Terminator: Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins

So this week I went to see Terminator: Genesys at a press screening.  I've already done a more formal review of the film here, so for my basic thoughts look here (summary: IT SUCKS!!!!!).  This is more just me having a far more SPOILER filled rant discussing why I really thought it was bad, and how much damage this has done to the Terminator franchise.  I should mention for the record that this absolutely has nothing to do with me being bitter about us losing the Sarah Connor Chronicles, despite the fact IT STILL HUR- ahem, let's carry on shall we?




One of my favourite takes on the last Terminator film, Salvation, came from my brother, and I'm not just saying that through nepotism, it's a very fair take on the film's flaws.  Even if he does refer to Sam Worthington as Matt Damon all the way through.  So I'd like to focus on things that show that the makers of this one didn't learn anything from the last.  Right off the bat in Genesys (I hate myself for having to type that terrible spelling) I notice one thing.  We get a reiteration of the apocalyptic events of Judgement Day, which have none of the power of the similar scene in T2 despite the similar staging.  This is partially down to various ways it's filmed, going for too broad an overview too early, but a big one is the way the nuclear weapons are portrayed.  Cameron was praised in T2 for making not only one of the most emotionally powerful scenes of a nuclear strike in film, but also one of the most technically accurate, getting details like the initial heatflash exactly right.  Not at all shabby considering it's technically a dream sequence that scene.  Here though, the nukes are treated as just really big conventional explosives, like early in Salvation where Bruce Wayne John Connor happily looks at one without his eyeballs melting.  So rather than the disturbing sight that truly looks like Hell erupting onto Earth in T2, where you can understand why they used the term Judgement Day in the aftermath, it's just more stuff blowing up.  Yawn.

Another problem this has in common with Salvation, which is endemic in any attempt to make a Terminator follow-up, is the portrayal of the future war.  Now one of the reasons the first couple of Terminator films work so well is exactly because we didn't know all the ins and outs of the war against the machines.  John Connor was believable as this figure about whom the fate of the human race could revolve around because we never got to know what precisely he did, in what way he was able to influence the war or how he was able to use the knowledge of the future based on the paradox of his birth.  Also, the war seemed that much more apocalyptic because we only go brief glimpses of what humanity was up against in terms of Skynet's force, and what we did see were huge, intimidating forces that hopelessly outclassed what the humans had.  So once you start showing the war and John Connor's part in it in detail, a lot of that is lost (it's a massive problem Salvation had; in there Connor was going to be offstage for most of it, but Christian Bale's ego made them rewrite that).  Here the final battle with the machines looks really easy compared to the desperate struggles seen in the first two, with the terrifying T800s no more than mooks to be shot down, and none of the new machines looking near as good or memorable as the Hunter/Killer model work used in the first movie.  Even the effects somehow look less convincing than they did in 1984.  Connor himself doesn't fare better; he seems to entirely rely on his knowledge from the future (which cannot be that comprehensive given the limited time Kyle Reece had with Sarah; it's third hand at best).  He also deals with the issue of sending Reece back in time to become his father and die not as a massive moral issue he's having to come to terms with, but a purely mercenary action, which he doesn't seem conflicted about at all.  Yeah, he may have already resolved it in his head, but he barely shows any emotion at all when the moment itself comes, which should be a major deal.  He's pretty much a dick before he's turned into a Terminator.

Ah yes, now we come on to really big matters, and yet another thing that this film has steadfastly refused to learn from Salvation.  What is Skynet?  Skynet is the embodiment of our worst fears about technological progress, that humanity as a whole may be deemed obsolete, both in purely biological terms, and in the concept of humanity as an ideal.  As such, it makes the most sense for it to be something nebulous, something purely inhuman, something that is far more a concept, a force rather than a being one can face in rational terms.  But of course, that whole point is lost if you give the thing a human face, as soon as you start making it more of a character, that breaks it.  So why do the sequels not just give it someone to speak directly through, but keep giving said mouthpieces full on supervillain style gloating dialogue?  Did they not see or appreciate how ridiculous that bit in The Matrix Revolutions when Neo directly talked to the floatly face of the Machines was?  (OK, I don't blame anyone for blotting that from your memory).  Here, not only does John Connor take on the role of Darth Vader for it, giving full on going over to the Dark Side speeches, but we have Matt Smith be its new human face (he's apparently already signed up for two more proposed films.)  It even has the gall to have Connor give a variance on the "It cannot be bargained with..." speech, when it's clear you can reason with it, because you can properly talk to it and it seems to have a full personality this time.  Now there stories where having the characters interact with the A.I. can work more, but it relies on limiting its humanity in some way (see 2001: A Space Odyssey or Colossus: The Forbin Project) or really establishing its character as one of true absolutes(I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream, Portal), not a wishy washy "I'm going to murder everyone, but if you say yes, you can chill with me, despite how often you try to kill me".

Believe it or not, Genesys has a moment even dumber than this.

