Terminator Genisys - 1984 Jim but not as you know it.

Kyle Reese travels back in time to save the mother of the saviour of mankind only to find himself in an alternative time-line.

Despite being void of the gritty feel, thematic depth, simplistic conceptual thrills of the 1984 scifi classic Terminator Genisys is fast paced and slick. 

While surround by state of the art special effects, super costume and set design, Jason Clarke is solid in his functional incarnation of John Connor. Without drawing too many comparisons to the original actors who portrayed the characters Sarah & Kyle respectively both Emilia Clarke and Jai Courtney do there best but are never given the staging or dialogue to stir the same believable emotions in this science fiction. Lee Byung-Hun, J. K. Simmons are great in their supporting roles but sorely underused. There's also Matt Smith's bland and minimal, yet pivotal role being underutlised for possible future instalments.

The T-800 versus T-800 fight and Pops upgrade is a fanboy dream. You have to commend Schwarzenegger's efforts here who is fine and the glue that tries to hold it all together as they travel from 1984 to 2017 to stop Skynet and yet another Terminator with higher stakes than before. 

There's some genuine relationship and heart buried in Genisys but it never explorers these themes or slows down for you to attach to the characters. Director Alan Taylor offers nods to the first instalment, it's fun when its retreading and twisting past events but is less effective when it goes it alone becoming just another action going from one location and confrontation to the next, mindless, car, van and helicopter chases, complete with a setup on the Golden Gate Bridge as every film needs to have one these days. Debatably this makes Salvation look like the Godfather.

(Partly reminiscent of Rick Kingerski's short film Final Transmission: John Connor which captured the Terminator spirit and had better twist) with its fan film like premise Genisys is crisp, glossy, with big set ups, great effects and a nostalgic score by Lorne Balfe to match but like many big budget contemporary films less is sometimes more.

(Partly reminiscent of Rick Kingerski's short film Final Transmission: John Connor which captured the Terminator spirit and had a harder hitting twist) Taylor's effort leaves loose ends for another sequel with a mid end credit sequence that points to it's now Sarah Connor and company that inadvertently create a hybrid Skynet but it also makes you ask yourself, do you really want one.