Suicide Squad (2016) review

Warner Bros hasn’t really been very lucky with their attempts in establishing a cinematic universe centering around the characters of DC Comics a la Marvel Studios and their Cinematic Universe, at least in terms of critical reception. Whereas the Marvel Cinematic Universe films have consistently done well with critics, the ‘DC Extended Universe’ films haven’t fared as well. The first installment of the franchise, 2013’s Man of Steel, attracted generally mixed reviews from both critics and audiences, easily making it the most polarizing film of that year. And then things got even more complicated with the next installment, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Released this past March, the film was absolutely savaged by critics. And while it certainly had its fair share of fans, this time around those who didn’t like it were much more vocal. It certainly didn’t help matters when, before the film was released, it was made clear that the version shown in theaters wasn’t director Zack Snyder’s intended cut. Instead, he was forced to cut more than 30 minutes out of the film, including some very important plot-points, in order to reach a more manageable run-time. As a result, the ‘director’s cut’ AKA the ‘Ultimate Edition’ debuted with the film’s home media release and most people agreed that, at the very least, this was the superior version of the film. Regardless, though, the theatrical release of BvS didn’t turn out as well as the studio hoped, meaning that more pressure was to be put on DC’s subsequent films to fare better critically. And out of the current slate of DC films set to follow in the next few years, arguably the most anticipated of the bunch was the other big DC film of 2016, Suicide Squad.

This truly is one of the most unique installments to come from a film genre that’s unfortunately been getting more and more scrutinized these past few years. And that is because while most superhero films have focused on just that, the superheroes, this film handles things differently and instead focuses on a group of supervillains. Specifically, the film centers on the villains that make up ‘Task Force X’, a disposable black ops unit controlled by the government to do their dirty work for them. Under the direction of David Ayer, writer of Training Day and director of films like End of Watch and Fury, and featuring an all-star cast that included the likes of Will Smith, Jared Leto, and Margot Robbie, the film was no doubt poised to be a smash hit for Warner Bros. For one thing, the marketing for the film was one of the most exciting marketing campaigns in recent memory, implying that the film would be a much different kind of beast compared to BvS, especially in terms of its overall look and feel. However, now the film has come out and, well, unfortunately it ends up sharing one major similarity with BvS and that is that the reviews for it have been absolutely savage. And yet, also like BvS, this is a case where those reviews are making it out to be worse than it really is. Because even though Suicide Squad is undeniably flawed in a few ways, it still manages to stand on its own merits due to its unique style, an equally unique premise that explores some fascinating aspects of a world filled with superheroes and supervillains, and an excellent ensemble cast.

The film opens up sometime after the death of Superman as was witnessed in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. As the existence of ‘meta-humans’ (AKA the term used to describe DC’s superhuman characters) is becoming more publicly known, the government begins to fear the possibility of having to deal with a being like Superman that ‘isn’t’ on their side. It is during this time that agent Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) comes up with a bold idea. Having assembled a wide array of dangerous criminals at the Belle Reve Penitentiary in Louisiana, she proposes that the criminals be put to work for the government as part of a black ops unit known as ‘Task Force X’. To make things easier for the government, this ‘suicide squad’ would be easily disposable if they were to fail their mission. And so the squad is formed under the command of Colonel Rick Flag (Joel Kinnaman), with some of the other members of the squad including but not limited to assassin Floyd Lawton (Will Smith) AKA Deadshot and former psychiatrist turned crazed villainess Dr. Harleen Quinzel AKA ‘Harley Quinn’ (Margot Robbie). Their mission finds themselves heading into Midway City under the guise of them rescuing a high-profile mark during an alleged terrorist attack. However, this excursion soon turns into them having to save the world from the real threat, an ancient evil force known as Enchantress, who has taken over the body of Flag’s girlfriend, archaeologist June Moone (Cara Delevingne), and is hell-bent on destroying mankind for ‘imprisoning’ her for so many years. Then there’s also the uncertainty of the ‘wild card’ that is Harley’s lover, the ‘Clown Prince of Crime’ himself, the Joker (Jared Leto).