That's another point; how Skynet and its Terminators seem really dumb compared to the way there were before.  Look at the way the original T800 and T1000 went about their business; they perfectly followed machine logic in their actions.  Everything they did followed a direct line to their goals, and they did not hesitate in the slightest in the most efficient, direct course in achieving that objective.  They fulfilled their function as infiltration units, and one can easily assume, given the future scenes, that Skynet itself followed those very same principles.  Here though, dear lord a lot of this is dumb.  If there was a T5000 infiltrator right there with the humans when they were getting ready to send Kyle Reece back, why did it not strike before the time jump, why not gun down everyone there, then the destiny line is broken and it's won.  Why exactly did it need John Connor, why not send back a T1000 disguised as him to gun down Kyle and Sarah the moment it saw them?  Why did the T1000 in the store hide from the cops when it's disguised as a cop, and could have just blended in, getting their help in catching Reece, why blow its cover so early?  Why did in the final battle T3000 John not call in the cops, preferring "no witnesses" when it's literally minutes away from launching nuclear Armageddon, when witnesses wouldn't matter, but back up with lots of guns would have?  Come to think about, why wasn't security beefed up around Cyberdyne at all?  This isn't really nitpicking, it's showing that the makers of this one have completely misunderstood the character of Skynet to a spectacular degree.

What is it with this franchise and not being able to keep secrets?

Our heroes seem to have caught the same strain of stupid virus.  So Sarah's built a time machine, and wants to go stop Skynet right before Judgement Day.  Thing is, she wants to do it about a day or so before hand, and that's when they go to.  Why on Earth would you do it like that?  Let's ignore the fact she has years to set everything up without the time machine, why leave yourself the shortest possible margin for error, and the hardest possible time to achieve one's goals, when the literal fate of the world is at stake?  The Sarah Connor Chronicles did something similar, but they went forward to a few years before Judgement Day; near enough so that they've got a more definite trail to find, rather than wonder for years where it will come from, but plenty of time to get everything achieved.  They way Genesys does it basically obviates the main advantage of a time machine, it takes your time away!  As for what Pops was while taking the long path to 2017, he reveals that he got onto the work crews at Cyberdyne and set up a safe room on site.  Now let's ignore figuring out how he got on that work crew at all (can you imagine him at a job interview?).  If he was there, and was in a position to set that up... WHY NOT DO MORE?  Why didn't he set up a bomb or something?  Hell, if he already knew the security and such, why even wait for Sarah and Kyle, he could have snuck in, trashed the place, and turned up when they arrived all like "nah, it's all sorted out, I took care of it.  Who's for pizza?".  Buffoons all round.  Our hope for the future ladies, gentlemen and others.

Genesys will never inspire something this utterly cheesy, but kind of awesome!  I really want to find and go on this ride now...

OK, I've seen how long this has gotten, and I refuse to do a full Cinema Sins style nitpick (I seriously hate that series!).  So here's just two more quick things before my final wrap-up.

• Thanks Genesys for opening up the whole time travel mechanics plothole again; you know, the whole "if you have to be organic, why can Terminators like the T1000 go through" one.  Now the first Terminator got round this very simply by having Reece explain time travel, the question come up, and he replies "I didn't build the fucking thing!"  In short, it gives some wriggle room, suggesting he probably doesn't fully understand it, and there may be more to it.  Nice handwave there, well done Mr. Cameron!  This one though, the organic thing is treated like Holy Scripture, coming up more than once, which again begs the question on how what seems to be a sapient cloud of iron filings can go through?
• Mile Dyson shows up, effectively to go "Hi there, remember my incredibly powerful subplot from Terminator 2, about the issue of scientific responsibility and the nature of sacrifice for the greater good, which made me such a memorable character?  Yeah, that's now retconned away, I am utterly superfluous to this story now.  OK, bye"

I wonder if there will be a new version of this thing for it?

Both of these tie in to my overall complaint about the film; the way it uses all these elements of the first two films, without a real appreciation for why they worked in those.  There's a saying that "art doesn't exist in a vacuum"; well that's true to the component parts of a piece of art, like aspects of a film.  Each facet of a film, each character, storybeat, concept, piece of art direction etc. exists not on its own, but as part of a greater whole, and the best films are the ones where all these work together, driving the point in a unified way.  Here though so much is just chopped out of these previous works (some points very literally) without any thought of why they worked so well there, or how they (don't) fit in with the story the film-makers want to tell.  All these moments are really there for in the film are to be fan pandering, going "lllooooooooooookkkk, this is a real Terminator film, this is from the one's that weren't shit, remember those, we're like those!!!!  Love us!!!!".  This lacks the intelligence of the first two films, and indeed the edge.  The copied scenes from the first are like watching a cover band do Terminator, they have no energy to them (an issue only heightened by the fact that the first got a limited re-release in cinemas a couple of weeks ago, so my memory is fresh).  The whole thing feels far more safe, sanitised and refusing to take any risks compared to the first.  Think of how weird in a way T2 was, a budget of $100 million to make a sequel to what's effectively a slasher movie with robots and action, with a new character who literally can turn into knives!  This one feels like an utterly homogenised piece of studio product, complete with blatant sequel hooks.  Let's hope those hooks never get snagged.  The original has the final word on Genesys...

P.S. I can say three nice things about this one.  Matt Smith does do a very creepy villain (but we already knew that from Nightmare in Silver - oh shut up, I enjoyed it!), JK Simmons is always fun to see on screen, and... erm... I got a very nice T800 skull with my latest Lootcrate as a result, does that count?

This is how you do a teaser trailer!