If you have had the opportunity to listen to the most recent episode of Miserable Movie Mafia, then you know that for a solid 30 minutes I was berated, mocked, and literally shouted at for enjoying this film. Well no amount of loud berating is going to change my opinion on the fifth film in the Terminator franchise. I thoroughly enjoyed Terminator Genisys and firmly stand by my positive review, but it seems after browsing several other movie review platforms and the internet in general, that I am in the minority when it comes to giving this motion picture a big thumbs up. In fact the large outpouring of negativity towards this film would lead one to believe that Terminator Genisys could rival Batman and Robin, or even Battlefield Earth for the worst summer film ever released. This is all complete nonsense. Is Terminator Genisys the best film in the franchise? No, of course it isn’t, as the first two films hold up even to this day and will always be far superior to any subsequent Terminator film ever to be released. Terminator Genisys isn’t even close to being one of the best films of 2015, but that doesn’t mean that its horrendous garbage, in fact I highly recommend the movie to everyone.
Now you may be asking yourself why I enjoyed Terminator Genisys, when so many other critics and folks on the internet bashed the film with a high amount of fortitude. It would be easy for me to claim that most internet and YouTube critics are pretentious art house sissy’s who use the world wide web to force their douche bag opinions down everyone’s throat because they are so smug that they enjoy the smell of their own farts. It’s all true, but it doesn’t help explain why Terminator Genisys is a good overall movie and why you as a movie viewer should use your valuable free time to sit down and watch it.
Here is an Example of a Youtube Film Critic
To defend my pro Terminator Genisys stance and to sell you on the film, I have come up with five positive factors that make Terminator Genisys a good, solid motion picture.
5.James Cameron (The Creator of Terminator and Director of the First Two Films) Actually Endorsed This Film!
James Cameron is an extremely talented creator of motion pictures. Besides creating the Terminator franchise, and directing the original film and its sequel Judgment Day, he is the man behind such other huge Hollywood successes as Aliens, True Lies, Titanic, and Avatar. To be getting his endorsement on this film is pretty amazing simply because his talent and insanely hard work ethic lead him to have an extremely high standard when it comes to movies. Don’t believe me? Here is what Cameron had to say in regards to other sequel films made with the intention of progressing franchises in which he had worked.
After the creative masterpiece Aliens, the sequel to Ridley Scott’s Alien, 20th Century Fox choose to go with director David Finch and his vision for the third installment in the series. The film received mixed reviews, and James Cameron had this to say about it
“David Fincher did a really good job photographically and so on. I think it’s really a well-made film, visually. It’s just kind of a slap in the face of the fans who invested in Newt and Hicks and all of those character relationships. I understand the instinct, of course, which is you have to make it your own. I just don’t think you should make it your own at the expense of what people like, personally.”
So Cameron thought it was visually ok, but that the story was horrendous. He was right by the way. When it comes to Cameron’s real baby, the Terminator franchise, Cameron won’t even comment on the third one due to his dislike for it, but he did have this to say about the 4th film, Terminator Salvation.
“It didn’t feel to me to be enough of a reinvention. I mean the thing we did with the second film is that we reinvented the first film completely; spun it on its ass and made the Terminator the good guy, and came up with a whole new concept for a villain, it felt fresh. I didn’t feel the fourth picture was fresh enough. It also lacked a certain stamp of authenticity because Arnold wasn’t in it. I mean, he was in it briefly, digitally, but that’s not the same thing.”
“I didn’t think it was bad. I didn’t think it was embarrassing. I don’t think he let the franchise down in some huge way, but I did feel some sort of unease that it didn’t go beyond.”
Again, Cameron was not a fan and he felt it didn’t do the franchise justice. This is a guy who also has had very critical responses towards more modern films that have been released, primarily the Sam Raimi version of Spiderman and the X-Men film franchise, mainly because he had written scripts for both back in the late 80’s and early 90’s that never came to fruition. With all this being said, you get the picture that James Cameron is not one to just heap praise on to any film. In fact it is very seldom that he gives it out at all. So when James Cameron, again the original creator of Terminator, had this to say about Terminator Genisys, it was a true honor to the film makers.
That clip is James Cameron sounding like an excited fan boy over Terminator Genisys. That should be the only critic the creators of the film should be worried about pleasing. Not some high pitched YouTube star who dresses like he is from the cast of the Broadway play Newsies! or takes dumps into the CD tray of an Atari Jaguar CD for shock value.
