3 Short Paragraphs: Terminator Genisys

2015, Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) -- cinema

This is one of those summer blockbusters that hyped us up the wazoo and then came & went without much of a bother. No nightcap and it did not call us back. Not quite the schadenfreudian bomb that Fantastic Four was, but they were pretty close in the numbers. I guess people were just happy to see it, or not, and then let it fade away. Too bad, because it was a bit of fun and definitely good fodder for the 'ow the paradoxes (paradoxi?) hurt my head' crowd.

I am not sure I consider this a reboot, considering it acknowledges that previous movies happened, but since we connected the new lense flare Star Trek to the others but still consider it a reboot, why not. It also does redo the opening sequence of the original movie, with new actors and situations, so yeah OK kind of rebootish. But anyway, the premise is that someone sends an original terminator model back to 1973 to protect a young Sarah Connor from another Skynet attempt on her life. So, by the time the original time-sending plot kicks off, with Kyle Reese going back to protect Sarah at John Connor's orders, the old terminator (now called Pops) is there with a newer model Sarah, all trained and prepared for the coming war. Also, Pops killed his original model, the one that steals Bill Paxton's clothes. Sooo, its the liquid metal model that shows up to kill Sarah and Kyle.  Is your head hurting yet? Multiple models, multiple movies all blending into one new time travel mind fuck of a movie.

But the real movie, the one that always has to take place roughly around our time is that the terminator gang (sarah, pops and kyle) all head forward to 2017, to stop the now current launch of the OS Genisys, which becomes Skynet. Did Microsoft know they were also doing a clock counting down release of Windows 10 around the same time as a world ending Skynet? Tee hee. My favourite bit of the movie is that they McGyver together a time machine to get from 1984 to 2012, but Pops is damaged and his metal is showing. So, instead of time travel, he just hangs for 34 years until they arrive. As soon as they arrive, they have to deal with a new new terminator, self healing, part human and completely anti-humanity. And he works for MS, I mean Cyberdyne -- still alive and now making phone & PC OSes. Fight, stab, shoot, crash boom and the world is saved. For now.

Bonus Paragraph Full of Spoiler: The new terminator model is John Connor, absorbed and rebuilt by Skynet himself, who has allowed the destruction of his base, so he can pretend to be Doctor Who and attack John just as Reese goes back in time. Never trust a Time Lord. Also, JK Simmons plays the Lance Henrickson analog but is also a cop who is saved by them in 1984 but not completely surprised to see them exactly the same, in 2017. Hee!