The last time Angry Joe was the only internet critic I could find who liked a particularly divisive film, said film was Man of Steel, which I just accepted as him being Angry Joe and therefore being more forgiving than everyone else.
But now all of those same critics are hating Genisys for "lacking humanity" or the like, and since my opinion is what arbitrarily decides whose critiques are more legit, I find myself wondering if people have just gotten spoiled by the recent deluge of films like The Winter Soldier, Days of Future Past or any number of Oscar-bait pictures. If Genisys had come out in the 1980s with the same story and characters it has now, in an era where story in action movies was secondary to action and good acting was all but unheard of, I've no doubt this would've been placed up there with the likes of Commando or Highlander.
Just a warning: I won't be spoiling anything that the trailers didn't already and in order for me to properly showcase the film I'll have to discuss things that are revealed more than halfway in.
Anyway, the film. I really like it. There are few films that compel me to see them 3 times in theaters and the last one was Guardians of the Galaxy. I kept going back to it partially because I found the alternate timeline to be fascinating in how the one simple act of Skynet compromising John Connor and thereby adding the element of human ingenuity to its arsenal (where all other Terminator films had Skynet falling back on the same failed plan time and time again) could change so much. In that one scene, we not only get human ingenuity, but the filmmakers also gave Skynet the ability to plan for failure, as said act against John comes only AFTER the human resistance blew up its central core and shut down its army.
However, in changing the timeline in its attempt to kill Sarah Connor as a child (remember, Skynet has human ingenuity now), Skynet inadvertently erased itself from existence. Remember how in the trailer where Old Arnie goes to sort out Young Arnie from T1? Well, he does, and by doing so removes the thing that allowed Skynet to be built in the first place. So Skynet elects to send John Connor back to construct itself at a later period, hoping that whoever sent Old Arnie to protect Kid Sarah will know the old date for Judgement Day and so whoever gets sent to stop it will show up wondering where Skynet is. Meanwhile, Skynet elects to construct itself in 2017, where rampant social media and everyone posting their every thought online means that not only will Skynet be created out of convenience (the film comments on how everyone these days will jump on a new idea if it makes life the slightest bit easier), but it will have a massive database on nearly everyone in the first and second world, a ready- made psychiatric profile for Skynet to exploit in its quest to find and terminate all humans.
And, of course, the action is pretty cool, the characters were okay (people say they have zero chemistry; people say the same thing about Edward and Bella and the characters in this film are nothing like Twilight's deadpan cast), and Arnie as Pops was EASILY the funniest part of the film. Here, he's more actively playing the role of a robotic infiltrator instead of just using it as an excuse for his lackluster acting chops.
I'd give this film a 10/10 if not for two things. First, there's a scene in which Genisys talks to a press conference with its innocent child-voice. The scene adds nothing to the story or characters nor does it allow the movie to breathe after an intense action scene. Second, one cannot appreciate how well Genisys handles the changes to its own timeline if one hasn't seen the first two Terminator films. Even so, I still enjoyed it, and the only reason I can see as to why critics don't like it is because they weren't paying attention, as a lot of their questions were answered by the film.
Still, I found the film to be a satisfying third installment, as James Cameron was spot-on when he said he considers Genisys to be the true Terminator 3.
But now all of those same critics are hating Genisys for "lacking humanity" or the like, and since my opinion is what arbitrarily decides whose critiques are more legit, I find myself wondering if people have just gotten spoiled by the recent deluge of films like The Winter Soldier, Days of Future Past or any number of Oscar-bait pictures. If Genisys had come out in the 1980s with the same story and characters it has now, in an era where story in action movies was secondary to action and good acting was all but unheard of, I've no doubt this would've been placed up there with the likes of Commando or Highlander.
Just a warning: I won't be spoiling anything that the trailers didn't already and in order for me to properly showcase the film I'll have to discuss things that are revealed more than halfway in.
Anyway, the film. I really like it. There are few films that compel me to see them 3 times in theaters and the last one was Guardians of the Galaxy. I kept going back to it partially because I found the alternate timeline to be fascinating in how the one simple act of Skynet compromising John Connor and thereby adding the element of human ingenuity to its arsenal (where all other Terminator films had Skynet falling back on the same failed plan time and time again) could change so much. In that one scene, we not only get human ingenuity, but the filmmakers also gave Skynet the ability to plan for failure, as said act against John comes only AFTER the human resistance blew up its central core and shut down its army.
However, in changing the timeline in its attempt to kill Sarah Connor as a child (remember, Skynet has human ingenuity now), Skynet inadvertently erased itself from existence. Remember how in the trailer where Old Arnie goes to sort out Young Arnie from T1? Well, he does, and by doing so removes the thing that allowed Skynet to be built in the first place. So Skynet elects to send John Connor back to construct itself at a later period, hoping that whoever sent Old Arnie to protect Kid Sarah will know the old date for Judgement Day and so whoever gets sent to stop it will show up wondering where Skynet is. Meanwhile, Skynet elects to construct itself in 2017, where rampant social media and everyone posting their every thought online means that not only will Skynet be created out of convenience (the film comments on how everyone these days will jump on a new idea if it makes life the slightest bit easier), but it will have a massive database on nearly everyone in the first and second world, a ready- made psychiatric profile for Skynet to exploit in its quest to find and terminate all humans.
And, of course, the action is pretty cool, the characters were okay (people say they have zero chemistry; people say the same thing about Edward and Bella and the characters in this film are nothing like Twilight's deadpan cast), and Arnie as Pops was EASILY the funniest part of the film. Here, he's more actively playing the role of a robotic infiltrator instead of just using it as an excuse for his lackluster acting chops.
I'd give this film a 10/10 if not for two things. First, there's a scene in which Genisys talks to a press conference with its innocent child-voice. The scene adds nothing to the story or characters nor does it allow the movie to breathe after an intense action scene. Second, one cannot appreciate how well Genisys handles the changes to its own timeline if one hasn't seen the first two Terminator films. Even so, I still enjoyed it, and the only reason I can see as to why critics don't like it is because they weren't paying attention, as a lot of their questions were answered by the film.
Still, I found the film to be a satisfying third installment, as James Cameron was spot-on when he said he considers Genisys to be the true Terminator 3.