By Dave Montalbano
http://cinemadave.livejournal.com
With 2015 more than half way over and the San Diego Comic Con in the rear view mirror, I must admit that I’ve enjoyed more big screen movies this year than in 2014.
I’ve also heard people’s honest reaction and applause at the end of the post credits sequence.
Terminator Genisys did not receive such a reaction. Despite the hype in rebooting the Terminator franchise, this film cost more money to produce than it received in box office revenue. James Cameron’s original Terminator was a science fiction romp that was in tune with the times in which it was made. The best science fiction is reflexive like that. With an emphasis on Big Bang Theory Sheldon Cooper-like theories about time travel, Terminator Genisys feels out of synch with 2015 popular culture.
Told from the perspective of Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney), the time traveling hero from the first and fourth movie, the audience learns that machines have taken over Earth. The surviving humans are led by John Connor (Jason Clarke), the messianic hero of the previous four movies. As in the first movie, Connor sends Reese back in time to stop the machines from taking over the world. Unlike the first time travel mission in 1984, there is a technical glitch to change the time line in 2017.
This film features too many dialogue scenes with this kind of information. Even though he was a peripheral character in this fifth Terminator movie, it is truly Arnold Schwarzenegger’s performance as “Pops” Terminator that connects the audience to any empathy.
“I’m old, but not obsolete,” he says at one point in the movie – a truism to be sure, but Arnold’s box office has declined drastically since he served as the Governor of California. His last box office success was Terminator: Rise of the Machines 12 years ago. Yet, his diminished screen persona steals each scene with deadpan humor from the lead characters as played by Jai Courtney, Jason Clarke and Emilia Clarke, who is no Linda Hamilton.
With Donald Trump’s recent comments about border security and Joachin “El Chapo” Guzman’s prison escape from a Mexican prison, be on the lookout for the documentary, Cartel Land. Promising unprecedented access, this 98-minute documentary presents two vigilante groups who seek to eliminate a common enemy, the drug cartel.
If I can’t make it to the movies this weekend, I will be reading Harper Lee’s long-awaited book, Go Set a Watchman.