Like the theatrical cut of BvS, this film’s primary issues mainly stem from the writing and the editing. Now this isn’t exactly like BvS in which certain scenes were forcibly cut from the theatrical cut to the point where it effectively shuttered the story. Though with that said, it has been reported that, once again, there’s been quite a lot left on the cutting room floor, namely scenes that would’ve given more development to certain characters. Ultimately though, in this case the biggest problem with the editing is that it can be a little too erratic at times. By that I mean it sometimes cuts really fast to the point where there are quite a few ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ shots. But even with this in mind, the film still manages to be a really fun comic book flick full of cool visuals and entertaining action sequences. While Batman v Superman was criticized for being too ‘dour’, Suicide Squad is certainly much more light-hearted in tone. Granted that doesn’t mean that this film has the same kind of tone as, say, something out of the MCU but at the very least it does make a greater attempt to inject some humor into its proceedings, which mainly comes in the form of the banter between the various members of the squad. Pair that with an enjoyably flashy color palette, the always solid visual effects that you’d expect from a superhero film of this magnitude, and a really badass soundtrack that’s seriously up there with ‘Awesome Mix Vol. 1’ as one of the best superhero film soundtracks ever and you just have a fun, albeit maybe a bit simply plotted, supervillain-centered adventure that has a style unlike any other film in the genre.

In the months leading up to the film’s release, it was made clear that its ensemble cast had established quite a strong camaraderie during filming, which is certainly a good thing for a film of this nature. And it certainly shows as far as the final product is concerned. The cast is excellent and work off of each other extremely well. And even with some of its story-based shortcomings in mind, it’s still really fascinating to watch the film attempt to find the humanity within a bunch of characters who are normally villainous in nature and for the most part, it actually does manage to succeed in doing just that. Will Smith is pretty much the film’s biggest ‘headliner’ in the role of Deadshot and in a film in which it’s shown that not all of these bad guys are ‘truly bad’, Deadshot is certainly the most ‘layered’ of the bunch in regards to the film exploring his humanity, primarily shown through his relationship with his daughter Zoe. The role’s also a pretty darn perfect fit for Smith as far as him utilizing his ability to make a whole bunch of wisecrack remarks. Viola Davis also shines in the role of Amanda Waller, the Squad’s ‘boss’ who, despite being a part of the US government, can be just as ruthless as those she’s leading. The big scene-stealer, however, is Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. Whereas most superhero film castings have been subjected to some form of pre-release scrutiny from fans, I find that Robbie’s casting had been well-received by most people when it was first announced. And although there has been some controversy over how the character is portrayed in the film, Robbie absolutely kills it in the role, from the mannerisms to the New York accent to her unabashed love for ‘Puddin’.

Speaking of ‘Puddin’, this film re-introduces the character of the Joker to the big screen nearly a decade after Heath Ledger’s iconic, and Oscar-winning, turn in the role in The Dark Knight. So with that said, how does Jared Leto fare in the role? Well remember what I said before about there being quite a lot of deleted scenes? Because according to Leto, many of them involved ‘Mr. J.’ so unfortunately Joker doesn’t factor that much into this film. However, in the scenes that he does appear, I will say that Leto certainly proves to be an entertaining Joker. He certainly gives off the impression of being perhaps the most unhinged out of all of the on-screen Jokers we’ve seen to date. After all, we are talking about a character who’s supposed to be a complete psychopath and it’ll be interesting to see how future DC films will utilize his Joker. As for the rest of the cast, while the film primarily focuses on characters like Deadshot and Harley Quinn, there are a few notable standouts amongst the other members of the squad. This includes Jay Hernandez as El Diablo, a former gang member with the ability to summon fire but is hesitant to use his powers after they caused him much personal tragedy and, believe it or not, Jai Courtney as Captain Boomerang, who gets quite a lot of funny moments primarily based around the fact that the character is basically a straight-up jackass. Don’t expect much of a villain, though, because the ones in here are ‘fairly standard’ at best. By that I mean they’re not absolutely ‘terrible’ but they’re not that ‘great’ either.

