TERMINATOR: GENISYS. Review, Thoughts, Plot-Hole/Time-Line Analysis, and More...

No beating around the bush on this one guys. I'm giving my review score for this out of the gate straight away to the film instead of tossing you back and forth through the entire article.

Did I like this film? Well, I absolutely loved it! I had one true problem with this film, one alone, and a couple plot-hole questions (well, perhaps more than a couple). That is all. Other than that, the film was awesome and any Terminator fan should watch it hands down.

My score is 9/10. Fair and straight. Where do I place it with regards to the other Terminator films? Well if I had to give them a score I would say:

Terminator 1: 8/10

Terminator 2: 10/10

Terminator 3: 6/10

Terminator 4: 7/10

Terminator Genisys: 9/10

Aside from the sentimental and nostalgic value to T1 that makes it a timeless classic and a must have/watch film for me, I have to say that I liked Genisys more. And I might dare say I liked parts of it more than T2 as well, but not overall.

In a nutshell, the film has fan service, covering the war from the future in the look and feel we always imagined it would have from the first films.

It had even more fan service with the throwback to 1984.

And then it picked up from what was the original film and rebooted the franchise in a kickass way, staying relevant to the time-traveling franchise itself, staying relevant to today's viewers, and also bringing back in a great way the old but not obsolete Terminator Arnie.

The film was simply all that.

Now on to the details. Spoilers everywhere from here on down, so continue at own risk if you have not yet seen the film.

SPOILER HEAVY REVIEW FOLLOWS

The Cast

It is wrong to compare to the original Terminator Michael Biehn, because well he has become an icon. And with that, I don't think our new Kyle Reese was the best choice.

However, I can't say that (unlike many apparently) I was not happy with Jai Courtney and his acting skills in this film.

It is evident that a lot of the feel is lost from the older films, as it does have a more rather blockbuster feel to it and it kind of leans over to a popcorn film as well. The PG is indeed strong with this title, and it reflects on some characters. This is hardly the fault of the acting however and again, I am not unhappy with the choice made for Kyle in Terminator Genisys, but I can't compare him to the classics either because that simply wouldn't be fair.

Moving on from there we have yet again a new contender for the role of John Connor, Jason Clarke.

This was a choice I was much happier with. Of course we didn't get much of a grown up version of John Connor depicted in the classics, so we are less attached to his image. However whatever little of him was shown back then set a certain look and standard and it was a direction to steer into. I have to say I enjoyed both the choice of the actor as well as his acting and role... a lot.

The way they treated the character was simply great. They even went through the trouble of making those scars exactly the same as the original. I mean exactly, check them out. Two Y shapes (one above one bellow the left eye) and one more scar over the mouth. Great job indeed.

Moving on from there we had Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor, and although a few inches or more shorter than the Sarah we grew up with, she was a convincing Sarah Connor indeed. She looked the part, played the part, and felt the part. Each actor did a great job, but if I had to place them I would say their order is the same as the one I introduce them here.

Jai Courtney was the least pleasing of all, but I was still quite happy with him. In fact, I have no complaints at all, he just feels a little too "buff" for the Kyle we grew up with. Then the new John Connor takes it up a notch, with Sarah Connor raising the bar even higher and being second as a character to the one and only, the original T-800, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Of course it was a returning role for him, and he has always been great in this role. Just cast him into the role and you are done.

But what was unexpected was the chemistry created in the film, especially between Sarah Connor and the Terminator. One that had, surprisingly, more character development than one would expect from a duo of which the one half was comprised of a machine.

The new Sarah Connor, fathered by a machine. Pops!

All in all again, I am so pleased with the cast that with all honesty I can say that what gripes one can have with them (especially Jai Courtney) is more nitpicking rather than anything else. All up, I did not for one second find any one of the characters less interesting or a bore, and not once did I feel that there was a weak link that I didn't enjoy watching.

They done a great job and I applaud them for their great work in their roles.

The Plot and Setting

For some all this time-travelling mumbo jumbo is a little too much to follow. I have even heard people call it confusing and what not.

