The Flickering Myth writing staff react…
If you thought the movie news train would slow down as it pulled into the Christmas station, then you would be wrong. Not only have we had trailers for Jurassic World (read the REACTION here) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens , but now we have our first look at Terminator: Genisys – a movie with a title so stupid, it has had to work very hard to win back fans.
So, did the trailer manage it?
Martin Deer: It wasn’t… bad, surprisingly. Some interesting elements there, what with Sarah Connor and the original T- 800 (the older Arnie) hunting down the Terminators from the first two movies. No wait, I said original T-800 but that makes no damn sense as they were all destroyed….
Gary Collinson (Editor-in-Chief): Switched it off when Sarah Connor said, “come with me if you want to live”.
Martin Deer: Also, not sure how a car slamming in to a school bus makes it do a full 360 spin through the air.
Andrew Newton: Looks better than Terminator: Salvation, but the whole mucking up of the timeline just seems overly confusing. Seems to me they’ve just found a last bit of milk in the Terminator cash cow.
Gary Collinson: So, have just forced myself to watch it. Awful. Not even sure I’ll be able to sit through the film.
Anthony Stokes: Gary, literally did the same thing, I turned it off too. Such a cheap gag.
Tom Jolliffe: Parts of that look okay. Other parts look pretty horrendous. Jai Courtney looks kind of like a mannequin. It doesn’t appear to have the gags that Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines had, but Arnie still seems just as cheesy here. That in part could be age.
Kris Wall: After Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and Terminator: Salvation, I really, really shouldn’t be excited about this at all – but damn my malfunctioning circuitry if the sight of Arnold back as the T-800 hasn’t got me incredibly excited to see this film. I just keep repeating to myself, ‘please be good, please be good’. Lee Byung Hun as a T-1000 is a pretty cool addition too. It’ll most likely be awful and the title is still embarrassing but I’m clinging to a small amount of hope here and looking forward to my doubts being proven wrong.
Tom Jolliffe: I did think the Arnie vs Arnie part was a little bit… insanely cool. That gave me a nerd flutter. Emilia Clarke looks good. Byung-hun Lee really looks the part too. There’s this overly glossy, mid-range Hollywood production line look to this, much like the Total Recall and last two Die Hard films had. This doesn’t look a patch on T2 in terms of visuals and genuine scale, and T2 is 23 years old now.
Gav Logan: Not really sure what the hell is going on… I’m intrigued by the timeline “reset”
Tom Jolliffe: It does look better than Terminator: Salvation though to be fair.
Luke Owen (Deputy Editor): I howled with laughter when the bus did a flip. Howled. It looks ruddy awful and somehow worse than I thought it would. That soundtrack as well… What was that all about?!
Eddy Gardiner: It looks okay, could go either way. I’m one who thinks Terminator 3 is actually quite underrated in terms of entertainment, and this looks like it could go down a similar path? But who knows. At least Jai Courtney doesn’t look completely terrible.
Matthew Skeen: However ridiculous it looked, sounded and felt I’ll still go see it. I have a soft spot for Arnie and his total ridiculousness.
Chris Cooper: I just watched it with my brother and came on here expecting more positive comments. My first thought was that the concept is very interesting. An experienced Arnie taking out the original is really cool. It’s crazy and might be terrible, but fuck all that. I thought it would be awful and was all revved up to rip it apart. But from that trailer I don’t think it is. You’re not going to beat the first two, but if they’re going to make more I’m OK with this.
Amy Richau: Looks like they are trying way too hard. And the music was just awful.
Chris Cooper: It’s completely ridiculous. But Arnie throwing himself through a helicopter? I’ll see that.
Gav Logan: Silly bus flip aside, I don’t think it’ll be anywhere near as bad as some think.
Kris Wall: I love a good sci-fi time travel plot hole, how was John Connor even born if his Dad is from the future?
Helen Murdoch: As The Terminator is in my top 10 films of all time I was sceptical of this – I think I was right to be. The different/stronger Sarah Connor is a good idea but I’m not a fan of the actress. I’ve never missed Linda Hamilton so much! Seeing Arnie is always a treat and hopefully he can pull off a couple of good one liners. Action looks ok but nothing that hasn’t been done before.
Martin Deer: These movies are about so much more than Arnie.
Tom Jolliffe: Kyle Reese was one of the ultimate 80’s badasses, but how lame does he look in this?
Gary Collinson: It sickened me seeing Jai Courtney in that alley and shop pretending to be Kyle Reese. Travesty.
Luke Owen: And at no point did it look like he was going to shout “WHAT YEEEAAAR?!”
Rohan Morbey: I couldn’t hate it anymore even if I wanted to. Literally zero positives for me. There’s little I detest more in trailers than pandering and nostalgia masquerading as new and fresh. Needless to say I was fucking mortified by what I saw. And remember, my expectations were incredibly low to start with.
J-P Wooding: I think it’s brave to actually approach the time travel paradox angle. I’ve got a lot of questions to ask, which is a good thing for a trailer to acheive I think. As long as there’s another, as yet unseen enemy, I think it’ll be okay. Compared to The Terminator & T2 okay will be a high achievement anyway as they are two of the best films ever made.
William Fanelli: Everything in this trailer was done in The Terminator & T2… oh no… I take that back… the T1000 is now Asian for some reason and there were two Arnies and a flying bus. My bad.
J-P Wooding: In terms of complaints about it being a different past, it already appears to acknowledge what happened before and that was ok for J.J’s Star Trek, according to most. Perhaps it’ll have Sarah Connor sacrificing herself into a pot of molten steal at the end, with Arnie trying to stop her?
