TODD MCCARTHY
ARNOLD Schwarzenegger once again declares, “I’ll be back,” in this fifth instalment of the Terminator franchise. But enough, already.
Spending half its time showing unkillable cyborg characters getting shot up only to quickly heal themselves, and the other half trying to explain a plot that rewrites the entire series, Terminator: Genisys will serve as a good litmus test of how keen the public is to see basically the same old thing in a new (but very similar) bottle.
At one point, Schwarzenegger’s lifelike robot tells its cohorts, “I’m old, not obsolete,” but that will be up to audiences to decide; the sorry track record of the star’s six postgubernatorial features means that a lot is riding on the box-office of this continuation of his most popular franchise.
The actor, who was 37 when the series entry was released in 1984 and is now 67, more or less convincingly spans that time-frame in terms of looks as he helps Sarah Connor and her son John try to save humankind – and themselves – from the victory of the machines.
How many times have we seen the Golden Gate Bridge destroyed in a big budget movie in past years? Has there been time to rebuild it since San Andreas, a week ago?
And let’s not forget Pacific Rim, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Godzilla and Rise of the Planet of the Apes before that. Well, it happens again here as part of the nuke attack that’s part of the back-story that must be altered if humanity is to be given another chance.
Labouring with the problem of how to return to a well that many fans justifiably thought ran dry with McG’s Arnold-free Terminator: Salvation in 2009, the screenwriters have worked out an elaboratelyrigged scenario which may leave some audience-members’ heads spinning.
Series fans will relish the care with which director Alan Taylor and his team recreate, in the flashback, the feel of James Cameron’s original: Reese arrives, naked, in the same dark and grungy downtown Los Angeles alley, to be greeted by a homeless derelict.
Assaulted by the sleek and determined new terminator (Byung-hun Lee), Reese is joined in short order by the original edition (you know who, looking very young), giving Sarah (Emilia Clarke) the protection she needs until they all make the jump back to