I personally found it to be an easy watch. I loved it. There was almost no difficulty on my part at all to follow the plot and themes of time travel and what not, and it truly was an easy watch.

Then again, I have written analysis articles on the Legacy of Kain timelines and have been a sucker for sci-fi (especially of the far fetched kind like Terminator) my entire life. So maybe I'm just well versed in such themes and with that thought I can say that it might not be easily followed by every viewer out there.

What is the plot? Well, I will go through it as if talking to people that are not fans of Terminator to make it as simple as I can and try and cover it all.

A war in the future has waged on between humans and robots/machines (Artificial Intelligence) and humanity is at the brink of extinction. Historically the machines come to existence through a massive A.I program created in the early 90's that takes over.

During the future events of the war, the machines start to lose, and so anticipating this they send a machine, the Terminator, back in time to kill Sarah Connor, the mother of the leader of the resistance, John Connor, in an attempt to alter the future and win the war.

The human resistance sends back a Guardian of their own and soldier, Kyle Reese, to protect Sarah Connor from the Terminator.

This is in fact the very story to the first Terminator. That and that alone. The entirety of the first film to start this franchise was that plot alone. From that plot we also learn that Kyle is in fact John Connors' father.

This is in fact also the very way Terminator Genisys begins.

In a complete tribute to fan service Genisys starts in the future, and it indeed shows us the war against the machines like it was depicted in the classic films. The settings are spot on. Then the plot moves on from there and shows us how John Connor sent Kyle back in time.

However, upon his arrival to the year 1984, Kyle Reese finds a completely changed timeline which naturally has been changed from all this back and forth of sending Terminators and what not in the past to either protect Sarah Connor or John Connor himself (as in Terminator 2).

What is strange about this timeline, and the very reason behind it, is the presence of another friendly-Terminator that was sent to protect Sarah at a younger age from another attack from an "evil" Terminator. Since then, Sarah has been brought up by a machine, and is already the war ready soldier she later becomes as we saw in Terminator 2.

The result is the following:

The new T-1000 from... who knows where.

We have an older grown Terminator (model T-800) present (whom Sarah calls Pop), a new T-800 arriving to this time, Kyle Reese arriving to this time, and a third T-1000 Terminator whom I have no idea whence he came from (well, I have a theory and I think that it is in fact correct, but I am not sure and will cover in the next section).

That is 3 Terminators, 2 are the robotic T-800's, one good one bad, and the other the T-1000.

With this new element of change, we find that Sarah Connor and "Pops" have been waiting for this moment for years for the following reasons.

1) For Kyle (to give birth to John eventually) and

2) For a second chip that is available to them now, capable of powering up a time-portal that "Pops" has built. The third Terminator (T-1000) is simply collateral damage.

The new plan is as follows, to use this time-device and for Sarah to go to the future herself in 1997 and stop Judgement Day.

Kyle on the other hand, being sent back into this alternate timeline, is experiencing the recollection of memories he has no idea where they came from (parallel existing timelines that start to blur out on each other) and has information of a new "deadline" for the Artificial Intelligence to take control over humanity.

And so the plan changes, and they are tossed forward into time to the year 2017 to stop Judgement Day over there, which is planned as an online global system, GENISYS, that will connect everyone and everything together. The new SkyNet. Meanwhile, the Terminator Guardian, Pops, is "taking the long way" to them and is simply waiting it out to 2017.

Aaaand that is that. Simple, right? The rest is obvious, the heroes clash in this new time with other Terminators and Skynet in a battle to stop Judgement Day.

The Plot-holes and Questions

One plot hole to all this, which is an intended plot hole and perhaps not one at all as it is referenced within the film itself, is the arrival of the T-800 to a young Sarah Connor to protect her. No one knows who sent him and how that happened. The Terminator Guardian himself has that memory erased so that SkyNet and others cannot track its information. They make reference to this in a way saying that "whoever sent him didn't want anyone to know they sent him" and that can mean one of two things.

