Terminator Genisys - Discussion and Grading Thread (Spoilers)

[Aragorn]

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.

The mid-range budget action movie seems to be disappearing. Studios want bigger and louder, which is how you get inexplicable budgets for The Lone Ranger and Jack the Giant Slayer and why there's so much emphasis on familiar brands for movies. The Bourne Legacy was double the budget of The Bourne Identity. Jack Reacher is an anomaly by today's standards.

 

[DWF]

I don't think Kyle got hit that car, you can clearly see part of one of the cars missing because of the time bubble. I'd say they appeared between lanes originally and both cars seperated, one went into the water barrels and the other skidded into the other lane.

 

[Saul]

He was hit by the car, you can see a naked body outline as it hits the car. It's him protecting Sarah.
Yes we've seen people get hit by cars in movies before. This one though seemed enough to cause some particular pain and cuts to a naked man. But it didn't. Set up for the sequel.

 

[Tosk]

Yeah, big time. And Sarah is a cyborg too. They both survived that gigantic bus flip without a scratch, so there's no other explanation. People in action movies don't just get up and dust themselves off after an incident like that!

 

[davejames]

Speaking of which, can we please not have any more movies with trucks/semis/buses/boats/etc flipping lengthwise through the air? It's really starting to get ridiculous how many times we've seen that same stunt done in the last 10 years.

 

[Tosk]

Speaking of which, can we please not have any more movies with trucks/semis/buses/boats/etc flipping lengthwise through the air? It's really starting to get ridiculous how many times we've seen that same stunt done in the last 10 years.

Especially the ones (like Genisys) where the cause of the crash aren't even close to the right kind of event to flip a vehicle. Dark Knight, I'm looking right at you.

 

[Saul]

Yeah, big time. And Sarah is a cyborg too. They both survived that gigantic bus flip without a scratch, so there's no other explanation. People in action movies don't just get up and dust themselves off after an incident like that!

Tsk tsk, she was wearing a seat belt. That's how she survived silly! It's like when Vin Diesel drove off a cliff in the Fast and the furious 14. He would have died but he had a seat belt. This is common action movie sense!

 

[Trekkin]

This is one of those movies where I can better appreciate its ambition, than what it actually achieved. Like Salvation, it was trying to take the series in a new direction. Unfortunately, I think I found it about on par with that movie and SCC. It's okay, but not good enough to outright 'like'.

It's kind of the opposite of Jurassic World, where I enjoyed that in spite of it basically existing to scratch the itches of people wanting to see another of the first film.

Genisys on the other hand, had some decent fresh ideas (for eg. Sarah Connor being raised by a Terminator and basically replacing her sons role in fighting Skynet; Suggesting that Skynet might have grown genocidal because it's sapient and sentient, and also has a bunch of time travelling 'Terminators' also trying to kill it for something it hasn't done yet). It just didn't use them enough for my taste.

There some interesting meat there for future sequels though... now that the downright hair ripping amounts of reboot exposition is out of the way. Remember how in the first and second movies there was maybe one (or two) big chunks of exposition, then they just trusted us to roll with it?

 

[nx1701g]

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

The film has made $174 million dollars world wide so, technically, it is profitable so far.

 

[Shazam!]

I like how they had 30 odd years to stop Genisys and decided to go forward in time to give themselves only a few hours.

 

[DWF]

I like how they had 30 odd years to stop Genisys and decided to go forward in time to give themselves only a few hours.

They didn't have 30 years, John Connor was sent back to 2014 so they really only had three years. and the only way they knew to go to 2017 was Kyle's memory of events that hadn't happened yet.

I'd still like to know how John connor expected to live if he killed off his parents. I also suspect that it was an alternate John Connor who sent Pops back to 1973.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Any attempt to stop Genisys too early, would create a new future where old Skynet, or Timenet's agents chooses for Neo Skynet to be born differently, someplace else at a different point in time, either earlier or later than previously anticipated.

 

[Shazam!]

They didn't have 30 years, John Connor was sent back to 2014 so they really only had three years. and the only way they knew to go to 2017 was Kyle's memory of events that hadn't happened yet.

But they didn't know that John Connor was there and they had Kyle's vague memory of something happening in 2017. There was no reason for them to rush off into the future.

They could have at least waited a few days, maybe have something to eat, take in a show..

 

[Guy Gardener]

I like how they had 30 odd years to stop Genisys and decided to go forward in time to give themselves only a few hours.

They didn't have 30 years, John Connor was sent back to 2014 so they really only had three years. and the only way they knew to go to 2017 was Kyle's memory of events that hadn't happened yet.

1984 is considerably before 2014.

Some might actually say 30 years.