Gav Logan: What if Sarah Connor is actually a terminator sent from an alternate universe… I’ve gone too far havent I?
J-P Wooding: Isn’t this the first in a trilogy? I always thought the ending would be an Arnie-hybrid stepping out of the shadows to destroy first Arnie from The Terminator, then getting Reece to destroy him. For good reasons though, I don’t make films!
Gary Collinson: I imagine they’ll be desperate to churn out more of this crap having paid a fortune for the rights, but they go back to Cameron in 2019 I think.
Andrew Naylor: I shouldn’t be excited by it, but I am.
Chris Cooper: I get why people are feeling negative, I’m just not.
Tom Jolliffe: There had been daft rumours that John Connor might end up being a Terminator. That trailer looks daft enough that they might just be true. If I separate it as much from The Terminator and T2 as I can and treat it as a new entity then it looks like fun. Absolutely bat-shit bonkers, but fun. Possibly.
Andrew Naylor: One thing is very clear, lots of CGI
Tom Jolliffe: None of which looks as good as it did in T2.
Gary Collinson: I know I won’t be able to separate it. I’ll end up banned from the cinema if I go and see it. Best wait for the DVD.
Tom Jolliffe: Ultimately I’ll struggle treating this as a separate entity, particular as there will be so many direct references to the first two. Maybe a straight up remake/reboot, if any idea, might have been more sensible. Personally they should have left it alone. I’m not sure this will do great business. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines underwhelmed, and so did Terminator: Salvation. Arnie’s bank-ability has hit rock bottom and he’s the big name of the film. There are too many Marvel, DC and other blockbusters that will eat up more attention and interest.
Anghus Houvouras: Man, I can’t even find the words to express how terrible that was. Here’s the first four that come to mind: Heinous. Repugnant. Embarassing. Pointless. It’s another one of these sad-ass movies that has to go ‘back to the beginning’ because the franchise has been so badly maligned and mismanaged. The guy playing John Connor is so wooden he makes mahogany jealous. “Come with me if you want to live.” Cringe. “I’ll be back” Double cringe. This is like a master class in how not to revive a franchise on life support. If there is a God, he should strike down every print of this before it makes it to theaters.
J-P Wooding: T2 worked because the bad guy turned good. This element continued in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines to a certain degree but went out the window with Terminator: Salvation. Is Terminator: Genisys clasping at straws or just going for the “Arnie will save the day” idea, perhaps with a twist we don’t expect? Whatever happens, I will go to the cinema and want “old Arnie” to win. I don’t expect it to try and match The Terminator or T2, but I don’t think it will expect to either.
Chris Cooper: Just watched it again. There are things I shouldn’t like. But they don’t annoy me. The Terminator & T2 will always be there. They can’t be taken away. So I’ll take this for what it is and hopefully have a fun time. A T-1000 cuts his knife arm off to throw it like a spear and a T-800 barrels through the air into a helicopter.
Villordsutch: I feel like somebody is doing their damnedest to really make any existing memories of enjoyment I have remaining for the Terminator series and turn them into a steaming pile of horse shit.
Chris Cooper: They’re not breaking into your home and pissing on the DVDs! This doesn’t change the original films at all. If anyone is that bent out of shape over it ignore it.
J-P Wooding: Well said Chris I didn’t like Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan being ripped off but I enjoyed Star Trek Into Darkness to a degree; it didn’t mean the original films were discounted. Terminator: Genisys appears to recognise the other films for what they were and always will be, while trying something else.
Chris Cooper: It’s just like the RoboCop remake. At the time I wrote a piece explaining that we’ve got nothing to lose. If it’s crap it will disappear. If it’s good we get a good film. The worst thing that can happen is we’re left with two of the best films ever made. That’s no hardship.
Gary Collinson: For me the difference is that RoboCop was a reboot. This is an inverted X-Men: Days of Future Past, in that it’s retconning out of existence the only two good (great) movies in the series, and trying to seem clever with groan-inducing references. I wouldn’t care if it was a reboot, or another crap sequel.
Luke Owen: The problem with your argument Chris, is that it means we shouldn’t be passionate or care about anything. This is a franchise we want to be good and it’s not delivering – and that’s frustrating as a fan. We should care about it being good and we should be passionate for studios to try rather than just accept the turds they produce because, “at least we still have the originals”.
Chris Cooper: To clarify I don’t think it means ‘screw it let’s not care’. I doubt the crew making this think it’s a pay cheque. It might be optimistic of me but I think they’d be thinking ‘shit a terminator film!’, and aren’t going out of their way to make a turd. If despite their efforts it’s rubbish we have the old films. If they do okay or better, happy days.
David Fleming: I think Chris is right. I’m willing to give this a chance (though they really could have done without rehashing the old catch phrases). The first two were amazing, no doubt, perhaps measuring this against them is a little unfair as they really are superb movies that had a great original edge. 30 years on the originality is out the window. It’s like a woman’s second husband. Her first husband died a hero and this guy is trying to live up to that. It’s never gonna happen buddy, no matter how nice you are. You’ll always be compared to the dead hero.
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So, not overly positive. But there are some of us who are willing to give it a chance. What about you?
Terminator: Genisys is set for release on July 1st 2015 with Arnold Schwarzenegger leading a cast that also includes Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones), Jason Clarke (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes), Jai Courtney (A Good Day to Die Hard), Matt Smith (Doctor Who), J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), Courtney B. Vance (Law & Order: Criminal Intent), Byung-hun Lee (G.I. Joe: Retaliation), Dayo Okeniyi (The Hunger Games), Michael Gladis (Mad Men), Sandrine Holt (House of Cards) and Douglas Smith (Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters).
