Terminator Genisys (with Bonus Disc) (Blu-ray) (2015)

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General		Extras
Category	Sci-Fi Action	Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Family Dynamics Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Infiltration and Termination Featurette-Upgrades: VFX of Terminator: Genisys Featurette-Making Of-Reset the Future: Constructing Terminator Genisys Additional Footage-Battle on the Bridge: Multi-Angle Scene Breakdown
Rating
Year Of Production	2015
Running Time	125:42
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Dual Disc Set	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Alan Taylor
Studio Distributor	Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger Jai Courtney Emilia Clarke Jason Clarke J.K. Simmons Dayo Okeniyi Matt Smith Courtney B. Vance Byung-hun Lee
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	$19.95	Music	Lorne Balfe

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Atmos English Dolby TrueHD 7.1 German Dolby Digital 5.1 English Descriptive Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1 French Dolby Digital 5.1 Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	2.40:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	2.40:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English Danish German Spanish French Italian Japanese Dutch Norwegian Finnish Swedish English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    It has now been nine years since the abortion that was McG’s Terminator Salvation was met with substandard box office and critical mauling, posing a challenge for any filmmaker bold enough to pursue further sequels. There were not many logical places for the series to go, thus 2015’s Terminator Genisys functions as both a sequel and a reboot, avoiding another future war movie by forcing a story set before Judgment Day to return the series to its roots. Genisys is barely a movie at all - it’s a concept of a movie; a vague mishmash of half-baked ideas and potentially interesting scenes strung together not to tell a worthwhile story, but to fill out a balance sheet. Indeed, it solely exists to plot a workable new path for the franchise, paving the way for more sequels to allow Skydance to keep beating this dead horse for all that it’s worth until the rights revert back to James Cameron in 2019. And with a soft PG-13 rating in place forbidding the visceral delights of the first two Terminator movies, Genisys feels safe and generic.

    In the apocalyptic future war, human resistance leader John Connor (Jason Clarke) spearheads an attack on Skynet headquarters with help from right hand man Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney), in the process delivering a devastating blow that may finally end the war against the machines. But it is discovered that a T-800 Terminator has been sent back in time to 1984 to kill John’s mother, Sarah (Emilia Clarke), to ensure that that he is never born. Kyle volunteers to serve as Sarah’s protector, but upon arrival in 1984, he discovers that Sarah is already aware of the situation, locked in warrior mode and able to protect herself, aided by her lifelong Terminator guardian "Pops" (Arnold Schwarzenegger). Aiming to prevent Judgment Day, Sarah and Pops have created a time machine of their own, planning to travel forward in time to 1997 to stop Skynet before it goes live. But apparently the timeline has been altered and Kyle has memories of a future which hasn’t happened yet, and they need to travel to 2017 instead. And on it goes.

    Every time an R-rated franchise is continued with a PG-13 instalment, the press strategies are identical, with the studio, actors, and even the blind fan-boys wanting us to believe that PG-13 is no big deal, because it will (somehow) still be violent, and what matters the most is the script and story. Funnily enough, Arnie actually satirised such blatant lies in Last Action Hero back in 1994, with his character explaining that “In this movie we only kill 48 people. In the last one we killed 119. But we make up for it with a good story, emotions, depth, dimensions.” Big surprise: Genisys’s PG-13 rating is a much bigger deal than we have been led to believe. Perhaps it could have worked if it did have a smart screenplay, but Genisys is a dumb action film, lacking the smarts and heart of the original Terminator. It’s a numbing succession of brainless action sequences, and without the visceral punch of an R rating, there is not much to see here.

    Genisys is not just a Terminator reboot, but a DC Comics-esque multiverse reboot. It’s a poor excuse for the filmmakers to create a grab-bag of every single element that people liked from the previous movies; Sarah is already a badass, there’s a T-1000 (played by Byung-hun Lee), there’s another de-aged Arnold T-800 (with improved CGI), and they’ve recreated the main plot thrust of T2, with the heroes trying to destroy Skynet before Judgment Day erupts. Genisys also copycats another notable aspect of T2, with a relationship between Sarah and Pops. A more appropriate title for the movie would be Terminator FanService. But then again, this is a PG-13 movie, so they cannot even do the fan service thing properly. Also, turning Arnie’s ruthless T-800 into a sidekick for a wise-ass kid was a bad idea back in 1990, and having him as a gentle father figure is just as ill-advised here. I miss Arnie the hardcore killer.

