*Premise spoilers.*
I remember actually seeing this in theaters when it came out—yes, entirely for Matt Smith. I’ve never been a Terminator person and have in fact only seen snippets of the classic films. Needless to say, I’m not the target demo for this movie. But as it happens, that might work in my favor a bit here—even though I’m not really up on my fare, I’m also not beholden to what came before, so I as I revisit it now, I might be more forgiving of it than some fans were at the time.
Kyle Reese grew up in a world already controlled by Skynet and ravaged by its Terminator robots, but rebel leader John Connor has been a mentor and father figure for him. John sends Reese back in time to protect Sarah Connor, his mother, but something goes wrong when John is attacked by a Terminator at a critical moment. The past Reese arrives in isn’t the one that was supposed to happen. He meets a Sarah who already knows her destiny, one who was raised and trained by a Terminator defector determined to keep her safe at all costs.
Honestly, most of what I know about this franchise is purely cultural osmosis. I’m aware of the connections between Sarah, John, and Reese, and the timey-wimeyness therein, and I know, “I’ll be back,” and, “Hasta la vista, baby.” But it’s really just the bare bones. So when Sarah is the one to rescue Reese from a Terminator and say, “Come with me if you want to live,” I’m not really invested in it. I get why Sarah and Reese both care a lot about John, but I don’t really know the guy.
So I can’t say whether this time-shenanigans soft reboot does something interesting with the characters or ruins them. I don’t know if the action is fresh or derivative, and I don’t know how the story stacks up compared to its predecessors. I can only approach it as a franchise action movie with killer robots, a badass heroine, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And on that level? It’s all right. I enjoy the close relationship between Sarah and “Pops,” the old Terminator who’s been looking out for her. I enjoy O’Brien, a regular-guy character who gets mixed up in Terminator wildness in two different time periods. Reese, Sarah, and Pops are chased by a cutting-edge Terminator made of fancy shapeshifting metal that can melt and solidify at will. The confusing relationship between Sarah and Reese is interesting—he was expecting to have to fill her in on the apocalypse of the future, but this Sarah already knows about all that, and she even knows things about the two of them that Reese doesn’t.
I enjoy Emilia Clarke as Sarah. She’s a heroine who’s accepted the call to action, but that doesn’t mean she has to like her place in it, and she rails against unjust destiny even as she rolls up her sleeves and does what needs to be done. Schwarzenegger is fun as Pops; over the years, Sarah has tried to help him “blend in” more with smiles and conversation, which he does incredibly awkwardly, but it’s clear how much he cares for her. The always-reliable J.K. Simmons makes an appearance as the older O’Brien, and Byung-hun Lee is cool but underused as the shapeshifting Terminator. As for Jai Courtney as Reese, he’s okay, but I wasn’t really wowed by him. I didn’t feel much of an impact there. And Jason Clarke does well with John, although I wasn’t a fan of some of the places the story takes him.
Matt Smith is credited as Alex. I don’t know if anyone is still worried about Terminator Genisys spoilers in 2023, but I won’t go too much into detail about his character. Smith does a nice job in the role, which isn’t like much of anything else I’ve seen him in—either at the time or since then. But his screen time is very limited, definitely under 10 minutes. He’s in the future sections, and since most of the movie takes place in the past, that means we just don’t see much of him. It definitely wasn’t worth it to see the film in the theater just for him.
Accent Watch
Generic American. It sounds mostly okay, but it’s just a little wonky around the edges.
Recommend?
In General – A soft maybe. As someone who isn’t a fan of the franchise, I enjoyed myself all right.
Matt Smith – Not necessarily. It’s a good performance, but it’s really short and Smith doesn’t have much to do.
Warnings
Tons of action violence, sexual references, brief nudity, language, and thematic elements.
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