As was the case with Batman v Superman, this film’s poor reviews have resulted in quite a considerable divide between fans and critics. And sure enough, this has once again led to the ‘critics are being paid by Marvel’ conspiracy that got tossed around when the previous film came out. But believe me when I say that this clearly isn’t true and keep in mind that this is coming from someone who admittedly can be quite the MCU fanboy most of the time. However, I am starting to sense some unfair bias when it comes to how the DCEU films have been received by critics. Because come on critics, this film isn’t THAT bad. Sure, like BvS, it does have some flaws. In the case of this film, they mainly stem from the occasionally erratic editing and for some elements of the story being a bit underdeveloped. However, at the end of the day, this film still manages to stand out amongst its fellow superhero films on its premise alone. We legitimately have not seen anything like this before when it comes to live-action superhero films and I think it’s really cool to have a film like this that dares to try and make characters who in any other film would be the bad guys the ‘heroes’ of a story. And overall the film does succeed for the most part in finding the humanity in a bunch of bad guys. So in short, I’m all for another adventure with the so called ‘worst heroes ever’. I’d say they earned the chance for a sequel, which hopefully will happen because given the fact that this is the second straight DCEU to get generally negative reviews, once again the future of the franchise is uncertain.

Rating: 4/5

Terminator Genisys: SPOILER POST

WARNING!!!

The following post contains spoilers for the film ‘Terminator: Genisys’. If you have not seen the film yet, please instead refer to my spoiler-free review of the film, of which a link will be provided below, as I will be discussing key plot points and elements of the film in spoiler-y detail.

(http://rimoviecorner.blogspot.com/2015/07/terminator-genisys-2015-review.html)

Whenever I do a spoiler post for a film on this site, it is usually for a superhero film, having started with ‘Iron Man 3’ and most recently for ‘The Avengers: Age of Ultron’. I’ve only done one Spoiler Post for a non-superhero film and that was for ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ in regards to the big ‘Khan’ reveal of that film. But today, I’m finally doing another non-superhero Spoiler Post and today’s subject is ‘Terminator: Genisys’, the fifth installment of a film franchise that many people feel should have ended after the series’ second entry, ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’. You can definitely tell that just by the reviews for ‘Genisys’, the under-performance of the film here in the U.S. box-office wise (thankfully it has fared much better overseas), and the overall uneasiness amongst film fans leading up to the film’s release due to the aforementioned feelings towards the franchise post-‘Terminator 2’. But, as you will recall from my original review for ‘Genisys’, I actually quite enjoyed it. Was it the absolute best entry in the franchise? No, not by a long shot. But of course what do you expect when James Cameron’s original two masterpieces were such hard acts to follow? Ultimately though I do feel that ‘Terminator: Genisys’ was a pretty darn entertaining sci-fi flick that perfectly balanced action and humor while also staying faithful to the legacy of the franchise’s first two installments. And it did this while also setting out on a unique new path brought on by none other than…

