Terminator Genisys (2015) - Franchise: Terminated!

♥♥

+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year

The main poster for Alan Taylor's Terminator Genisys presents Arnold Schwarzenegger and the fresh stars in a heated environment

Terminator 5 has landed, and what can we expect from it? - Not much, if we remember the terrible last entry, Terminator Salvation (2009), but Genisys' wowing trailer and the return of the mighty Arnold Schwarzenegger (Eraser (1996)) in the title role (after one film's absence) made me hope that a decent, new sequel had been devised.

Right hand to the resistance leader John Connor, Kyle Reese, is sent back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor from the machines. But the past has changed. And so has the future!

After a lengthy, narrated beginning, Genisys takes us back to scenes from The Terminator (1984), which have been recreated, without Bill Paxton (Titanic (1997)), but now with two CGI-Arnolds battling, - which is truly not a very promising sight.
Byung-hun Lee (I Saw the Devil (2010)) is disappointingly quickly used and discarded again as a metallic villain, a throwback to Robert Patrick's bad guy in the franchise's best, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991).
In between action scenes, the characters try to answer each other's questions and clear up the soon overwhelmingly complicated and obscure plot. Genisys' story seems to erase everything that has happened in the Terminator universe previously! For fans this is, naturally, problematic. Especially because the Genisys plot doesn't seem to make much sense on its own. The past has been 'reset', we are informed. So has the future. ... SPOILER In the end, the terminator melts away as is customary, only to return a moment later, letting us know that he was merely 'upgraded.' - This is the level of the logics in Genisys, a foot-long baloney sandwich if I ever saw one.
It is written by Laeta Kalogridis (Alexander (2004)) and Patrick Lussier (Drive Angry (2011)), and directed by Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World (2013)).

Arnold Schwarzenegger seems to have unnaturally thick hair on this poster for Alan Taylor's Terminator Genisys

The nonsensical plot is accompanied by some, at their best, momentarily thrilling action scenes. But if compared to the action of Terminator, Terminator 2 or Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003), the CGI-heavy action of Genisys falls way short of really impressing.
Jason Clarke (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)), the clenched-jaw actor who is fast losing my patience with him, here portrays John Connor, SPOILER who is now, suddenly, a seriously bad guy! I never understood why, and it was very displeasing to have that happen inexplicably to a character that has stood as a smart-mouthed hero in my mind for about two decades.
Next major problem: Jai Courtney (Jack Reacher (2012)) as Kyle Reese. This Australian meatball looks fine, but he has all the charisma of an ATM. Courtney is perhaps the least compelling shooting star actor around today. And for some reason, they cast him for a major part in Genisys.
British Emilia Clarke (Dom Hemmingway (2013)), on the other hand, brings a lot of zest and emotions to the Sara Connor character, and acquits herself well, although Linda Hamilton's shoes are considerable to try to fill out.
J. K. Simmons (Whiplash (2014)) is a breath of fresh, at times funny air, and Schwarzenegger still has charm and a very strong screen presence. - But he is at times made to look even older than he is, (which is soon 68!), with grey hair, (yes, robots age in Genisys ...) And you know an action movie has a problem, when you start to feel bad for its bad-ass hero, because he is an old guy who gets continually and viciously beaten up.
Terminator 5 brings nearly nothing new to the table; it instead clutters everything up that the franchise has created so far. The one new thing it develops, the Genisys system, a kind of connecting program that mirrors Skynet and wants to take over the planet, seems like it could have been interesting but is the one thing that doesn't get much attention.
- The Terminator universe is terminated!

Related posts:

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]

2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

Watch the great trailer for the film here

Cost: 155 mil. $
Box office: 229.5 mil. $ and counting
= Too early to say
[Genisys has underwhelmed in North America, where it debuted #3, behind Jurassic World and Inside Out, with a 42.4 mil. $ opening weekend and received generally bad reviews. But the film made #1 collectively abroad for one weekend. It doesn't look like it will heave enough tickets home to become a hit though, which also makes it less likely that two more proposed films will materialize.]

What do you think of Terminator Genisys?
Do you want to see more Terminator in the future, or do you, like Film Excess, consider the franchise terminated?

The day after the day after... The Oscars 2015

I feel partly victorious after this year's ceremony, given that Film Excess' prognosis was 62 % correct this year (13/21), which is a lot better than last year's, (33 % or 7/21). Only partly since it mostly wasn't my favorites that won.

Here's a recap:

J. K. Simmons won Best Supporting Actor for Whiplash; Patricia Arquette Best Supporting Actress for Boyhood, probably the night's most deserved win in my opinion.
The tiny jazz drama Whiplash impressed by also taking Best Editing and Sound Mixing Oscars. 
Film Excess favorite American Sniper underwhelmed by only getting the Sound Editing Oscar: The film was snubbed, regrettably, in what looks like an overly liberal Academy's trying to hit the politically correct marks instead of honoring a truly great American movie.
Another Film Excess favorite, The Grand Budapest Hotel, took 4 'technical' Oscars: Production Design, Make-up and Hair, Costumes and Score (2 time nominee Alexandre Desplat (also nominated this year for The Imitation Game.)
Julianne Moore won Best Actress, as expected, for her role as a woman struggling with Alzheimer's Disease in Still Alice. British Eddie Redmayne surprised by getting Best Actor for his turn as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.
Common and John Legend won Best Song for their Glory from Selma and delivered one of the evening's political acceptance speeches, basically stating that America is still a racist country against African-Americans ... Interstellar won Best Visual Effects; Disney's Big Hero 6 Best Animation; Citizenfour Best Documentary; British Graham Moore Best Adapted Screenplay for his conventional Imitation Game script, and Polish nun-drama Ida won for Best Foreign Film.
As the above indicates, the Oscars were scattered over a number of films this year, but the evening's biggest winner was without doubt the bemusing Birdman: Though it won 4 statuettes like Grand Budapest Hotel, Birdman's were by far the more prestigious: Best Film, Original Screenplay, Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki won for the second year in a row (after last year's Gravity, he was again honored for his acrobatically impressive 'show' photography in Birdman's one-shot illusion concept)) and Best Director: Mexican Alejandro González Iñárritu, who was snubbed for his masterpiece Babel (2006), which only won for Best Score.
The short winners were Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 (Documentary Short), Feast (Animated Short) and Phone Call (Live Action Short).

Did the right movies win? - (Mostly) No.
The suspiciously hip, slick satire Birdman was the choice of cool admiration, while American Sniper and especially Boyhood was slighted; both should definitely have won more. The people behind 5-time nominee Foxcatcher, who all went home empty-handed, must also feel somewhat overlooked.

The host of the year, Neil Patrick Harris, was a definite flop. After an opening song that was forgotten before it was over, Harris wise-cracked his way through the ceremony with glib, forgettable jokes. He tried to stand out by poking fun at Birdman by doing Michael Keaton's 'underpants run', but succeeded only in getting some generous laughs and applause from the schmoozing audience. His 'big' joke was to get Octavia Spencer to watch over a box containing his Oscar predictions for the entire show ... They turned out to be very accurate, 'proving' either that the show is depressingly predictable, or that Harris is a host with extremely insufficient powers as an entertaining ditto. His scatter-shot, lackluster approach seemed lazy and uninspired. - He should not get a second chance.
But he wasn't the show's only problem: Most of the presenters were attractive but really dull stars, obviously primarily focused on blowing up their chests and looking pretty. - Where were the comedians? - The singing? (Besides Lady Gaga's Sound of Music tribute and the Best Song nominees.) - The surprises? - Memorable moments?
Unfortunately, the Oscars 2015 was a snoozer, if ever there was one.