Terminator Genisys, Review: Old or obsolete?

Also known as Terminator 5 and released in Real D, 3D and IMAX 3D, Genisys is an elaborately written but largely uni-dimensional tale of the saga that poses the ‘eternal’ question: what if machines tried to take-over the world? By machines, it is meant humanoids, cyborgs, robots and other hybrids with almost unbeatable strength. Either ennui has set in, or the script is too convoluted and complex, or, frankly, the execution is not compelling enough—in the end, the film makes you wonder whether it was worth it.

John Connor (Jason Clarke), first referred to in the 1984 prime outing of the series, among the last leaders of the human resistance against machine takeover, sends his colleague Sgt. Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984, to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) and safeguard the future, an unexpected turn of events creates a fractured timeline and contradicting memories. Now, Sgt. Reese finds himself in a new and unfamiliar version of the past, where he is faced with unlikely allies, including the Guardian (Arnold Schwarzenegger), and, in a role reversal, Sarah becomes his savior. They face hostile Terminator attacks and travel through time, to 2017, to save the human race from looming elimination by an Internet Application called Skynet, a.k.a. Genisys.

As many as four writers are credited. Two of them, James Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd are given credit for the characters they created 31 years ago. Cameron has endorsed the film as true to the original base and worthy of being called Terminator 5. Well, he should know. Hurd produced and co-wrote The Terminator and also worked on The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and The Ghost and the Darkness, Armageddon. The two new writers on this project are Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier. Laeta’s credits include Avatar, Shutter Island and Alexander, and she produced White House Down. Patrick Lussier scripted Wes Craven’s Dracula and directed My Bloody Valentine.

Genisys is full of jargon, flash-backs that enter time zones in 1979, 1984, 1997, 2017…sorry, I lost count. Some consolation that Reese finds the Guardian’s vocabulary too technical and un-human, and, therefore, very irritating. I endorse those insider jokes. Some of the film’s humour is derived from these very exchanges. For the major part, the story tracks Reese, Connor and the Guardian, being chased across 33 years by an assortment of villains, and battling it out, usually with ineffective weaponry, while the villains always leave them enough leeway for manoeuvre. It is never clear how potent or powerful the protagonists are, and how impenetrable or regenerative the ‘bodies’ of the non-humans are. There is a very interesting angle about magnetic fields, which, on second thought, seems childishly predictable.

In what must be an attempt to justify the aged looks of Arnold Schwarzenegger (now 67), an explanation is built-in: His skin is made of human tissue, so it is bound to age. Point is, his skin is made of dead human tissue, and the dead don’t age. Terminator often analyses opponents by scanning, and the images are shown in full screen magnification, but as mere flashes. Parents, grandparents and children often appear in the same frame in combined eras, some of them blissfully unaware of the relationship they share/shared/will share with the other(s). Already seen some decades ago in a Japanese film titled Time Within Memory and reprised by Indian writer-director Gulzar soon afterwards in Mausam, the concept is overdone in Genisys.

Genisys is directed by Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World, episodes TV shows Mad Men, Deadwood, Rome, Bored to Death, The Sopranos and, most importantly, Game of Thrones). He has cleverly woven some nudity by making sure that Reese and Sarah travel in time without clothes (the time machine will not allow clothing on board), while making sure the censors don’t raise eyebrows. Guardian arrives in the future a little too late, and the hugging nudes are whisked away to the police station. When asked why he was late, Guardian says “Got stuck in the (San Francisco) traffic.” Genuine laugh. Now ponder this: do Terminators and robotic machines really need cars and helicopters to go around? Answer: how do you bring in car chases and helicopter thrills otherwise? Case rests. Schwarzenegger’s robotic teeth-flashing is employed to humorous advantage. Change of appearances, layers of metal-flesh-plastic, and double-role situations would have held some novelty, had they not been so many and so often. The climax has been worked on quite hard, yet it only provides partial recovery.

Australian star Jason Clarke (Rabbit-Proof Fence, Zero Dark Thirty, The Great Gatsby, Dawn of The Planet of The Apes) is new to the franchise, as are most of the other actors. John Connor undergoes a change-of-heart in an unconventional manner, and Clarke has the face and physique to show for it. Connor first appeared in the 1991 sequel, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, portrayed by Edward Furlong. The role was then essayed by Nick Stahl in the 2003 film Terminator 3: Rise of The Machines, then Christian Bale stepped in for the fourth instalment Terminator Salvation. Thomas Dekker played Connor in the 2008, TV series, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Wow! So, Jason is John Connor 5, in Terminator 5. His (sur)namesake Emilia (Dom Hemingway, Spike Island,Triassic Attack  TV’s Game of Thrones--partly directed by Alan Taylor--in place of the earlier Sarah, Linda Hamilton) is confident and even enjoys some tongue-in-cheek bits the Guardian. With Reese, she goes through the off-beat stripping scene and subsequent nakedness without a flinch. No stranger to skin-show, she did it in Game of Thrones and only turned down Fifty Shades of Grey because she thought producers might type cast her as the exposing type.

Another Australian, Jai Courtenay, the hunk from NSW and the actor seen in such big films as Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Divergent, A Good Day to Die Hard and Jack Reacher, is repeatedly called upon to express surprise and outrage, and look lost, when not staking his life to protect Sarah. He’s okay. J.K. Simmons (Whiplash, Breakpoint) as policeman O’Brien, who has been working on the same case for decades, shows he has a range of emotions as stock-in-trade and need not be judged by his sadistic avatar in Whiplash. It is not a big role, but neither is it minuscule, though he has said that “It's a small part, which they insist, gets much bigger in the sequels.” (Spoiler)?

Even though the Austrian accent hasn’t improved much over the last century, Schwarzenegger has matured tremendously over the last 37 years, if Maggie is anything to go by. And then he is called upon to go back to his mechanical ways. Pity. In that context, writing deadpan humour scenes for him was a good ploy. One often repeated line in the film is “Old, not obsolete,” uttered by the only surviving member of the original set-up, describing his utility. It shows scant respect to the surviving power of the actor who arrived in 1977, and will turn 68 next month. On the other hand, maybe that is the raison d’être for this film. There is more to be milked out of the Terminator before he is terminated. By including a scene in the end credits leaving the series open to a sequel, the producers are seriously playing with possible obsolescence. “I’ll be back,” says the Terminator, one of the most famous one-liners in Hollywood history, as he jumps out of a helicopter to crash a hostile one. Most likely he will. But if the franchise owners want the audiences to come back, they will need to do some tough overhauling. Otherwise, even at Schwarzenegger's catch-phrase invitation to do battle, "Bite me," there may not be many to swallow the bait.

Rating: **1/2

Trailer: https://youtu.be/rGSxss7gWak?list=PLVjwdZylAT2nh15cmZQZJIkYQkiO9-81I