    Genisys is easy to follow, but examining the narrative too closely is a bad idea, with paradoxes and unanswered questions. The question of who sent Pops back in time is a real head-scratcher, and the script politely refuses to answer the query, with the T-800 explaining that his files were erased. But the biggest head-scratcher is the need for Sarah and Pops to build a time machine to go forward in time. Time-travel exists in the Terminator franchise in order for people and cyborgs to go back in time to change things, which is understandable, but why use it to travel forward? Time goes forwards in the first place! Instead of jumping ahead thirty years, Sarah, Kyle and Pops could have spent that time improving their tactics and arsenal, keeping an eye on the Skynet situation, remaining one step ahead, and could have even destroyed Skynet whilst it was still in beta. But instead, they go for the ticking clock of Terminator 3 (hey look, another idea stolen from a past movie), even though it’s incredibly idiotic that they aim to show up with limited time on their side, and just wing it.

    The marketing campaign for Genisys is one of the poorest in recent memory, with the bargain basement posters, and the trailers which spoiled all of the movie’s surprises. The big “twist” is that John is now the villain. But rather than the villain being a Terminator who looks like John, it actually is John Connor whose genetics were tampered with, and now he’s Skynet’s guardian to safeguard his own future existence. Frankly, this concept is unforgivable. John has always been mankind’s saviour in the future war, but now it’s all for naught. Perhaps this decision was made to sidestep the need for a sex scene between Kyle and Sarah, because PG-13. There are some interesting thematic undercurrents in the screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis and executive producer Patrick Lussier - particularly in regards to our growing reliance on screens in a modern world dominated by Google, Microsoft and Apple; and with Sarah standing up for her right to choose a mate rather than letting her supposed fate dictate that she must climb into bed with Kyle - but the movie is more interested in prolonged action scenes and terrible humour. Heavens me, the attempts at comedy are woeful, especially a hideous running joke that Pops cannot smile properly despite repeated attempts. Pops even makes a comment about Kyle’s endowment, while another scene involves Pops getting a mugshot while the Cops theme plays in the background. It's just...awful.

    At least there is colour to the movie. One of Terminator Salvation’s many, many flaws is its desaturated cinematography which rendered it monotonous and visually drab. With Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World) at the helm, Genisys retains a far brighter colour scheme, and to its credit it is more watchable than its immediate predecessor. However, the action scenes are a mixed bag. The 1984 sequences are surprisingly proficient, but the bigger set-pieces are boring, even with the mammoth budget. Genisys goes far too over-the-top, sapping humanity and intensity from the material. A certain bus crash is incredibly overdone and should have left people seriously injured or dead, but Kyle and Sarah, who were inside, walk away without a scratch on them. Even the special effects are a mixed bag; the T-1000 looks worse than it did in 1990, the flashy CG-riddled climax looks like vomit, and so on. The young Arnold does look impressive initially, but when he begins fighting Pops, he suddenly looks phoney.

    Terminator Genisys does have one benefit to elevate it above Suckvation: Arnie’s participation. The Austrian Oak is getting old, but he’s still a welcome addition to the cast, keeping the flick watchable even during its worst patches. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast (not to mention the film itself) fail to serve him. Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) is hopelessly out of her depth here, exuding minimal screen presence, coming across as a very passionless Sarah Connor. She’s nothing compared to the powerhouse that was Linda Hamilton in T2. I do not hate Jai Courtney, but he makes so little of an impression here, and it’s painful to watch him attempt to fill Michael Biehn’s formidable shoes. Jason Clarke (no relation to Emilia) does what he can as John Connor, but he’s just not a believable badass - he looks more like an office worker. The only other bright spot (apart from Arnie) is J.K. Simmons as a detective who’s caught up in the battle. And it’s heartbreaking to see former Doctor Who star Matt Smith caught up in this garbage.