AN ALTERNATE TIMELINE

As I’ve no doubt stated in the past, one of my favorite films of the past few years has been the 2009 ‘Star Trek’ reboot, which made the bold move of creating a brand new alternate timeline. While this clearly was a controversial move in the minds of long-time ‘Star Trek’ fans, I for one was 100% supportive of this decision as I feel that the franchise can now move on in new directions without having to strictly adhere to series canon… and yes, I say that even after the last ‘Trek’ film, ‘Into Darkness’, proved to be even more polarizing amongst ‘Trek’ fans for its callbacks, though seriously not as many as ‘Trek’ fans claim, to ‘The Wrath of Khan’. Clearly the success of the ‘Trek’ films inspired Paramount when they developed ‘Terminator: Genisys’ as it too goes with the ‘alternate timeline’ storyline. The film opens up basically re-telling the original plot of the first ‘Terminator’ film but from the perspective of the future war. In the midst of the war against Skynet, resistance leader John Connor (Jason Clarke) learns of a plot by Skynet to send one of their Terminator robots back in time to the year 1984 to kill his mother Sarah, thereby erasing him from existence. John’s top lieutenant, Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney), volunteers to go back in time to save her. But once he gets into Skynet’s time machine, that’s when things start to change. Before leaving, he sees John being attacked by another ‘soldier’ (more on this character later) and before he arrives in 1984, he starts to have new memories of his childhood that are much different than what he previously remembered.

It is established at the beginning, through narration by Reese, that he was born in 2004 after Judgment Day, which for the record has been reverted back to the original August 1997 date from ‘Terminator 2’. In other words, this film straight up ignores ‘Terminator 3’ and ‘Salvation’, which had Judgment Day occur in July 2004. But now his childhood is different as the world, for some reason, hasn’t ended yet and his younger self repeatedly tells himself about how ‘he can shut down Skynet before it is born’ and that ‘Genisys is Skynet’. He arrives in 1984 and basically goes through the same beats that we saw in the first film. He steals a pair of pants from a bum (“That son of a bitch stole my pants”) and rushes into a store to avoid the cops. But this time the cop (Lee Byung-hun) happens to be a T-1000, the liquid metal shape-shifting Terminator who can take the form of anything it comes into contact with. Before the T-1000 can kill him, however, he is saved by Sarah, who is not the scared and vulnerable young woman who Kyle was expecting to find based on what he was told by John in the future. Instead, she is already a badass warrior who just so happens to be protected by a T-800 Terminator. Slowly realizing that he is now in a new alternate reality, Kyle learns that in 1973, Skynet had sent a T-1000 (presumably the same one that the trio deal with in 1984) back in time to kill Sarah when she was a child. However, a as of yet unconfirmed party sent back a T-800 to protect her, who ever since has trained her in combat to prepare her for the impending apocalypse.

Now this new ‘alternate timeline’ storyline has been referred to by some of the film’s biggest critics as ‘lousy fan-fiction’. But you know what? ‘Star Trek’ basically did the same thing and you don’t see anyone complain about that (Oh wait…). The fact of the matter is that, as I noted earlier, I don’t mind this at all because I like the idea of re-writing the canon to allow for new storyline possibilities that may or may not go down the familiar paths that we had seen in the first two ‘Terminator 2’ films. If this new alternate reality wasn’t real then this would be nothing more than a remake of the first film. Maybe then it would be ‘lousy fan-fiction’ like those critics say but as is, it is by no means that at all. I for one am intrigued to see what happens now for this film franchise as it begins to uncover some of the mysteries that are established in ‘Genisys’, like who is responsible for sending Sarah’s T-800 back in time. I also like how this film challenges some of the pre-conceived notions of what we saw before, namely in regards to the relationship between Sarah and Kyle. As we know from the first ‘Terminator’, the two of them ended up falling in love, resulting in the birth of John Connor. But in this film, that future relationship is put into question. For one thing, Kyle learns about his fate from the other timeline; that he dies protecting Sarah, and also has difficulty coming to terms with the fact that he’s John’s father. Throughout the film, Kyle and Sarah have, to put it lightly, a rather strenuous relationship. I mean at the end of the day, they do get together but seeing how Kyle doesn’t die in this film, it’ll be interesting to see where their relationship will go from there, especially since they come across his younger self and even go as far as giving him the memories that the grown-up Kyle experienced while traveling through time.

ARNOLD!!

