Terminator Genisys was released this past week (read our reviews here and here) and despite some over-the-top marketing campaigns including endless TV spots, various featurettes and a bunch of spoilery trailers, it hasn’t been doing fantastic box-office numbers. Early reviews weren’t good and they don’t seem to have gotten any better as the days pass.
Naturally fans were extremely cautious of a return to the beloved franchise when Genisys was first announced. The negativity towards the movie steadily grew as more plot details began to emerge and by the time the first trailer hit die-hards and casual fans alike were like, “Er…okay…”
The balance started to shift slightly from negative to not-so-negative when original writer/director James Cameron filmed a public endorsement as part the marketing campaign and claimed that Genisys was “the third film” and “very respectful”. Yes, we know that this was a blatant attempt to gets fans back on track but Cameron’s blessing genuinely felt good to hear.
Well now in an exclusive interview with Collider, Arnold Schwarzenegger has criticised the studio for using Cameron’s blessing as a marketing tool:
“I do not like the idea that the studio went out and used it as a promotional material for the movie because I always felt that if you do that, it looks kind of like you need James Cameron to say something good about the movie. Which we don’t, because the movie is a straight 10, it’s a fantastic movie.”
But it’s okay folks, Arnie doesn’t have any beef with Cameron at all. In fact he praised his former director for all the kind words he had to say about him after seeing Genisys:
“I think that it was a great kind of a experience in a way to have James Cameron call me and say ‘I just saw the movie’, because I had no idea he was going to go and see the movie…He said ‘you’re fantastic in it, and if I would have done this movie I would have done exactly this story, because now you’re going in a different direction’, and he was complimenting the movie and complimenting me”.
Have you seen Terminator Genisys? What did you think? Listen to the Flickering Myth Podcast review of Terminator Genisys using the player below:
Originally published July 5, 2015. Updated July 2, 2023.
