SPOILERS!
Terminator 2: Judgement Day is the standard by which I judge special effects. If a movie is made now and the special effects aren’t as good as T2 it automatically is terrible in my opinion. If you are making a big budget movie in 2015 and you can’t emulate 24 year old effects, you just aren’t trying. T2 was so good it really changed the way we saw effects in movies. T2 helped pave the way for movies like Jurassic Park and Avatar. I recently had the opportunity to watch Terminator Genisys, and I’m glad I did.
Terminator Genisys stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke (no relation), and Jai Courtney. This plot is complicated but I will give it chronologically with spoilers as to make the most sense. When Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) was 9 her parents were killed by a T-1000 and a T-800 model 101 (Schwarzenegger) saved her life and destroyed that T-1000. The T-800 became a father figure to Connor and waited until 1984 to destroy another T-800 model 101 in order to get that units processor to time travel. Kyle Reese (Courtney) was sent back in time from the future to protect Sarah Connor, not knowing about the T-800 that was protecting her. When he arrived she saved him and altered the timeline so the events of T2 never took place. Apparently another T-1000 was sent to kill her in 1984 as well and they destroyed it, among other things.
Positive stuff: This is a fun movie. Terminator movies are always a great time and I like all of them, yes even Salvation. Even when they were bad they were still pretty good with great special effects. If you are a big fan of the original film, you will likely enjoy this. I recommend it due to its fun factor. Great action sequences, funny parts, and even some mildly touching moments make this a pretty good time. I also got to see it in a theater with the recliners in them which makes it way better but overall a good show.
Negative stuff: The plot makes very little sense.
- So, Skynet sent a T-1000 back to the 70’s to kill young Sarah? If they can send more, why one at a time? Even better, why not send them all to the same time? If you can send at least 2 T-1000’s, some kind of super hybrid, and a T-800, why wouldn’t you send them all to the 70’s at the same time? It’s not like there is a limit to how many time travel portals in one time period.
- They melt a T-1000 with acid. That’s cool but Arnold can stick his arm in the acid with minimal effects. You would think the T-1000 would at least be as tough as an older model
- Magnets can hurt a Terminator now? Are you telling me that they can send people through time but can’t make a Terminator out of aluminium, copper, lead, tin, titanium, zinc, or alloys like brass? That’s dumb
- If non-organic material can’t go through time without being surrounded by living tissue, how can a T-1000 time travel? (I know there may be an explanation but not in this movie there isn’t)
- Apparently you can throw a CPU into a pool of T-1000 alloy and make a T-1000. Why didn’t they just make exclusively T-1000’s and take all the CPU’s out of previous models to make them?
- When is Linda Hamilton going to be in Game of Thrones?
- Why didn’t Sarah just shoot Reese in the dick when she found out John Connor was the bad guy? Solved
I liked the shot for shot remakes of the scenes from original film. I thought they were very well done and I am sad that they will likely not make enough money to make more movies. This timeline may be pretty cool if it has a chance to be hashed out.
As always I am Tim McDonald, your movie watching stunt double. Hit me up on Twitter or Facebook to make suggestions or comments.
