WEDNESDAY EARLY REVIEW OF TERMINATOR GENISYS

year: 2015 rating: ***

While this rebooted sequel of the TERMINATOR series feels like a strategic opportunity to delete the fourth film, SALVATION, an overlong catastrophe taking place in a future where only random flashbacks should occur, it actually winds up erasing the third, RISE OF THE MACHINES, since a gung-ho Sarah Connor is ready for a new start after having experienced similar ups-and-downs of the first two (and best) James Cameron-directed adventures. So when futuristic Kyle Reese shows up in 1984 to save her life, she’s been through the ringer, and then some, and has a familiar face protecting her…

To give anything else away, including what elements of each film are reused and/or recycled, or what time-lines are travelled, would be an absolute crime since... bookended between two segments of non-stop action is so much expository dialogue about what happened or what’s about to happen or what really happened when it almost didn’t happen the first time around, when everything began... at a certain point GENISYS, relying completely on scientific plot-twists, hits a major wall of downtime… But thankfully the characters, including a resilient and mysterious John Connor; the energetic duo of Sarah and Kyle; and Arnold Schwarzenegger being used with the right combination of kitsch and badass (“I’m old, not obsolete”), all help morph what begins to feel like an over-explained cable series pilot into the big budget spectacular that was needed to aptly reboot… or rather, sustain… a classic and creative franchise.