Terminator Genisys - Discussion and Grading Thread (Spoilers)

[Tosk]

My take, the storyline made absolutely no sense. Both Skynet and the Resistance made idiotic decisions...it was like Dumb vs Dumber. And there were barely any Terminators in the film, even at "Skynet Central". A place where Skynet finally has the enemy it seeks...and sends a naked unarmed Terminator after him instead of every robot in the joint. Marcus has a chip which apparently controls him except it never does, it doesn't even control him enough to stop him from ripping it out. (It's apparently taped to the back of his head for some reason.) All just so he can defiantly rip it out. So dramatic! There's so much more, but who has the energy?

Here's a good list of problems with it...

http://downfallofterminator.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/all-that-is-wrong-with-terminator.html

Some of it is pointlessly nitpicky, but there are many things listed that I agree with.

 

[Kemaiku]

The chip was basically held in place just by how thin the layer between the skull and skin are there. He tore the skin open enough, the chip was only connected by a lot of little microwires, likely to key nerves.

Doesn't seem to have been doing much more than sending electrical impulses to the brain stem. More suggestion than control.

And I assume they thought a full Terminator could scan this organs, determine them as a weakness, take him somewhere it could survive but would melt out or pierce his soft tissues.

 

[Captain Craig]

My take, the storyline[Salvation] made absolutely no sense.

If that's the first criteria the same holds true for Genisys. It's storyline is a jumbled mess.

I'm in the camp that appreciates Salvation and doesn't agree with the laundry list of "problems". Some issues, sure but the laundry list I see is super anal nit picky to the point of being laughable cause we can point out issues like that in most of the films.

 

[Bisz]

Also, if you haven't, you might want to check out Cinema Sins.

That's a given.


I re-watched The Terminator yesterday, man what a good movie that is. The plan is to watch the other three over the coming week and see what a back to back viewing of the whole movie franchise does to my opinion of them.

 

[hux]

Just seen this.

Firstly, I really didn't like Jai Courtney as Reese. The guy's face has too many right angles and he's just too much like a dumb puppet of meat. Reese needs to have some vulnerability which was utterly lacking in Courtney. Similarly, Jason Clarke is a painfully weak John Connor and just doesn't have the gravitas for the part. The savour of humanity should not look like a confused anaemic scarecrow. Bad casting.

The plot was reasonably fun though hugely convenient (no explanation of who sent Arnie to the 70's?......meh, ok fine......no mention of how they survived over a decade despite being tracked by a more advanced poly mimetic model?.....well if you insist).

I ignored that stuff and was pretty much on board all the way (even when they were inventing time machines in the mid 80's) but as soon as Connor showed up in the hospital and that whole strand took over, I seriously started to lose interest. Sure enough, after his reintroduction, the film just becomes lots of explosions and set pieces that amounted to nothing (Arnie dives out of the helicopter to stop Connor..,...but actually helps him crash in the exact place he wants to be......oh for goodness sake).

I went in with low expectations but I was pleasantly surprised by the first half and thought there were quite a few interesting ideas being explored but when Connor shows up, the whole thing just descends into standard blockbuster tedium.

Ultimately, the film felt like it was trying desperately to bring John Connor into the future (literally) so that the next films don't have to keep talking about 1997 (it kinda brings you out of the fiction when they keep mentioning a future that is 20 years old). Now they don't have to worry about that and Connor's new birth date of 2018 allows them to push back Judgement day and churn out more of these films without people asking......shouldn't Connor be 73 by now?. So in that sense, the film did it's job (Abrams should get a writing credit).

Doctor Who gave up traveling through time and space so he could appear in this crap for five seconds? And what a waste of the brilliant Jk Simmons.

6 1/2

 

[Hartzilla2007]

no mention of how they survived over a decade despite being tracked by a more advanced poly mimetic model?

Simple terminators don't have omnipresence, if it can't find you it can't kill you.

 

[hux]

no mention of how they survived over a decade despite being tracked by a more advanced poly mimetic model?

Simple terminators don't have omnipresence, if it can't find you it can't kill you.

Sarah: You know that terminator we've been running from for ten years.
Arnie: yeah.
Sarah: Well, I was thinking.....Kyle Reese arrives tomorrow so let's kill it.
Arnie: In many ways, it would have made more sense to have killed it years ago. Waiting until now seems a bit silly especially considering it will probably try to kill Kyle tomorrow.
Sarah: Oh shut up pop, and make some more tea.

 

[Kelso]

At this point rebooting seems like the only sensible option if they want to continue this franchise. And they need to replace Arnie as the face of the franchise. He just isn't a box office draw any longer.