4.The Action Scenes
I am a huge fan of the Action Film Genre, especially action films from the 80’s and 90’s. To say that the action films of today lack a certain charisma would be putting it lightly. Instead of Sylvester Stallone playing a down trodden, spit upon, ex Vietnam War vet who is pushed to his breaking point by the law enforcement of a small rural Pacific Northwest town in Rambo First Blood, we get borderline mentally handicapped, mumbling, brainless Vin Diesel pointlessly driving sports cars through the top floors of multiple skyscrapers. Instead of Bruce Willis defying the odds and taking on an array of highly skilled, vastly intelligent terrorists who have taken over the massive Nakatomi Tower building in Die Hard, we get Channing Tatum shaking his kettle bell, and Jamie Fox trying to pull off a piss poor Obama impersonation in White House Down. Action movies today follow a pattern that absolutely stinks in which they simply try to do the most outrageous thing possible, even though it has nothing to do with the plot, and it has no consequence on the story. It makes me sick to my stomach when current action movies choose to go this route.
Terminator Genisys thankfully breaks away from this pattern and I have to admit I was quite pleased with the action content in the film. Sure it had some silly moments, such as an action scene where a helicopter defies the laws of physics, but it had bearing on progressing the story, and did not happen out of the blue just to appease some mindless doofus sitting in the audience with a supped up Honda Civic in the parking lot, and Kayne West’s complete catalog stored on his I-Pod. The action sequences are well done, not over done, and most importantly they play an important part in story progress.
3.The John Connor Story Twist (Spoiler Alert)
Yes, I am aware that the trailer and television spots for the film blew the plot twist, but even still, the movie does everything it can to make the John Connor heel turn work. Twists and shake ups in film are great when they work, and this one works, completely flipping the franchise around, but in a good way.
2.The Casting
It’s practically scientific fact that you just cannot have a Terminator film without Arnold Schwarzenegger. Yes the first two films had amazing effects, and an amazing story, but even with all of that going for them, it was Arnold Schwarzenegger who defined the films. Having a Terminator movie without Arnold is like having a Rocky movie without Sylvester Stallone, A Godfather movie without Al Pacino, or a Die Hard movie without Bruce Willis. It does not matter how creative your film is, fans will instantly reject it. A perfect example of this is Terminator Salvation, the 4th film in the franchise and the only one without actual Arnold appearing. The creators of this movie understood that and obviously made Arnold’s T-800 character one of the main characters. They even created plausible reasons for Arnold’s aging.
The rest of the cast is also pretty stellar in my opinion. Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones fame does a superb job of portraying an extremely tough, yet vulnerable Sarah Connor. She also is very easy on the eyes and looks great in a tight black tank top. I was very thankful that we go Emilia Clarke to replace Linda Hamilton for the Sarah Connor part seeing that Linda Hamilton currently looks like an extremely aged Eskimo woman. Jason Clarke also does a stellar job as John Connor, and is convincing in selling the audience of John Connor now being the vile villain.
Finally, and I know I am going to catch some slack for this, but Jai Courtney’s portrayal of the time traveling Kyle Reese from the original Terminator is not bad either. Some critics have been taking wet dumps on the job he turned in, but you know what, I bought it. To me his reaction to what was happening was believable. He comes back in time with a mission, and when everything gets turned on its head, he’s believable as a confused soldier. His performance didn’t turn me off at all, and if anything, I think people criticizing him are just anal retentive and looking for something to nitpick.
1.The Creators of Terminator Genisys were Terminator Fans and it Shows
Even the most casual of Terminator fans will be able to pick up on the creators of Terminator Genisys attention to detail. This is especially apparent during the first forty five minutes of the film. The creators do an excellent job of paying homage to the original two Terminators, and even the slightest detail from the first two films is included in their portrayal. I for one am a super Terminator geek, and am highly critical when it comes to the Terminator sequels that do not have James Cameron as part of the creative process, but this film sold me, and if they sold someone as critical as myself, than they did a pretty good job to say the least.
With all of that being said, yes Terminator Genisys does have some issues. The whole time travel explanation can get very confusing, and the ending did leave much to be desired. I will be the first to admit these things, and again this is not the greatest film of 2015. When 2015 comes to an end it probably will not even be in the top five, but it still is no where near as bad as the vast majority of the smug internet critics make it out to be. In all honesty its pretty good, and deserves to be watched.
As a big middle finger to all the holier-than-thou, art house, “artistic” self fart inhaling Youtube critics out there, I give Terminator Genisys gets a solid…
8.0 out of 10
Be sure to check out the Miserable Movie Mafia podcast with new episodes weekly. Next week we will be reviewing Ant Man, and also don’t forget to check out our podcast reviews of some old classics on our Ballbuster Video Podcast.
Here is our link to the podcast review of Terminator Genisys
http://grindedword.com/2015/07/04/episode9-terminator-genisys/
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