How many Terminator movies can be made before the series has been terminated? Apparently as many as possible is the correct answer to that question.
On July 1, "Terminator Genysis," the fifth film in the Terminator series, was released and viewers were unsurprisingly disappointed.
When the first Terminator movie came out in 1984, it was all the rage. As a low-budget action film, it still debuted a sci-fi film with cyborgs and explosions better than any before it. Even the following Terminator film, "Judgment Day" released in 1991 blew fans out of the water after they waited seven years to see what would happen next.
But for every additional film the series makes, we have to wonder why you just wouldn’t want to leave a good thing as a good thing.
In "Genysis," the 1984 film is revisited through time travel by a future soldier Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) who is sent to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) from the evil Terminator (a much older Arnold Schwarzenegger).
The plot is basically the same from the get-go. Sarah must be kept alive so her unborn son John can lead the revolution against killing machines.
Except there is a twist. The timeline is tainted by more time travel questioning and solely focused on action rather than the issues of time and the fate of humanity that we were forced to face in the first two movies.
The “what does it mean to be human?” question is overplayed and dulled down by several movies and has become almost a standard. So if a sci-fi cyborg movie wants to engage its viewers, it needs to pose deeper questions such as those of the first two films.
It is really no surprise that producers tried to regurgitate another Terminator movie, but why they would try to reproduce the same bland story over and over again is hard to understand.
The third film, "Rise of the Machines," the fourth, "Salvation," and now the fifth, "Genysis," have all been a complete waste of money for audiences and producers.
Each decade of the past 31 years, we have heard the Terminator say "Hasta la vista baby." Perhaps now it is time for him to say "Adios para siempre."