Whether or not you like this film, you cannot deny that one of the absolute best things in the entire film is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s heralded return to the franchise that made him a star. He may not be the absolute best actor in the world but that correlates perfectly to his role in these films as a robot that has difficulties trying to fit in with humans. Seriously just admit that you at least laughed once when the T-800 tried to smile. And you know what? For a 67-year old, Arnold still manages to not only kick major ass in what is easily his most iconic role to date but also continues to excel in delivering memorable one-liners (“Old but not obsolete!”). The fight sequence between him and the younger-looking T-800 from 1984 is easily one of the biggest highlights of the entire film. And hey, at the end of the film, he basically becomes a T-1000, having been thrown in a vat of liquid metal by the T-3000 AKA John Connor (again, more on him later) so it’ll cool to see how that will affect the character in future films. He also gets major kudos for the solid father-daughter relationship between him and Sarah, which ultimately is the heart of the film. This leads perfectly into my next point…

SARAH AND ‘POPS’

I’m just going to throw this out there… at the end of the day, ‘Terminator: Genisys’ doesn’t really carry the same emotional depth of the first two ‘Terminator’ films. I’m not saying this as a criticism of the film; it’s just that the first two films, especially ‘Terminator 2’ with the father-son relationship of John Connor and the T-800, were so successful in this regard. But ‘Terminator Genisys’ still manages to have some good emotional depth, primarily in the form of the father-daughter relationship between Sarah and, as she refers to him as, ‘Pops’. I loved the back-and-forth between the two in scenes where they have arguments, like when ‘Pops’ brings up the awkward point about how Kyle and Sarah, as he puts it, are expected to ‘mate’. And while of course he’s a robot that doesn’t 100% grasp the concept of feelings and emotion, there are times where he clearly shows how much he cares about Sarah. One notable example of this occurs when Sarah, Kyle, and ‘Pops’ hide out in the latter’s secret base and Sarah notices that he still keeps photos of her as a child and drawings that she made of them. And while I’ll admit that going in I already knew that this T-800 wasn’t going to die like in ‘Terminator 2’ (or ‘Terminator 3’), the scene where he appears ready to sacrifice himself was handled great from an emotional standpoint, especially when he tells Kyle to ‘take care of my Sarah’.

Sarah Connor is, without a doubt, one of the best female action heroines of all-time and that legacy is done justice once again in this film thanks to Emilia Clarke’s excellent turn in the role. Like Linda Hamilton before her, she does a great job in giving Sarah both her confidence and fearlessness in combat while also doing a perfect job in capturing the character’s vulnerability. In ‘Terminator 2’, Sarah’s vulnerability came from her past experiences in the first ‘Terminator’ film and her distrust of John’s guardian T-800. In ‘Terminator: Genisys’, this is shown primarily through her relationships with both ‘Pops’ and Kyle. Relating to what I talked about in my Spoiler Post for ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’ in regards to the controversy surrounding the character of Black Widow, I feel that, contrary to popular belief, it’s perfectly fine for female action heroes to show signs of vulnerability because it shows that they’re human. Nothing’s perfect and a character that is meant to be ‘perfect’ isn’t always the best-written character. I know that right now a lot of people on the internet are raving about the character of Furiosa from ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ but at the end of the day, that character has nothing on Sarah Connor and this film is 100% proof of that.

KYLE REESE

In terms of respect/credibility, Jai Courtney has about as much respect from film fans as Shia LaBeouf or Sam Worthington… in other words, not very much. In fact, this makes ‘Terminator: Genisys’ the second instance in which Courtney has starred in a major film franchise in which the installment that he starred in was one of the worst-rated entries in the entire series, the other being ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’ and I’m pretty sure all of this makes some DC fans hesitant about his involvement in ‘Suicide Squad’. But I stand firm when I say that Courtney is not at all to blame for the shortcomings of ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’ and in response to some people who say that he ‘ruined’ Terminator too, let me be the first to say that this is not true. Contrary to popular opinion, I think Courtney did a fine job in this film. Was he the absolute best Kyle Reese ever? No, not at all, but I do feel that Courtney did a good job in the role as it was written in this film. In this film, Kyle Reese is basically the avatar for the audience as he traverses through this new alternate timeline trying to come to terms with what he’s dealing with. And ultimately Courtney was at his best when he was with Clarke and Schwarzenegger so at the end of the day, he serves his purpose in taking on this iconic role for the revival of the ‘Terminator’ franchise.

