It's been thirty one years since the original "Terminator" came into pop culture and gave one of the best film villains of all time. 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" gave us one of the best film heroes of all time. 2015's "Terminator: Genisys" gives us one of the most tired heroes of all time. I could debate this is almost as bad as the last Indiana Jones. That might be too harsh but it does get disheartening watching one of my favorite film heroes, Arnold Schwarzenegger, get old and be constantly reminded they are past their former glory.
The film opens in the human race fighting against the machines to take back the world after the nuclear fallout. Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) is John Connor's (Jason Clarke) right hand man and all the night fighting and war speeches you have seen in nearly every sports film since 2000 fill up the screen. Reese volunteers to go back to 1984 to protect the mother of the human resistance and as the time travel being done on the silly plot points happens.
The 1984 sequences are done exactly like the opening of the original movie with Reese and the T-800 and it's a great nod to the series. From the punks to the observatory to Reese hiding in the mall, I started getting excited for this film. What didn't excite me was when the second Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) crashes through a store front window and starts shooting the T-1000. Yes, they brought back the T-1000. From there, the film jumps to 2017 to stop a new Judgement Day because of something to do with a time paradox or the studio needing a fresh way to separate me from my $10.
The film started off strong but went the safe route by playing up the goofiness in certain scenes. The love story with Sarah and Reese was almost as forced as the comedy by making the Terminator more "human". The villain of this film really should have been used in a late 80's James Bond film because that's the way the character is played. If you thought the CGI in "Jurassic World" was bad, wait until you see what the writers and director have in store for you here. I don't want to give too much away, however, this was probably the weakest aspect of the movie.
And Arnold, poor Arnold. The iconic character he had played so many years before is now a joke on screen with new one-liners that fall flat and the fact that every few scenes we are supposed to be reminded that his Terminator is starting to fall apart. "Old, but not obsolete" is said more than enough times in the film to make the audience believe in him again but I never got that feeling since everything I loved about the previous films was thrown out the window. Yeah, it had nods to mainly the first two Terminators, but even that felt forced with the time travel aspect as an excuse to rewrite the story and mythology of the franchise.
To sum up this movie, when I went to see "Salvation" and the "I'll Be Back" line was said the theater and myself went nuts. When the same line is said in this film, it gave about as much excitement as someone farting in line for popcorn.