    Even though Genisys is an improvement over Terminator Salvation, we are still far away from the groundbreaking brilliance of Cameron’s 1984 masterpiece which started it all. Characters are uninteresting, there’s no tension or sense of stakes, the script struggles with a needlessly convoluted narrative, and attempts at comedy are painful. The seeds of a half-decent movie are here, but the potential could not be found in the hands of this creative team. Mere days after viewing Genisys, I was hard-pressed to remember anything I liked about it. Anyone seeking a glossy, expensive studio blockbuster may enjoy Genisys, but give me a violent, bone-crunching ’80s sci-fi action-thriller like 1984’s The Terminator over this guff any day of the week.

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Disc 1:

Family Dynamics (HD; 15:51)

Infiltration and Termination (HD; 25:29)

Upgrades: The VFX of Terminator Genisys (HD; 15:07)

Disc 2:

Reset the Future: Constructing Terminator Genisys (HD; 99:04)

• Paradigm Shift (15:24) - This first featurette concentrates on the origins of Genisys, covering the purchasing of the franchise rights, the approach taken to the screenplay and story, and even getting James Cameron involved. Cameron, who apparently advised the writing process in an unspecified capacity, talks about his idea to bring back Schwarzenegger, explaining that the living tissue of the Terminator would age. The producers also discuss bringing in Alan Taylor to direct, while cinematography and production design is covered as well. This is surprisingly worthwhile and informative.
  
• Old. Not Obsolete (15:38) - Prosthetics, models and make-up are covered here, which were masterminded by Legacy Effects. The guys who worked on Genisys talk about the technological advances since the original Terminator back in 1984, as well as changes to the endoskeleton design and how various sculpts were created. This does not feel fluffy or EPK at all - it's genuinely fascinating.
  
• Tactical Apparel (11:43) - As implied by the title, this segment is all about the costumes. Costume designer Susan Matheson is front and centre here, enthusiastically covering all notable characters and touching upon the challenges of recreating old clothes from the 1980s to match the original Terminator.
  
• A Once and Future War (16:00) - Stunts, special effects and weapons. There's actually very little overlap with the featurettes on the first disc, as it mostly stays away from the Golden Gate Bridge sequence to focus on other action beats, as well as the physical training involved. The firearms are also covered in great detail, showing the actors using the blank-firing weapons on-set and talking about how much fun it was. The armourers also have a few things to say, particularly in regards to the designs and choosing weapons that are reminiscent of what was in the previous Terminator movies. There is still no fluff - this is a seriously interesting behind-the-scenes segment.
  
• Manipulating Matter (30:00) - Visual effects, editing, music, and the post-production process in general, constituting the most significant featurette in this documentary. There is some inevitable overlap with the VFX featurette on the first disc, but there's more detail and it's new material for the most part, covering a number of CGI-heavy sequences including the creation of the digital 1984-era Schwarzenegger. The discussion of the soundtrack also takes up a considerable portion of the featurette. The producers certainly put a lot of pressure on composer Lorne Balfe (with input from Hans Zimmer) to deliver an effective score, and the result is one of the strongest aspects of the movie.
  
• Exiles in Times (10:16) - And lastly, a reflection on the franchise and a look into the future. Cameron is quick to sing the movie's praises (how ironic, now that he has admitted the movie is terrible and is producing another Terminator movie completely unrelated to Genisys), while Schwarzenegger tries his hardest to make the movie sound better than it is. There is talk about this becoming a trilogy, but those plans have of course been scrapped in favour of what Cameron has in mind. Still, this is a fine way to cap off a terrific documentary.
  

Battle on the Bridge: Multi-Angle Scene Breakdown (HD; 10:04)

• Angle 1 - Previsualization (3:21) - The full sequence is played out through combination of storyboards and animated previz. Worth watching if this type of thing interests you.
  
• Angle 2 - On The Set (3:21) - A short behind-the-scenes featurette showing the sequence being planned and shot. Most of this has already been covered in prior featurettes, but there's still some good stuff here.
  
• Angle 3 - Previsualization / Final Film Composite (3:21) - The previz/storyboard sequence is compared to the finished movie. This is interesting, and shows the evolution of the set-piece.
  

    The bonus disc is available in certain editions overseas, but our local edition is the most affordable. Technically a draw, but considering the low price point and great availability of the local set, I'm giving our edition the win.

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