EVIL JOHN CONNOR?

It’s time to delve into what is arguably the most controversial element of the entire film, which first attracted controversy when many people (even director Alan Taylor) felt that it was spoiled in the film’s second trailer. And that is the reveal that in this film, John Connor, who is arguably the main protagonist of the entire series, has been turned into a Terminator by Skynet, effectively making him the main antagonist of this new film. Of course, as noted earlier, Kyle notices a mysterious figure grab John before he travels back to 1984 which then results in him ending up in a new timeline. After helping Sarah and ‘Pops’ defeat the T-1000 that’s after them, Kyle and Sarah travel forward in time to the year 2017 while Pops stays behind; in other words, he ‘takes the long way’ to reunite with them in the future. The two end up getting caught by the police but are then approached by John while they are in the hospital. All seems well, despite Kyle and Sarah questioning why he is there, until ‘Pops’ returns and shoots John, who then reveals his new Terminator form. Now he is the T-3000, having been turned into a Terminator by the mysterious figure who attacked him in the future through the use of Nano machines. He is also the only T-3000 in existence as any other attempts at creating this particular Terminator have failed as a result of the human subjects driven mad.

Now I’m not here to talk about the second trailer for the film and how many people feel it spoiled the big twist. Instead, I’m going to say this… as controversial as it is, I’m totally fine with this twist. I mean it’s not like the character of John Connor was ruined by having him be the villain in this film. It’s just an interesting new plotline that, to quote James Cameron, is “a riff against expectations” and also makes the threat a much more personal one for Kyle and Sarah to deal with given their connections to John Connor. As I stated in my original review, I’m also glad that this meant that Jason Clarke, one of the most underrated actors working today, had a much more substantial role than what the very first trailer for the film implied. At first I thought that John Connor would only appear in the scenes that took place in 2029 but thankfully that’s not the case. In fact I’m just going to say it… Jason Clarke has been the best John Connor to date, and yes that is even when taking the whole villain characterization into account. In early scenes before Connor’s transformation, Clarke does a great job in capturing John’s leadership qualities, which are most evident from his speech to his troops before they go off to fight Skynet. And after the big twist, Clarke ends up being a pretty darn entertaining and intimidating baddie, basically being like a much more advanced version of the T-1000 with the ability to regenerate and break apart into particles during combat, the latter of which produces a pretty cool visual for the action sequences.

Most badass 'walking away from an explosion' scene EVER!!!

MATT SMITH’S ROLE

And now to close off this Spoiler Post, let’s end by talking about the most notable secret of the entire film and that is Matt Smith’s (fresh off of his work as the Eleventh Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’) role in the film. Whereas the big ‘evil John Connor’ twist was revealed in the film’s second trailer, Smith’s role was kept secret up until the film’s release, which of course led to speculation over who he was playing in the film. The most common theory that I saw online was that he was John’s best friend Tim from ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ which given the film’s decision to revert Judgment Day back to 1997 could’ve made sense. But in the end, he played a much different role in the film, one that will no doubt play a bigger role in the grand scheme of things because… he plays Skynet. Taking on the form of a super-advanced Terminator, the T-5000, he is the one responsible for turning John into a Terminator and it is implied that he has traveled through various timelines to get to this point. So obviously he’s the one who is primary responsible for the new alternate timeline and I think it’s safe to say that he will also be the primary villain for the rest of the series. Because while Kyle, Sarah, and ‘Pops’ destroy Cyberdyne and stop ‘Genisys’ AKA Skynet from going online, a mid-credits scene shows that Skynet’s primary core survived the events of the finale, meaning that Skynet isn’t defeated yet.