 

[Guy Gardener]

That just means that they can pay him less.

Emilia was the actual lure for the wankers who would rather stay at home and watch HBO.

What, I believe, really hammered Terminator II home was the Music video played on a loop on TV.

I think that James Cameron brainwashed me.

 

[davejames]

At this point rebooting seems like the only sensible option if they want to continue this franchise. And they need to replace Arnie as the face of the franchise. He just isn't a box office draw any longer.

I think what they really need to do is get away from all the flashy CG blockbuster spectacle and go back to the barebones, hard-edged, and no frills style of the original movie and other recent action movies like John Wick or the Dredd remake.

What made the Cameron movies work so well is that they were really just terrific, well-crafted action movies at heart, and the scifi/time travel stuff was just one extra ingredient in that. But somehow the latter movies have made it much more about the scifi than anything else, it seems like.

 

[Aragorn]

I wonder if a lot of Smith's scenes ended up on the cutting room floor? Perhaps there was even a problem with some test audiences having a hard time taking Smith's character seriously considering how strongly identified he is with the 11th Doctor? (IIRC, that once happened to George Reeves. He was supposed to have a small supporting role in From Here to Eternity but was cut because test audiences kept thinking of Superman whenever they saw him.)

To me it seemed like Smith's character was set up for the sequel, which may not even happen now.

Ed O'Neill had a small part in Flight of the Intruder, but test audiences couldn't get Al Bundy out of their minds so they had to reshoot his scenes.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Audiences need to learn to do what they're told.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

(IIRC, that once happened to George Reeves. He was supposed to have a small supporting role in From Here to Eternity but was cut because test audiences kept thinking of Superman whenever they saw him.)

George Reeves actually WAS in that film. He wasn't edited out. Every scene he filmed is in the movie. Superman had nothing to do with any of it - that's just an urban legend, nothing more.

 

[Timby]

I wonder if a lot of Smith's scenes ended up on the cutting room floor? Perhaps there was even a problem with some test audiences having a hard time taking Smith's character seriously considering how strongly identified he is with the 11th Doctor?

The script always had "Alex" as a cameo / brief role -- that was why Smith was featured so prominently in the EW cover piece, to give the impression that he had a major part of the film. Marketing deception, basically ... think of how Steven Seagal was billed as the lead of Executive Decision.

 

[The Wormhole]

I kind of got the impression they were hoping for a well known actor, but not necessarily a big name one to play Alex. Just the way the camera kind of lingers on him when we first see him in that group shot makes me think they wanted folks in the audience to say "oh, hey, it's that guy from that show I watch."

 

[Ryan8bit]

I think what they really need to do is get away from all the flashy CG blockbuster spectacle and go back to the barebones, hard-edged, and no frills style of the original movie and other recent action movies like John Wick or the Dredd remake.

Is that really feasible these days? It seems a lot of these genre movies want to go really big so that they can get that big payoff. In a sense, T2 (and Cameron) is partly responsible for that need for lots of VFX.

I think the only way to get that kind of stuff would be on TV.

 

[davejames]

I think what they really need to do is get away from all the flashy CG blockbuster spectacle and go back to the barebones, hard-edged, and no frills style of the original movie and other recent action movies like John Wick or the Dredd remake.

Is that really feasible these days? It seems a lot of these genre movies want to go really big so that they can get that big payoff. In a sense, T2 (and Cameron) is partly responsible for that need for lots of VFX.

I think the only way to get that kind of stuff would be on TV.

Well yeah, I know it'll never happen. I'm just saying that this is what the franchise should do, if it wants to stay relevant and actually get people interested in the idea again.

Because going really big and trying to squeeze every last drop out of Arnold's star power doesn't seem to be working too well anymore, and it's doubtful that will change much with the next movie.

 

[Saul]

Went to see it today. For a movie supposed to reinvigorate the franchise and do a Trek 2009 style reboot it sure made a fu*k complicated movie that carries a lot of baggage from previous movies. There's lots going on in this with action, jokes, story but none of it was all that entertaining. Say what you will about Terminator 3, at least it was fun. Genisys was more like going through the motions to set up for a later sequel. No one really seemed to give a damn.

I like Honest trailers too.



Anyone think Reese is a Terminator? Alex aka the T-5000 doesn't stop him from going back in time. He gets hit by a car and doesn't get hurt. For some reason he still has Sarah's photo before he time travels.

 

[davejames]

Yeah glad to see I'm not the only one bothered by the car thing. That just seemed really strange to me.

 

[Juju Zombie]

People get hit by cars all the time in cinema without it having last effects. Or even immediate effects other than a bit of a limp for a few moments.