Terminator: Genisys Returns The Franchise To Perfection [Review]

First off, WOW, I honestly thought that after T2 no sequel would ever be as powerful or emotional and for the most part I was right. That was until 7/1/2015 when Arnold Schwarzenegger proved again that a machine can make a man cry. No, not a full on sob cry but, you know, like at the end of T2 when he melts himself and you get that tear in your eye, that is what Genisys did.

The plot was simple Kyle Reese (Courtney) travels back in time to 1984 to save Sarah Connor (Emilia) from a cyborg humanoid assassin, the Terminator. But he soon finds the events of the past have already been altered, taking him and Connor on a new mission to fight the killer artificial intelligence entity Skynet. They do this with help from an older, but not obsolete Terminator dubbed pops.

The writing and directing this go around is outstanding, the dialogue fits the characters and they act like how we the fans would expect them to act. Unlike T3: Rise of The Machines you believe in all the characters and who they are or will become. Emilia  does an outstanding job of filling the shoes of Linda Hamilton as does Courtney stepping in for Michael Biehn. But the breakout performance comes from Jason Clarke who owns the role of John Connor. Until Clarke we only had Furlong's performance as our basis of Connor, now I suspect all future comparison will be made off of Clarke. With all that aside, Arnold returns to form giving his character of pops such depth that you will believe a Terminator can love.

The visual effects of the film put Jurassic World and Avengers to shame. When older Terminator meets younger Terminator you won't believe how real it looks and you will swear they pulled footage from the original, but they didn't. Arnold vs Arnold is just one of the many visual hallmarks this film has to offer and the bar has been set very high for future Hollywood films that involve CGI.

This film is truly worthy of standing next to T2 and the beauty of it is this sequel makes a perfect trilogy to Cameron's original two. But at the same time you can watch all five in a row and it still makes sense continuity wise.

Rather then give any spoilers in this review I will end it here. The film is just so amazing and to explain in detail of why I would have to talk plot and that is something that is better seen than read.  Just be sure to stay after the credits because I'm sure this isn't the last we have seen of The Terminator.

Rating: 9/10 Stars