Now that “Terminator: Genisys” is out and fans and critics alike have had a chance to get acquainted with it, opinions have started rolling in – and they aren’t universally positive. Far from that in fact, as there seem to be some common criticisms aimed at what the film brought to the table, and people in general apparently expected more. However, some have also pointed out that the state of this film could be indicative of the franchise as a whole, and it might be time to put it to rest.
The main problem with the film that some critics pointed out is the plot. According to them, the universe of the “Terminator” franchise has become too messed up from the constant use of time travel to advance the plot in different ways, and currently there are some bits that might not even make sense once one starts digging deeper into the plot.
However, it’s just the way things have worked out for the franchise, and its writers might have to put a lot of effort into their work if they want to actually restore it to a good state where everything makes sense once again. Still, the plot of “Terminator: Genisys” was tied together somewhat well, and it ended up at least living up to the general expectations of some viewers, but not more than that.
In this film, the timeline is a bit different. We see Sarah Connor as another person, someone who’s been living with a Terminator that was sent back even earlier in time in order to protect her from another T-800. Both Terminators – the good and the bad one – were portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger, which of course added to the confusion in some parts of the story.
“Confused” is actually a word that critics used quite a lot in describing how the plot of the film made them feel, and they claimed that the story could have definitely been presented in a more organized way. On the other hand, the film was also commonly described as more fun than “Terminator: Salvation”, although that doesn’t say that much.
There are some issues with the way the film observes the “Terminator” canon – or rather, doesn’t – and some critics even went as far as to say that fans who watch the movie should head into it without any serious expectations for the canon to be followed. As we said above, there are some differences in the premise that make this a more unusual entry in the series, but whether or not they can be explained in a satisfying way is a bit of a subjective matter.
Some have pointed out that the main elements of the new film’s plot – time travel, artificial intelligence and medium-level action – aren’t as original nowadays as they were a few decades ago when the original film came out. It was a fresh hit back then, but today it’s a different story and people have grown somewhat tired of seeing these ideas repeated over and over again.
Even within sci-fi, they’ve become somewhat clichéd, so it should come as no surprise that fans of “Terminator” weren’t that impressed with the new installment, and ended up expressing their disappointment and a desire that they could have seen more. If the franchise is continued, the producers should definitely take a more serious look at the current sci-fi scene and implement some more interesting ideas in the storyline instead of relying on the same old collection of tropes. It shouldn’t be that difficult to implement some more recent sci-fi trends in a franchise like “Terminator” in any case.