Either it was a convenient solution and thus a plot hole. Or, something else is at play here for future films to come. They state in Genisys that whoever did this didn't want anyone to know, and deleted archives. Hence it also hints that perhaps there is little mistrust in the future.

Aside from that however, it leads into a second plot hole that could be well explained when this first plot hole is explained. The Terminator, model T-1000, that was sent to kill Sarah Connor at a young age. How did SkyNet acquire this information to send a Terminator back to kill her at a younger age?

It is assumed that once John Connor was "turned to the dark side" that SkyNet acquired more information on the whereabouts of Sarah and thus sent another Terminator back to kill her at a younger age.

This also implies that the resistance was perhaps killed off or the machines retaliated and survived. At which point they turned John into a machine, and then sent another Terminator farther back in time. Which begs the question, when did the resistance have enough time to acquire a new time machine to send a Terminator of their own back in time?

See what I mean? All this leads to assumptions and more questions.

One could also assume that John has part of his humanity in tact and is in-fact the one that sends the second Terminator back. This second solution is a little far fetched but it could work.

Another is that John Connors' spouse and second in command sends the T-800 to protect Sarah. However, no such character is introduced at all in this film. Unless my memory serves me wrong, but in Terminator 2, it is John Connor that sends the Terminator Guardian back in time to protect himself. Then in Terminator 3, he is dead (killed by a T-800) which is captured and sent back by his spouse yet again. All these timelines now seem to have been deleted and altered, so something else should be connecting the dots here and the question remains as to what it is.

Another assumption I have is that the Machines sent back a T-1000 to kill her, John retaining some of his humanity sends the T-800 to protect his mother (thus substituting the two Terminators that are sent in Terminator 2 to an older date, keeping the origins of those that sent them the same - SkyNet and John) which also means that once the T-800 rescues Sarah Connor the T-1000 loses track of them and is in fact the very T-1000 we see when Kyle Reese arrives. This is implied in the film since Kyle was evidently used as a means to find Sarah and blow her cover.

In this instance, John could have erased the T-800's memory so that SkyNet did not know of it or so that Sarah could not know of it (thus not blowing John's cover as a machine). Either way this is a little too convenient and doesn't add up. I mean, if all this takes place after SkyNet takes control of John Connor, then they have no need to kill him, since they evidently want him alive.

That leads to another assumption, that the T-1000 is in fact sent by the resistance to kill Sarah Connor and prevent John from existing and becoming a machine (at the same time sentencing the future to death) and SkyNet sent the Terminator Guardian back in time to protect her and had even more reason to delete the log files from the Terminator to ensure no-one knows it was SkyNet and they connect the dots.

One can keep going on and on and on for hours on this with assumptions, but one thing is clear. This is all a little vague and it is either the result of very poor and lazy writing, or the opposite, the result of very clever writing done so to set up future events.

It sure does raise a lot of questions though. A lot.

How did the timelines change? How did the future alter the past? Why is the 1984 timeline changed in the first place? What is the actual event that changed it all and made the machines, along with someone "else" we don't know of, have more information on Sarah to send Terminators to an even older date to change her timeline? All these are things the original John Connor is not aware of himself by the looks of it, and perhaps it indeed has to do with John Connor being turned to the machine side.

Meanwhile, when John has revealed himself as the bad guy, he does not show that he much cares to save Sarah Connor once she is against him. Albeit his logic to why he can kill her is a little absurd, especially for a machine, but there is no reference to all these extra bits that if were true (SkyNet wanting to protect Sarah) they are not referenced whilst they also undo the whole fighting between "evil" John Connor and the rest of them.

Its all fun and games when you just go ahead and write a "time-travelling" plot, but if hasty and if little information is given, plot-holes do happen.

The best solution to all this is one already mentioned. That being that the first "sending of Terminator's and Guardians" to the past happens as we know it in Terminator 1, 1984. The second happens in Terminator 2. The machines continue to wage war and send an advanced Terminator to kill John and John sends a T-800 to protect himself.

