Plot
John Connor sends Kyle Reese back in time to protect Sarah Connor, but when he arrives in 1984, nothing is as he expected it to be.
Release Year: 2015
Rating: 7.4/10 (5,850 voted)
Critic's Score: 38/100
Director: Alan Taylor
Stars: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Clarke, Emilia Clarke
Storyline
When John Connor (Jason Clarke), leader of the human resistance, sends Sgt. Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) and safeguard the future, an unexpected turn of events creates a fractured timeline. Now, Sgt. Reese finds himself in a new and unfamiliar version of the past, where he is faced with unlikely allies, including the Guardian (Arnold Schwarzenegger), dangerous new enemies, and an unexpected new mission: To reset the future...
Writers: Laeta Kalogridis, Patrick Lussier
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger -
Guardian
Jason Clarke -
John Connor
Emilia Clarke -
Sarah Connor
Jai Courtney -
Kyle Reese
J.K. Simmons -
O'Brien
Dayo Okeniyi -
Danny Dyson
Matt Smith -
Alex
Courtney B. Vance -
Miles Dyson
Byung-hun Lee -
Cop /
T-1000
Michael Gladis -
Lt. Matias
Sandrine Holt -
Detective Cheung
Wayne Bastrup -
Young O'Brien
Gregory Alan Williams -
Detective Harding
Otto Sanchez -
Detective Timmons
Matty Ferraro -
Agent Janssen
Trivia:
This is Paramount studios first film in The Terminator franchise. James Cameron had first approached them to do The Terminator (1984) and they were very interested. However the only stipulation was that James Cameron does not direct the film. Since this was Cameron's pet project at the time and wanted to direct the film he turned down their offer. See more »
Quotes:
User Review
Author:
Rating: 4/10
The Terminator movies (sans TS - I am not even sure if it's part of the
cannon) are basically chase films with the element of time travel
thrown in to create unique Sci-fi protagonists and antagonists.
The first two films were smart enough to understand the limitations of
time travel as a viable "science" and hence kept the focus on it's
characters, surroundings and action (note : I do not say special
effects). T3 tried to explain away the canonical inconsistencies (eg.
it's existence) with some quantum mumbo-jumbo, but again it was kept at
a bare minimum (almost hinted), showing a self awareness from the
writers that even if you need to write stupid stuff for exposition,
it's not necessary to go full blown Shyamalan on things. Of course, T3
is nowhere clinical in it's nightmarish quality of T1 or matured enough
for the majesty of T2, but at least it looked like the people behind
the movie were trying sincerely.
TG jumps into the bandwagon of using time travel as a rebooting device,
which currently is the go-to template for many franchises (XMEN, Star
Trek). But it makes the cardinal sin of driving ALL plot elements
through this device multiple times. Hence, you are left with bizarre
recitation of quantum fields, alternate time-lines, nexuses in time
points associated with important events, all wrapped in "delivery under
60 seconds" by Arnold's "Pops" (Dear me, Arnold and Quantum Theory in
the same sentence). Mix into this Internet/Cloud/AI, phase matter, time
displacement with a dash of 12 Monkeys - all stamped with Hollywood's
grasp of "science", and you start wondering why was the Kitchen Sink
left out.
The movie really doesn't have a plot line as such. It's feels more like
a re-edited version of separate episodes stitched into a movie, to
throw a glimpse into the life of these characters over a period of
2?3?4? days. Each day/episode starts with a "shocking" reveal, followed
by "scientific" explanations, followed by CGI explosions and chase. The
less said about the ending the better - the "emotional moment" where
the survivors think they will "live happily ever after" has concrete
foundations in "Marvel Studio Science" - the current rage of Hollywood.
The feeling of clunky and disjointed adventures for our saviors of
humankind is more akin to Stargate tag line ("Saving the universe one
day at a time") rather than a complete coherent movie, even if it be a
summer popcorn/potboiler/studio crash grab event.
Now Arnold can play a terminator without getting out of bed in the
morning, and sometimes it feels exactly like that - there are many
instances where he was just disinterested in the proceedings. He also
has the onerous task of providing dumb plot expositions every time the
"plot" takes a hard right/left. One is left to wonder that with this
much encyclopedic knowledge on the universe and decades of readiness,
why he never leaned how to fist fight against his fellow 800s.
The movie might also be called "The death of Kyle Reese as we came to
love him", as Jai Courtney is probably the biggest miscast for the role
(bigger than Matthew Goode in as Ozymandius in Watchmen) . Gone are
Michael Bhein's nuance portrayal of a psychologically scarred and
physically fatigued soldier doomed to a tragic fate as he tries to
fight impossible odds to save the women he loves. Instead, we have a
clean shaved and chiseled smart-ass who spends the entire movie being a
HUGE ass**** to Arnold (with multiple stare contests between him and
Arnold ALA Twilight) , and who is looking to "score" with Emilia
Clarke's Sarah (not bad in the role). Even though he says he will die
for her more than once, the delivery is just not reliable. A big
element of Reese's character in T1 was his virginity, something the
audiences gulped down because of Bhein's performance. Courtney's Reese
comes across someone who LOVES his soldier job way too much and has
tamed many members of the opposite sex. There is ZERO chemistry between
the two, and the inherent romance (which in my opinion was quite smart
in Terminator) becomes another obligatory check box for the movie to
tick. I wont even go into the "humor" between Arnold and Emilia on this
topic (borrowed from T3) that the movie tries to choke it audiences
with multiple times.
Mostly everything in the action scenes are CGI, but in majority they
are not distracting, except when they CGI-ed Arnold all over.
Twice we hear Fidel's epic Drumbeats from the Terminator theme, but
that's it. Rest of the soundtrack is so off, that these two instances
come more like a reminder of the good times we had decades ago, while
TG gleefully murders everything that was great about T1 and T2 (come to
think of it, T3 is a masterpiece compared to this). The final nail in
the coffin - "Bad Boys" playing in the background as characters get
their mugshots (don't ask).
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