With Prejudice

In another sign life may be finally returning to some semblance of normal, date night returned last night with the required viewing of the latest in the Terminator, dare I say, mythology, Terminator Genisys. I know this movie is being skewered by critics and geekdom in general (of which I count myself a proud member) but I kind of liked it. I’ve always considered the series finished after the first two movies which remain near the top of my list of best sci fi movies ever. The third and fourth entries were gallant but abysmal when compared with the original two; lacking the Cameron touch certainly didn’t help.

This movie picks up and re-tells the story from the first two movies with a new cast, except for the governator and a completely new premise. There’s more of the Kyle Reese life in the future with John Conner and of course an insidious Skynet upgrade of terminator technology. The story moves along smartly with the requisite non-stop battles, updated with 21^st century CGI. The original plot is turned on its head but what I really liked was the almost continual odes to scenes from the first two movies. Some were more subtle than others but they permeate the film from beginning to end. In this re-boot Kyle returns to the past to find Sarah already up to film 2 levels of deadliness thanks to yet another “friendly” terminator’s arrival even earlier in her life. This leads to an interesting dynamic in the central love story between the two. The Khaleesi holds her own as Sarah but Jai Courtney is certainly no Michael Biehn. Ahhnuld figured out a way to age his character to explain away the ravages of the past thirty years and he remains the best thing about this latest movie.

My only beef with the film is the toning down to reach a PG-13 rating. The first two movies rocked because of the unrestrained violence which provided the needed edge to outline the desperate struggle of Kyle and Sarah to save humankind. Missing that edge may have generated a few more adolescent ticket sales but hurts the movie. It certainly prevents it from joining the first two movies as epics. Of course I’m prejudiced when it comes to the “myth”.