK, and the Terminator's killing spree onscreen totally sold you on how dangerous he actually was. The cast were picked because they were perfect for their roles. Parts of it were terrifying in the sense of this unstoppable predator which was trying to get to Sarah Connor to murder her. T3 onwards has lost that tone and feel completely. T2 had it in parts.

 

[Loki882]

I mean T1 and T2 had humor (especially T2). It's just that it was much more, subtle than it's been since then. And it didn't feel like it was TRYING to be funny, it just was.

 

[OcStat]

The humor in T1 especially is a perfect example of using it as a way to relieve the tension, other wise it would be a hell of a rough ride. The scene where Detective Traxler is stressing and asks for a cigarette only to realize he just lit one seconds ago is awesome. The humor builds character.

 

[CELTICPRED]

The humor in T1 especially is a perfect example of using it as a way to relieve the tension, other wise it would be a hell of a rough ride. The scene where Detective Traxler is stressing and asks for a cigarette only to realize he just lit one seconds ago is awesome. The humor builds character.

How do I look?
Like **** boss.
Your mama!