One of the tactics employers have used to weed out older employees is to have them re-apply for their jobs. New technology tests, and 12-year-old interviewers might ensure that even the most competent oldie fails.
It is unlikely that Arnold Schwarzenegger, who put his lucrative acting career on hold to become Governor of California had to reapply for his old job, but at the beginning of Terminator Genisys the reprogrammed T-800 called Pops (Schwarzenegger) does come face-to-face with his original machine self. As befits a superstar who first played the eponymous cyborg assassin in James Cameron’s iconic The Terminator 31 years ago, time travel is way into Alan Taylor’s lame attempt to reboot the Terminator franchise.
Time travel on its own is not fatal. The entire Terminator franchise (although films 3 and 4 are often excluded from the canon) relies on time travel. But, with a convoluted and not very witty script from Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier, who are capable of more, Terminator Genisys relies on twists in time between 1984, 1917 and 2019 that only the most patient Sci-Fi fans, students of physics or Christopher Nolan could make sense of.
For those who need reminding, The Terminator franchise began life modestly in 1984 as a B movie with a $6 million budget, but a remarkable script from the powerhouse duo James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd. In that pared down story, Schwarzenegger played an emotionless cyborg assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 to kill Sarah Connor (then played by Linda Hamilton). A resistance fighter named Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn) is sent back in time to save her. By saving Sarah, Reese will be saving mankind, for Sarah will give birth to John Connor who will rally humans against the onslaught of an AI network called Skynet that will destroy man in a nuclear holocaust. The Terminator made $78 million – enough to warrant a sequel.
James Cameron also directed Terminator 2: Judgment Day, frequently considered one of the best Sci-Fi movies ever made. Audiences, dazzled by the special effects and the softening of T-800’s ‘character’, certainly lapped up Arnie and Hamilton once again as the film grossed $519 million back in 1991. In Terminator 2, Sarah has given birth to John Connor, future resistance hero. He is now aged 10 and in need of protection.
Skynet has sent a T-1000, a new breed of all but indestructible assassins made of liquid metal to kill him. This killer machine can not only change voices (so can a T-800) but can assume the face and body of anyone else, including a police office or your best friend. This time, Schwarzenegger, an older model cyborg, is sent back to 1995 to protect John, now living with foster parents who are murdered by the newly arrived shape-changer. When John discovers that his estranged mother (Hamilton) is a heroine, he orders the T-800 to protect his mother, too.
The T-800 tells John and Sarah about Skynet’s plans for ‘judgment day’ (the nuclear holocaust) and the trio set out to kill its creator at Cyberdyne Systems.
After the first 15 minutes, Terminator Genisys (in 2D or 3D), which ignores Terminators 3 and 4, turns out to be a pale imitation of Terminator 2. Only Schwarzenegger and the CGI effects hold their own, but this is a redundant sequel that no one needs. It begins in 2029 with John grown up and, as leader of the resistance, on the verge of a victory against Skynet.
There are two big changes in addition to the man in the director chair. The first is that Schwarzenegger’s T-800 is endearingly called Pops and has, accumulated human feelings and mannerisms that he did not previously have.
The second is that somewhere along the line John Connor goes rogue in a plot twist that might be unpredictable but is also undesirable, as it makes little sense. The new Sarah Connor, Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke, lacks the body, the spirit and the craftiness of Linda Hamilton while the new Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) has neither the physique (bulked up though he is), looks nor charisma that the role requires. It doesn’t help that there is so little chemistry between Schwarzenegger and Clarke or Courtney and Clarke.
Schwarzenegger has said that it is impossible for an actor to know which of his lines has the potential to be a catchphrase. The Terminator provided Schwarzenegger with the great, ‘I’ll be back’, used again in Terminator 2. It is used here, too, but to its credit, Terminator Genisys might have given Schwarzenegger another. The best catchphrases are those with an element of metaphor in them, referring to the character’s immediate situation in the film, as well as to the actor saying the line. In Terminator Genisys, T-800 quips defensively, ‘I’m old, not obsolete,’ a line destined to be a new catchphrase. At 67, Schwarzenegger might be on the old side for an action hero and a cyborg assassin, but as he reminds us here, he is not obsolete.