Upon doing all this, SkyNet at some timeline finds a new way to infiltrate the humans? Attacking John Connor and capturing him, thus setting forth in motion the altered timeline?

With new information SkyNet sends the T-1000 (the second "sendings") to an older past to kill Sarah. SkyNet hence cares little if John dies and sees him as expendable. John now machine and human, conscious of his probable death, wants to survive and sends (again like in T2) a T-800 back in time, this time farther back to protect his mother. And thus the new timeline begins and rolls from there.

Johns actions to kill Sarah can only be explained by another convenient explanation at this point. That being, that after so long as a machine, he has changed completely and left his humanity behind. He is thus completely SkyNet and cares not for survival on a personal level? That could conveniently work too. But...... who knows. Only time will tell if this is a faulty plot or not, depending on future work. It might as well prove to be the most convenient and poorly written plot around.

The best practice for now is one and one alone. To simply not think about it. Take the plot as it is and assume that there is a reason that connects it all that could be much too big for a film or single film to cover. I mean in the end, if we keep going at this, I can find another that many plot-holes in the time-line to the old classics as well. So it is at this point in ones best interest to simply take it as it is and enjoy it.

Last question... (I could truly think up more, but anyway). The film implies that the reason Kyle Reese was tossed on the ground through the time-displacement process, unlike the Terminator, in both the classic film and in Genisys, is the fact that he saw John Connor being captured by SkyNet and trying to reach out to him.

This raises even more questions. Why did none of this get referenced to in the old film? (Well, obviously because it didn't happen back then as far as James Cameron was concerned, but anyway). This is a new added flavour obviously, but regardless, it becomes a plot-hole if one tries to connect it.

Edit:

With a second viewing, I notice that John Connor also questions who sent the T800 to young Sarah Connor to protect her. This implies he does not know, and scratches out the idea that he sent the T800 back.

"Interesting, this explains a lot. So who sent you?" -"evil" Connor.

The question thus remains, who sent it? Now I am starting to believe this is not a plot hole at all, but a plot-point particularly written to be explained in the future films of the new trilogy. I only hope they get around to it. They have clearly asked the question and pointed towards a mystery that needs to be revealed.

So, I guess the plot-holes are even less at this point. And hence there is even more reason to praise the new Terminator Film, Genisys.

I mean the classics are great, but none of them where written with a future film in mind. Terminator 2 was simply made from the success of Terminator 1. The initial plot was one and one alone, and then it grew into something more. Whilst, this here aims to something more from the go.

I can't wait!

John Connor and the Trailer-Spoiler

One of the largest problems to Terminator Genisys was the spoiler-trailer that came out for it. In a large way this has affected the reviews to the film in a very bad way. Very.

For whoever was living under a rock when this happened, the trailer reveals the main plot-twist to the film. That being that John Connor is turned into a machine.

This for many people completely ruined the film and its immersion.

I on the contrary enjoyed it regardless. Sure, the moment John Connor at the start gets caught by SkyNet should have served as the moment of wander. We are supposed to feel an urge of agony perhaps to find out what happened to him? Along with some other moments here and there.

I personally found no problem in enjoying the film even with knowing this. Surely some details would have been experienced differently, but regardless I was able to enjoy each part for what it was. Yes, I knew John in the hospital was the bad guy. For me perhaps the feeling of surprise was ruined. On the other hand, knowing he was the bad guy I was on my toes and un-trusting of him. At the same time he seemed to want to connect to Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese, and one only needs to immerse themselves in a story to enjoy it, regardless of what they know about it.

Perhaps I lost out on feelings people had that hadn't seen the spoiler. Then again, they missed out on the feelings I had. The rest, that had been spoiled and still didn't find a way to enjoy it, I feel were in theaters more to judge the film rather than to experience it. And how can any film ever pass on as anything other than bad to a judgmental viewer?

Point being, the spoiler hardly ruined the story, if at all. Meanwhile it wasn't the cliffhanger, there was a fair amount of film to go on after that as well, which made it even more enjoyable.

By the way, how badass was that new "Terminator" design? Damn. And quite evil looking too. The original is frightening enough, this here was even more so.

