Terminator: Genisys

This is a Terminator movie. So I knew what I was getting into. The story structure was fixed by the original and has enforced a rigid and rarely satisfying repetition in the later sequels. So to watch one is to hope for fresh air and surprises in a story that precludes both. Yet I keep watching them because the first two movies had such a powerful effect on me as a kid. Arnold as cyborg menace and/or guardian is—for good or for ill—part of my psyche.

Gynises finds room to breath by explicitly repeating iconic scenes of those first two films. Bracketing them as quotations and explicitly derailing the narrative goal they establish, this new story marches steadily forward to its own conclusion, all the while stepping to the echoed beats of what has come before. It’s a clever and satisfying achievement.

In fact the only thing I didn’t like about this instalment was the casting. The two leads are completely bland and unappealing. Startlingly so. Yes, Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn left big shoes to fill, but surely there were better options than these two to give it a try?

This is the last (and long forgotten) film from this summer’s blockbuster marathon.