Film review: Terminator Genisys - Schwarzenegger in an alternate 1984
Game of Thrones regular Alan Taylor takes the helm for the summer's latest blockbuster series reboot
"I'm old, not obsolete,"says Arnold Schwarzenegger's grey-haired T-800 Terminator. The same could be said for this sci-fi franchise, which began 31 years ago with James Cameron's cult classic The Terminator. Since then, it's been through various iterations — most recently without Schwarzenegger's iconic killing machine, in 2009's disappointing Terminator Salvation and the TV spin-off, The Sarah Connor Chronicles. This fifth movie attempts to inject the franchise with some fresh ideas.
Directed by Game of Thrones regular Alan Taylor, the head-spinning plot begins by echoing Cameron's original, as trust soldier Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) is sent back in time from 2029, when the machines rule over humans. Arriving in 1984 Los Angeles, as before, Reese has been sent by resistance leader John Connor (Jason Clarke) to protect his mother Sarah (Emilia Clarke) from Arnie's relentless robot and safeguard his own birth — with the added twist that it's Reese who fathers him.
Emilia Clarke talks Terminator Genisys
If that was about as complicated as The Terminator got, this latest instalment introduces the notion that we're now in an alternate 1984. Unlike in Cameron's original, Sarah is already up to speed and even has an ageing T-800 (Schwarzenegger) — that she dubs "Pops" — protecting her. Moreover, when Reese arrives, not only is there a second T-800 (the villain in the original film, here a digitalised "young" Schwarzenegger) out for blood but the more advanced T-1000 (South Korea's Lee Byung-hun) also in pursuit.