Terminator Genisys

A Terminator movie that ends with a kiss?! Tells you everything you need to know. Terminator Genisys, the fifth installment of a 30-year sci-fi cartel, abandons the franchise’s commitment to flawed heroes and dispiriting finales.

In the near future, a computer network, Skynet, gains consciousness and commandeers the world’s nuclear arsenals, wiping out billions of people on “Judgment Day.” Skynet-controlled terminators hunt the survivors. John Connor emerges as the leader of the resistance.

In the first film, Skynet sends a terminator (a 37-year-old Arnold Schwarzenegger) back in time to 1984 to kill John’s introverted waitress mother, Sarah Connor, before John is born. (A pro-life whisper?) John dispatches a fellow soldier, Kyle Reese, to the same year to protect Sarah. Kyle and Sarah unite and conceive John.

Each of the next three sequels transpires during different stages of John’s life—bratty middle schooler, gangly 20-something who witnesses Judgment Day, and finally a battle-hardened resistance leader.

Terminator Genisys (rated PG-13 for intense sequences of sci-fi action, violence, and gunplay throughout; partial nudity; and brief language) resets the original timeline—and reboots the franchise.

John Connor (Jason Clarke) sends Kyle (Jai Courtney) from 2029 back to 1984, where Kyle discovers a very different Sarah (Emilia Clarke). Raised and weapons-trained from age 9 by a terminator (Schwarzenegger) whom she calls “Pops,” Sarah already knows about Skynet and the looming Judgment Day. The trio travel to 2017—Sarah and Kyle by time machine, a graying Pops the old-fashioned way—seeking to destroy Skynet before it goes fully online.

The film’s sets, like a school bus dangling from the Golden Gate Bridge, dazzle the eyes, but Genisys banks equally on Sarah’s physical appeal to turn heads. Instead of growing into leaders, the physically and emotionally flawless hero and heroine—just like the robots—come pre-fab. There’s nothing for them to do but shoot. And Schwarzenegger’s trademark cyborg-wanna-be-human shtick largely falls flat.

Terminator fans will see Genisys (and should stay past the closing credits) but will likely hope T6 (Exxodys?) returns to distinctive storytelling.