It's even 33 years before 2017.

 

[Saul]

I like how they had 30 odd years to stop Genisys and decided to go forward in time to give themselves only a few hours.

They didn't have 30 years, John Connor was sent back to 2014 so they really only had three years. and the only way they knew to go to 2017 was Kyle's memory of events that hadn't happened yet.

I'd still like to know how John connor expected to live if he killed off his parents. I also suspect that it was an alternate John Connor who sent Pops back to 1973.

If you think about it he shouldn't exist anymore since his parents jumped to 2017 without giving birth to him. What T-John seems to think is that they all exist outside of time, from some alternate timeline and events no longer effect them.

 

[Trekkin]

I like how they had 30 odd years to stop Genisys and decided to go forward in time to give themselves only a few hours.

They didn't have 30 years, John Connor was sent back to 2014 so they really only had three years. and the only way they knew to go to 2017 was Kyle's memory of events that hadn't happened yet.

I'd still like to know how John connor expected to live if he killed off his parents. I also suspect that it was an alternate John Connor who sent Pops back to 1973.

For some reason, I got it into my head that it might be Sarah's 'offscreen for 30 years but now often mentioned' father. I can't remember what it was (and don't care enough to rewatch and find out), but something in the middle of the film made me go 'huh, bet he's going to turn up in the next movie.'

Though don't ask me how that would even work. Maybe it was just Kate again. She presumably wasn't with John in the raid, and it doesn't look like they completely cut everything from T3.

EDIT: I remember what it was. It was the combination of 1) The sudden importance to the narrative, 2) providing the 'straight line' thing that would become so important to everyone later, 3) taking kid Sarah to the perfect secret base apparently just for lolz, 4) staying to fist fight a T1000 puddle instead of grabbing her and running away from what apparently looked like a living pool of mercury, 5) Sarah didn't actually see him die, 6) 'Pops' being sent to take the 'Dad' role.

Of course, that could all just be me seeing connections where none was intended.

 

[DWF]

They didn't have 30 years, John Connor was sent back to 2014 so they really only had three years. and the only way they knew to go to 2017 was Kyle's memory of events that hadn't happened yet.

But they didn't know that John Connor was there and they had Kyle's vague memory of something happening in 2017. There was no reason for them to rush off into the future.

They could have at least waited a few days, maybe have something to eat, take in a show..

And still at Sarah's urgings they were going to go to 1997 thinking that they were going to stop Judgment Day. They were going to use the 1984 terminator chip to do it, so theree should be no threat of Judgment Day in 1997. Of course it's odd that somehow Cyberdyne a mere dry cleaning company could become a major computer company without that chip.

 

[DWF]

I like how they had 30 odd years to stop Genisys and decided to go forward in time to give themselves only a few hours.

They didn't have 30 years, John Connor was sent back to 2014 so they really only had three years. and the only way they knew to go to 2017 was Kyle's memory of events that hadn't happened yet.

I'd still like to know how John connor expected to live if he killed off his parents. I also suspect that it was an alternate John Connor who sent Pops back to 1973.

For some reason, I got it into my head that it might be Sarah's 'offscreen for 30 years but now often mentioned' father. I can't remember what it was (and don't care enough to rewatch and find out), but something in the middle of the film made me go 'huh, bet he's going to turn up in the next movie.'

Though don't ask me how that would even work. Maybe it was just Kate again. She presumably wasn't with John in the raid, and it doesn't look like they completely cut everything from T3.

EDIT: I remember what it was. It was the combination of 1) The sudden importance to the narrative, 2) providing the 'straight line' thing that would become so important to everyone later, 3) taking kid Sarah to the perfect secret base apparently just for lolz, 4) staying to fist fight a T1000 puddle instead of grabbing her and running away from what apparently looked like a living pool of mercury, 5) Sarah didn't actually see him die, 6) 'Pops' being sent to take the 'Dad' role.

Of course, that could all just be me seeing connections where none was intended.

Sarah's parents were killed in the original timeline by the original terminator and he drowned in Genisys. And I thought it was odd that Pops had a rocket launcher and I thought it was smoking as though it was just been used, possibly to take out the cabin.

 

[Guy Gardener]

If Sarah's Parent's were well off enough to own a cabin, how did she wind up as a waitress in a diner?

 

[nx1701g]

If Sarah's Parent's were well off enough to own a cabin, how did she wind up as a waitress in a diner?

Her mother's cabin in Big Bear has been part of the franchise since the first film.

Sarah's family is said in one of the novels (I think it was the Infiltrator Series) to be wealthy, but Sarah didn't want to use their money.

Whether that is true of the actual franchise Sarah remains to be seen.