IN CONCLUSION

I know that I’m in the minority when it comes to liking this film. But having now seen the film twice in theaters, I am 100% serious when I say that this film is by no means as bad as critics, and the internet, are putting it out to be. Like I said before, it is by no means the best entry of the series but that’s just because the first two ‘Terminator’ films were so good that they set up insurmountable expectations for any subsequent entries in the franchise to have to live up to. But ultimately I concur with James Cameron in that this truly feels like the true ‘Terminator 3’. Ignoring the events of the original ‘Terminator 3’ and ‘Terminator Salvation’ and instead following off of the first two films, ‘Genisys’ does not go the same route of the former by pulling a shameless retcon that goes against what happened at the end of ‘Terminator 2’. Sure the ‘alternate timeline’ storyline is just as controversial but in my opinion that just made the story much interesting. Alan Taylor also deserves a lot of credit for almost perfectly recreating classic moments from the first ‘Terminator’ film save for a few cosmetic differences that are primarily due to that film being owned by another studio. So in conclusion, ‘Terminator Genisys’ may not be the absolute best film that has come out this summer but I still had loads of fun while watching it, which ultimately makes it one of the most underrated/underappreciated films of the year.

Terminator: Genisys (2015) Review

What started out as a $6.4 million sci-fi film directed by a then unknown James Cameron has gone on to become one of the most iconic film franchises in pop culture history; the ‘Terminator’ franchise. With 1984’s ‘The Terminator’ and its even greater follow-up, 1991’s ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’, James Cameron gave us two of the most beloved sci-fi films of all-time. The second film in particular ended on a perfect note, tying up all loose ends so that there wouldn’t be any need to continue the franchise… but of course, as we all know, that wasn’t the end of the ‘Terminator’ franchise. Hollywood decided that they could continue the franchise despite the fact that ‘Terminator 2’ made it pretty hard for there to be any way to move on from its ending. But Hollywood found a way, resulting in 2003’s ‘Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines’ and 2009’s ‘Terminator Salvation’, neither of which achieved the same critical/commercial acclaim as the first two films. And now the franchise is back again with ‘Terminator: Genisys’… and yes, the subtitle is intentionally spelled that way. Like its immediate two predecessors, this film has been getting slammed by critics… but as for me, this is one of those cases where I seriously disagree with the general critical reception. Now let me be clear; this is by no means the best film in the series. But that doesn’t mean that it’s the ‘disaster’ that most of the internet believed it was going to be. Instead, ‘Terminator: Genisys’ ends up being a pretty darn entertaining summer popcorn flick that respects the lineage of Cameron’s films while going down a bold new route which will shape the franchise for years to come.

In the year 2029, the human resistance, led by John Connor (Jason Clarke), is at war with the self-aware A.I system known as Skynet, which wiped out most of humanity on what become known as Judgment Day; August 29, 1997 (note: the ‘original’ Judgment Day date and not the pushed-back July 25, 2004 date as was portrayed in ‘Terminator 3’ and ‘Salvation’). During an all-out ‘final offensive’ on Skynet, Connor and his soldiers learn of a plot by Skynet to send one of their humanoid robots, known as ‘Terminators’, back in time to the year 1984 to kill John’s mother Sarah, thereby erasing John from existence. John’s right-hand man, Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney), volunteers to go back in time to protect Sarah. But once he arrives in the year 1984, he is surprised to find that things are much more different than he expected. Most notably, Sarah (Emilia Clarke) is not the scared and vulnerable woman that he thought she was going to be based on what he was told about her by John in the future. Instead, Sarah is a trained warrior who, ever since she was a child, has been looked after by a reprogrammed T-800 Model 101 Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) who was sent back in time to protect her. Now in a new timeline, Sarah, Kyle, and the Terminator travel into the future, 2017, in which Judgment Day has not yet happened, in an attempt to prevent Skynet (which in this timeline is under the guise of an advanced global operating system called ‘Genisys’ (hence the title of the film)), from taking over.

