By no means the terrible film that many critics suggest, this is a rather generic action film, that was unfortunately hugely spoiled by the marketing, but is still a lot of fun. The plot as a standalone film makes little sense and ties itself into knots trying to explain a timeline that was already confused enough. Perhaps future films may explain some of the key questions raised, but ultimately the story shown here should work on its own, especially given the nature of the central villain and his importance to the overall story arc of all the Terminator films. Indeed, there is an interesting core concept created here in the identify of the central villain of the film, but the potential is largely wasted after the reveal in favour of a slight variation of the T-1000. That said, there is certainly a lot of fun in seeing elements of the timeline only hinted at in previous films as well as the recreation of various scenarios from the original film. The action sequences are all largely well done, apart from a terrible helicopter chase near the end of the film. Surprisingly, given his 12 year absence, the best part of the film is seeing Schwarzenegger in his signature role and it his relationship with Clarke's Connor that form the strongest character moments, despite treading similar ground covered in Terminator 2. Whilst Emilia Clarke does pretty well as Sarah Connor, Jai Courtney unfortunately is no Michael Biehn and his rather bland take on Kyle Reese makes it difficult to care about such a key character. Whether there will be any future films to take this story forward is uncertain - the biggest failing of all the Terminator sequels after Cameron's films is their efforts to continue a storyline that was essentially completed at the end of Terminator 2. But this film is a step up from the previous two sequels and there are hints that future films may explore other elements that don't simply rely on the Terminator as protector/killer.

The movie is fun, lots of over-the-top action (some are so extremely impossible that they were funny), and of course Arnold with his famous "I'll be back" and other well known sayings. I felt really nostalgic watching him, it's like nothing has changed since I was a little kid. All the time-traveling and changing the timelines was mostly understandable, so the story is not bad either, but the main plus is Arnold, nice to see him back, as he said he would be :)

I can't even with this movie. The plot holes and fundamental paradoxes at the center of this entire series are hard enough to stomach with a suspension of disbelief, but this movie takes it to a whole new level. I didn't even pay attention to most of it, and I have the feeling I would have been just as confused and bored even if I had been invested.

To me the Terminator franchise dropped the ball by not just having part 4 continue the story directly after part 3. Part 4 should have started out with John Connor's first days during the apocalypse. I think a more interesting story was missed out on. That doesn't mean they should keep going and going to try and get it right. Especially Since Genisys isn't as fresh of start for the series as it wants to be. The movie feels too much like it wants to be as good as the second one. But that's hard to do when there's all action and brains.

Terminator 1 The Terminator (1984) https://trakt.tv/movies/the-terminator-1984 2 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) https://trakt.tv/movies/terminator-2-judgment-day-1991 3 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) https://trakt.tv/movies/terminator-3-rise-of-the-machines-2003 4 Terminator Salvation (2009) https://trakt.tv/movies/terminator-salvation-2009 5 Terminator Genisys (2015) https://trakt.tv/movies/terminator-genisys-2015 6 Terminator: Dark Fate (2019) https://trakt.tv/movies/terminator-dark-fate-2019