What Could I Say Needs Changing?

3 things I didn't quite agree to in this film. 1 of those is a portion of the ending. I was expecting a much more rather sentimental ending. The Terminator dying was a much more fitting way to go about it I think. At which point, it should have been taken care of in a more sentimental way as well, kind of like Terminator 2. This was the height of all endings to such a film back in the day and even now.

However, this is where the more PG-fied approach to the film is evident and it was a little childish I think. Spoiler (as all of this is) Pops comes back but improved. Having fallen into the liquid metal, he took on a new skin making him a mix of T-800 and T-1000. This was a clear nudge and wink at the youngsters I think. I would have prefered a much heavier ending with his death. But oh well, Pops came back with a super-kick-ass upgrade. Nice.

This too could have been tossed into the plot hole and question area, but it was after all conviniently explained in the film. The liquid metal needed a chip to run, and the T-800 had a chip. Also, the T-1000 at the start brought the "evil" T-800 to life, so they connected the dots through that I guess.

The other two things that kind of bugged me are somewhat minor by comparison.

The one is the length of the film. I felt that more things could be explained and the pace could hold up some extra content in there. On the other hand, this could have ruined the rest of the film, since it was in a way very much paced in a manner that hardly ever left you bored.

The other is the horror aspect. The original films were not action alone, and they are mistakenly thought as action films alone even though they were not. And although there are some really terrifying moments in Genisys, (a Terminator chasing you always gets me) they could have paced throughout some of those some more "slow-horror-like" sequences to build up in areas.

This, along with some small plot points here and there, and a darker ending, and number two change on my list is also taken care of (the length).

I truly felt the ending was kind of rushed.

Nothing about that epiphany of the old films. Nothing about that darkness the original Terminator had. It ended with a nice bright sunshiny day. Nothing of that road and a Sarah Connor voice over about the future, a speech about humanity perhaps, something. And in turn, it felt as though it lost the profound essence it had in the original masterpiece, T2.

Apart from that however, I can't say I have any complaints. They evidently went for the lighter and more "hopeful" ending. Which is also good I guess. The old Terminator did leave you a sense of despair and uncertainty for some reason, within a glimmer of hope. Something like that is probably a little too heavy for our time. Especially for a summer blockbuster. Even Salvation had a more profound ending.

That single true problem I had was the ending being/feeling a little rushed and more PG-13ish than I would have wanted it to be.

The Question of Any Film.

Would I watch it again and recommend it?

Yes! In a heartbeat. I am actually counting the moments to the next time I see it. I would definitely recommend this film. There are aspects to this that are much more enjoyable even than the first two films. In other ways the film by comparison is lacking when compared to the old classics. And so it all comes down to mood and what you are looking for.

As a Terminator fan I was quite pleased. I got me a future war scene, I got me time-travel, I got me Terminators fighting it out, I got me sentimental moments within the film (the Terminators goodbye to Sarah Connor, in a way, for example really hit me emotionally), I got me some old fashion Terminator comedy in there. I got me some Terminator freights in it. I got me a good villain to care for. I got me a lot of throwbacks to the classics as well as new content to enjoy. I got me action... A lot of it and really good action too at that with some sublime effects.

And yeah there is a sense of some darkness that I got from this film too. That being, that perhaps John Connor will never be as we once knew him. The leader of the resistance.

If he ever is born, it points in a direction that he will be brought up a normal kid, hence a new birth of SkyNet should surprise the Connors. lol.

That in itself is a refreshing change, but not because I didn't like John Connor, but because it was done and tried so many times the same Connor story. The time-version of a soldier and leader of the resistance seems to be done with, as he fades in the form of a fallen hero in this film and in our hearts, and that is a little sad in its own way perhaps and the kind of sad I was looking for in a Terminator film.

All in all it provided everything a good Terminator film should, and I would highly recommend watching it. I truly expected it to be, well from all the bad reviews out there, quite crap.

This was by far one of the few and best reboots I have seen in a very, very long time.