‘Terminator: Genisys’ basically pulls a ‘2009 Star Trek’ by resetting the original franchise timeline resulting in a brand new alternate timeline. And just like with ‘Star Trek’, I’m perfectly fine with this new idea as I think that it’ll be interesting to see where the franchise goes now without being tied down by the original timeline canon, like whether or not Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese will get together as they did in the original timeline, which of course resulted in the birth of John Connor. As for the film itself, ‘Genisys’ is, to put it quite simply, a very entertaining sci-fi action flick with a solid balance of humor and action. The action sequences, especially the fight between the old T-800 and the young T-800 in a sequence mirroring the original opening of ‘The Terminator’, and the visuals are both superb and just like what Colin Trevorrow did with ‘Jurassic World’, director Alan Taylor does an excellent job when it comes to respecting the two ‘Terminator’ films by James Cameron (in other words, this film basically ignores the events of ‘Rise of the Machines’ and ‘Salvation’ which, given the general reception of those two films, is for the best) through the film’s various callbacks. Now in terms of plot, yes it does get quite a bit overcomplicated at times, especially when it comes to the development of the new alternate universe that the characters now find themselves in. But as we all know, that’s something that just happens whenever you do a story based around time-travel.

For the first time since ‘Terminator 3’, Arnold Schwarzenegger returns to the role that basically made him the action icon that he is known as today; the T-800. And quite frankly, his return couldn’t be more welcome as even at the age of 67, he still manages to kick major ass. Equally kicking major ass in this film is Emilia Clarke, who confidently steps into the role of Sarah Connor, who once again stands out as one of the best female action heroines of all-time. As for Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese, while I can’t say that he’s the absolute best to have ever been in the role, he does a pretty good job here, mainly due to his strong camaraderie with both Clarke and Schwarzenegger once the three of them get together. Now normally I try to keep my main reviews spoiler-free but as many of you know, the second trailer for this film already revealed one of the main plot-points of the film so I guess it’s not that big of a deal in this scenario. And this particular plot-line is the reveal that John Connor has been turned into a Terminator by Skynet. And as controversial and a bit of a stretch as it may be, I’m totally fine with it, which may primarily be because I’m glad to see that Jason Clarke, who is easily one of the most underrated actors currently working today, in a much more substantial role than I thought he was going to have based solely on the first trailer. And to top it all off, there’s also a few noteworthy supporting turns, primarily J.K. Simmons as a police detective who ends up crossing paths with the main group in both 1984 and 2017 (note: the character is not played by Simmons in 1984) and Matt Smith as a character that, unlike the previously noted John Connor reveal, I won’t spoil the identity of here but suffice it to say will definitely be playing a major role in future installments.

Contrary to the 27% and 39% ratings that the film currently has on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic, respectively, I surprisingly really enjoyed ‘Terminator: Genisys’. It may be because I went into the film not knowing what to expect, especially given the polarizing reaction that the film had been getting from the internet in the months leading up to its release. But ultimately ‘Terminator: Genisys’ is by no means as bad as the internet is putting it out to be. Sure, the plot gets a little messy sometimes in regards to the establishing of the franchise’s new ‘alternate universe’. But it more than makes up for it with its great balance of action and humor, a solid group of leads, and for respectfully paying tribute to the first two films in the series while also managing to be different from those two films. Is it the best installment of the ‘Terminator’ franchise? Definitely not, but what do you expect when the first two films were such hard acts to follow? Ultimately though, ‘Genisys’ is easily the best ‘Terminator’ film since ‘Terminator 2’ and as controversial as it may be, I’m definitely interested to see where this franchise goes next now that it has gone the route of the ‘Star Trek’ franchise and can now go in new story directions without having to adhere to the original canon. But given the general reaction to ‘Genisys’ at the moment, hopefully the filmmakers do get that chance.

Rating: 4.5/5