“I’ve been putting off writing this one. It’s now the very last few minutes, up against my self imposed deadline if I wanna keep my post-every-other-day schedule, and I’m distracting myself with surveys and candy crush. The reason I’m procrastinating is that in the 4 days since I’ve seen this movie, I still don’t know how I feel about it. And I don’t know how many \m/ it’s gonna earn, which let’s face it, that’s my least favorite part of the blog. Believe me, if there’s anyone who appreciates quantifiable values being applied to non-quantifiable things, it’s me. I just always hate to give a poor score to a film that clearly had a lot of work put into it, but I just didn’t get. Or I’m self conscious about giving high marks to ridiculously flawed films that were entertaining. And look, I’m rambling in a further attempt to stall. Maybe this’ll write itself? Doubtful.
Okay, let’s break this movie apart and really get into it (spoiler conscious, of course). To start, I love the Terminator franchise. The world and the characters and the threat and the mythology, all of it great. And I love that T2 is one of the rare sequels that outshines it’s predecessors. That movie alone is enough to represent the awesome that is terminator. I can often be heard saying things like “”Google is gonna go all Skynet on us someday”” or referring to them (or other corporations) as Cyberdine, or talking about liquid metal. I’ve seen the Terminator show at Universal so many times, and was devastated when they removed it from Universal Hollywood. I was then ecstatic to find it at Orlando, and proceeded to go to it for God knows what # it was for me watching it. I was one of the few girls at the sold out Terminator Salvation midnight screening. I even watched Sarah Connor Chronicles and will gladly sign any petition to get Summer Glau signed on for the movies.
Safe to say, I went into this with a healthy dose of anticipation, but also some skepticism (see again: T4, or also T3). There were things I liked and things I didn’t like. However, the more I think about it, the more things I find fall into the didn’t like column, and the more I realize the things I did like were all around the nostalgia factor.
Likes. I did like Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor, although she wasn’t quite the self sufficient badass as Linda Hamilton in T2. I liked that T3 and T4 were essentially ignored, thus keeping the confusion from being even great than it was (more later). I really liked the explanation for why Ahnold’s T-800 looks older (the living tissue ages like, well, living tissue). I liked the inclusion of Matt Smith, even if it was minimal, but assuming this franchise goes forward, he should be pretty important later on. I liked any nod to T1 and T2, especially when given a slight twist (ie, Sarah Connor saying “”Come with me if you want to live). I liked the terror and suspense that was built, particularly in some of the more climactic fights. I really liked some of the early scenes where we got to see John Connor sending Kyle Reese back in time, getting a glimpse of what their post Judgement Day life is like.
Didn’t likes. Top of the list is that the biggest problem with continuing the franchise past T2 is that soon our calendar passed Judgement Day. So now you have to do weird time travel thingies to explain how judgement day is in our future. Part of me would go so far as to wish that there was never anything after T2, but short of that, just suspend disbelief a bit more to have a firm Judgement Day date. Really didn’t like how confusing all the timelines were. I found a very helpful article on EW that attempts to explain and reconcile all of the various timelines. Even their post its and white board arrows weren’t enough to un jumble it all.
That paragraph is getting long. Additional didn’t likes. While the twist about John Connor was new and original, it felt a little forced and just made things that much more confusing. And I didn’t like how overall unmemorable this movie is. It’s already starting to fade.
So there we have it. More likes than unlikes as far as sheer quantity, but the unlikes were far more egregious. Because I love this world, I would very much love to see it continue into the planned trilogy, assuming the logistical things work out. But also my love for this franchise makes me fear that further films will tarnish it’s awesomeness (Matrix anyone?). Uggghhh I hate this part. How am I gonna score it?
Terminator: Genisys – \m/ \m/ \n”