TERMINATOR: GENISYS DVD (2015)

SYNOPSIS: In the war of man against machine, Sgt Kyle Reese is sent back to 1984 to protect his young mother, Sarah Connor. However, this time unexpected events have altered the past and threaten the future for all mankind. Now Reese must join forces with Sarah and her Guardian to save the world and stop the next evolution of Terminators... 

MOVIE REVIEW:

Paramount must have paid James Cameron a handsome sum of money to endorse this latest instalment of Terminator. Not that it’s bad but to enjoy Terminator Genisys thoroughly, you need to first erase whatever memories of the past instalments meaning whatever Cameron has earlier created.

Writers Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island) and Patrick Lussier (Drive Angry) in an attempt to reboot the fading franchise deconstruct and make the entire timeline even more confusing and meddling. It’s still men versus machines and vice versa. However the current story tries hard to instill new elements while at the same time referencing heavily back to the original 1984 Terminator making it an altogether awkward affair.

Kyle Reese is sent back to 1984 by John Connor (Jason Clarke), leader of the human resistance to protect his mum, Sarah Connor (Games of Thrones’ Emilia Clarke) from Skynet’s evil cyborg. To Kyle’s surprise, the timeline has changed from the moment he lands naked on a dark alley. Sarah is no longer the weak lady we knew her from the original. She is armed, combat trained and has a reprogrammed Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) as her guardian, “Pops”.

Depending on how you see it, the story gets even more confusing/ridiculous/entertaining as we follow Kyle and Sarah who travelled to 2017 to stop a soon-to-be-revealed Skynet. As if this is not enough, Connor himself is being transformed into a deadly Terminator, an advanced T-3000 model hell-bent on destroying Kyle and Sarah. In short, this is the surprise and wicked twist which was spoiled by the theatrical trailer.   

Terminator Genisys definitely is a flawed movie though you can’t deny director Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) and the producers at Skydance are all out to please the audiences. The visual effects are amazing given it has been more than twenty years since the groundbreaking Terminator 2: Judgement Day. There’s never a dull scene since there’s always a car chase, foot chase or gunplay round the corner. Even Legacy Effects is back to contribute some nifty physical effects. There’s nothing VFX can’t accomplish in today’s world of filmmaking but that’s a real bus being flipped around liked a toy car.

How can a Terminator instalment goes without Arnold? Well, the man is back (pardon the pun) and he is more of a comic relief than a motionless cyborg. Jai Courtney (A Good Day to Die Hard) might not be much of an actor to many but he manages to stand on his own opposite the great Emilia Clarke. There are others liked Jason Clarke, Matt Smith, Lee Byung-Hun and J.K. Simmons but they are nothing more than glorified cameos.

Old time fans of the franchise will probably brush this aside for all it’s familiarity, unnecessarily tacked-on cheesy one-liners and vicious manipulation of the timeline. If this is your first encounter with a Terminator, this might not be entirely an obsolete affair after all. Take your side. We are quite divided on this one. 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The various cast and crew members discuss about the franchise, characters and story in Family Dynamics. 

AUDIO/VISUAL:

As expected, Terminator Genisys looks fantastic on DVD. Colours, textures are brimming while most of the dark, gray night scenes are deep and detailed. Cinephiles will love the dynamic, strong 5.1 surround track. Gunfire, explosions, car crash and flying debris are loud and booming, guarantee to deliver a wonderful viewing experience. 

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Review by Linus Tee