GAME OF ROLES
Emilia Clarke hits big time
TERMINATOR GENISYS ★★★★ Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jai Courtney, Emilia Clarke Directed by: Alan Taylor Running time: 126 minutes
Well, he did say he’d be back.
After sitting out the bombastic disappointment that was 2009’s Terminator Salvation, Arnold Schwarzenegger returns in fine form as the original T-800 series Terminator robot, a role he pioneered more than 30 years ago. As excuses go for missing the last film, “I’m governor of California” is way cooler than “scheduling conflicts.”
In any case, we can all safely abandon Salvation — and, if you’re so inclined, Terminators 2 and 3. In fact, seeing T. Genisys is a bit like sitting down to watch the first Terminator movie again and finding, at about the sixminute mark, that someone has seriously messed with the plot.
At the point where the Terminator takes down a trio of punks and steals their clothes — a scene director Alan Taylor lovingly re-creates in Imax 3D — another Terminator (also played by Schwarzenegger) shows up to alter the timeline in a way that would make Marty McFly proud, and cause Doc Brown to tear out his remaining hair. Small changes then grow exponentially until one character is asking another: “How’d you end up in 2017?”
Back to the Future is only one of the time-travel/science-fiction references touched upon, however obliquely. There’s a shout-out to Blade Runner (Terminators are referred to as “skin jobs”); a bit of Dr. Who casting (Matt Smith in a key role); and a nightmarish sense of chrono-mortality that recalls 12 Monkeys and its own inspiration, the 1962 short film La Jetée. And Sophocles has nothing on the family reunion that provides a major dramatic pivot.
But fear not: You don’t need to know classical history or even science-fiction benchmarks to enjoy this summer blockbuster. Even as the screenplay (by Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier) creates an increasingly teeter- ing tower of narrative bricks, at its base is a simple premise: “We blow it the hell up.”
“It? is of course Skynet, the self-aware global computer system that seems so much more plausible from our vantage here in the second decade of the 21st century. Terminator lore has Skynet achieving consciousness on Aug. 29, 1997, and starting a nuclear war a few seconds later.
But James Cameron, whose career basically began with the first film in the series, included an ingenious, seemingly innocuous line spoken by Kyle Reese in that 1984 movie. Asked if the Terminators are from the future, he replies: “One possible future.” Welcome to another.
The less I tell you about it, the better. No one should know too much about the future, or the past, and some of the trailers for Genisys have already delivered some massive spoilers. Suffice to say that a heavily scarred warrior named John Connor (Jason Clarke) sends Reese (Jai Courtney) back from 2029 to 1984 to stop Connor’s mother from being killed before he’s born.
Fans of The Terminator will recall Linda Hamilton as the frightened but ultimately resolute Sarah Connor. The role this time goes to British actress Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), and the character is remarkably well prepared when Reese shows up to protect her.
But as John Connor notes: “There’s a momentum to time — things that want to happen.” This apparently includes characters impersonating police officers; commandeering motorcycles; and crashing helicopters.
It also includes a bit of comic relief. In Genisys, most of that comes from J.K. Simmons as officer O’Brien, grousing about “God damn time-travelling robots” even as he tries to help Sarah and Kyle save the future of the human race. Schwarzenegger’s Terminator character gets his share of zingers as well, not least his repeated claim (roboarthritis notwithstanding) that he’s merely old, not obsolete.
Taylor, a TV director who worked on Game of Thrones and moved into features in 2013 with Thor: The Dark World, keeps the action moving at a steady clip. Even at a shade over two hours, Genisys never drags. (And woe betide any film that drags when Simmons is in the cast!)
The biggest disappointment in what feels like a perfectly satisfactory conclusion to the Terminator storyline is the revelation that there are two more sequels planned. But that could change: After all, the future is not set. Meanwhile, fans should revel in this well-crafted addition to the aging, not-yet-obsolete franchise. To borrow (and slightly corrupt) another of its oft repeated lines: Come with me if you want to live it up.