Terminator Genisys

Everything OK. Thanks

I don't understand the criticism this movie received. I think it was another victim of social media boycotting. This movie was fantastic and I really enjoyed it. Yes it's not a horror like the first Terminator movie and it's pretty difficult to match Terminator 2 but it is still a great movie and a good Terminator movie with a good story.

A new Terminator movie. One that attempts to be a reboot for the franchise. There is enough exposition in the opening to bring those unfamiliar with what came before. As it goes over the whole rise of the Machines/Rebellion lead by John Connor taking the fight to the machines/humanity almost victorious/Terminator sent back in time to kill Connor's mother/Kyle Reese goes after it stuff all over again. But once back in the 1980's, Kyle [Jai Courtney], who is expecting to find Sarah Connor [Emilia Clarke from Game of Thrones] a meek lady in need of rescuse, finds things not to be as he expected. Events have changed greatly. There is still a threat out there, though, and a few familiar faces. Skynet isn't done for yet... This attempts to win back fans of the series by trying to do again what the first two films did. With two different actors in the lead. It pays a lot of homages to those, with various catchphrases and homages to scenes cropping up. It does take into account the fact that Arnie isn't as young he was back then. And does one good bit of humour in regards to that. Which it then overuses. All this rebooting requires a few time travel shenanigans. But none of them are at all hard to follow. Although it does require one big plot point that is left hanging by the end, doubtless to be answered in either of the proposed two sequels to this. As an action flick, this is quite watchable. Because it does confound your expectations with a surprise moment early on, and from then on you can't be sure what's going to happen next plot wise. Emilia Clarke isn't bad. You wouldn't realise it was the same actress from Game of Thrones if you weren't aware of that in advance. Jai Courtney tries. But since this version of Kyle spends more time reacting than acting, he doesn't have the intensity or emotional depth of Michael Biehn's version. Arnie is Arnie. Which is the whole point of it. As mentioned he can be fun. When the film isn't trying to hard to make him so. Matthew Smith [as he is now billed] only gets about four minutes of screen time. But does make a bit of an impression. Although the film is bloodless, thanks to going for the 12a market, the action is all quite watchable. So unless you're a purist who doesn't like the thought of any of these reboots, this is quite an entertaining watch. It's not though necessarily a brilliant watch. Terminator Salvation did at least try to do something different and move the franchise forward without Arnie. But this tries so hard to recapture what came before. And thanks to that 12a, doesn't have the emotional intensity of the original. And since it looks as if the proposed sequels might not happen, it does leave that one big loose end. For a piece of escapist viewing, though, it's worth four stars. The dvd has the following language and subtitle options: Languages: English, Hindi. Subtitles: English, Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Swedish. The disc begins with a couple of trailers, which can be skipped via the next button on the dvd remote. As with most dvds these days, there's just one extra: family dynamics. A fifteen minute long look at all the cast and how great they are. It's not a bad watch.

5 stars /great value.

Fast delivery, great dvd

Only average really. Okay for one evening's entertainment but after that you'll most likely never watch it again. The problem with sequels like is that they're continually trying to recapture that initial freshness and success of the initial movie. They rarely achieve this, in my view, because (and you can imagine this taking place) a committee of wise movie making people and financial folk and marketing types all have a jolly meeting in which they attempt to boil down the constituents of a successful franchise. In the case of Terminator Genisys it probably went something like "Well Arnold's in for a start, got to have him. Then the whole Sarah Connor/ Kyle Reece myth/time-crossing love interest thingy. Oh, and definitely a new kind of terminator that is way bigger and meaner than anything we've ever seen before. And then a little future war segment just like there was in Terminator 1". The list goes on and on. And so we get a film like Terminator Genisys that tries so hard to feel fresh but can never be because it's constructed of old bits of other films, strung together in a money-spinning summer blockbuster formula. This is a shame as there is clearly a lot of love and great reverence paid by the film makers for the franchise mythology - even though it's somewhat dispensed with in order to open up new vistas for new installments (which I welcome). I suppose what I would have liked to have seen is less of the predictable (and by this point fairly worn out) polarized stance of bad guy, good guy - and the inevitable chase sequence that follows from that. I suppose that the last Terminator film, the one with Christian Bale, broke with that pattern a little - and maybe there was more potential there to explore? If we looked at a film like Avatar, it feels a much richer experience because there is no true 'bad guy' but only shades of grey, questionable motives and greedy ideologies. I think this reflects a far more adult view of storytelling, more like the sorts of thorny scenarios that we experience in real life. I shall certainly be watching the sequels to Terminator Genisys as I enjoy good sci-fi that takes itself seriously. Hopefully, with this new direction the franchise is taking we may see some astonishing new storylines coming in, to dazzle and daunt as the very first movie did.

I held off buying this because of the mixed reviews, but when the price dropped to silly money I thought that I'd give it a go. The story line is a little confusing in places, but Schwarzenegger really makes the film. Without giving away the plot, Genisys makes sense (to me, and my wife who watched it with me) if you've seen the original Terminator and Terminator 2 films, as there are links and references to both. If you haven't seen them, Genisys won't make sense. The film seems to link Terminator and Terminator 2, to the extent that Terminator 3 and Salvation seem disconnected with the overall franchise as a result. Your opinions may differ of course, but this is a film that I'll definitely be watching again. Great acting, excellent special effects and Dolby Atmos audio, which on my set-up played back as Dolby TrueHD 7.1. Highly recommended.

No 5 in the Terminator franchise, apart from No 2, this is one of my favourites. Well worth a watch