What’s not to like about the Terminator films? It has an apocalyptic future dystopia, killer robots and time travel. With the exception of the latter with Terminator: Salvation, those three elements made up part of the formula of the films. Oh, and Arnold Schwarzenegger brought much to the table as well.
On Thursday, the trailer for Terminator: Genisys was released, complete with all those elements. So why did I feel as though it was too silly, even for the franchise?
As described by Moviepilot, the trailer shows Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) being sent by John Connor (Jason Clarke) back to the past, but with a few changes. Namely, John’s mother Sarah (Emilia Clarke), who is revealed as being already prepared to take on the mechanical killers. She has help from an old-but-familiar friend, the original T-800 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), and they must try to stop a new T-1000 (Byung-hun Lee) from destroying them.
It looks like fun. Having Schwarzenegger return as an older-looking Terminator is still fun, and the spin put on the original story will create some entertaining moments. Audiences will also seemingly get an extended look at the warring humans vs. machines future from series’ lore before going back in time. It’ll also be round two for the human characters (and friendly robot) against the infamous liquid-metal T-1000, which should offer some fan-servicing fun.
However, as mindlessly fun and fan-serving as this film is, that’s what also makes it feel so silly. First off, the mindlessness of it. The Atlantic said it best when they criticized the film bringing back the T-1000, as well as an older Schwarzenegger in an older version of the same role he had played for three films. It seems like with the exception of the T-X from Terminator 3 (already a combination of both robots from the two films before), the creative team behind this new film have run out of ideas on any other creative robot to send back to the past. They also try to change the original story by changing Sarah’s characteristics, but it follows the same formula without bringing anything new to the table like the first two films did.
Lastly, the fan-serving part of it presents problems. In bringing back the original setting and characters, especially an older Arnold, it seems like an homage to the original film. Yet bringing back the series’ most recognizable actor and saying this “what if” story is a reboot feels as if the creative team is trying to package all the famous aspects of the film series first and create a story around that second. The dialogue especially lacks panache, almost like the writers added that in third. The dialogue and the way it is said lacks the same purpose compared to the way they were said in the other films. Moviepilot also had a problem with the way famous lines such as Arnold’s “I’ll be back” or the classic “come with me if you want to live” were said.
In the end, I’ll see Genisys, but I don’t know if I’ll like it.