The latest peek at the new film, Terminator Genisys, is being wildly criticized across the board for giving away a pretty damn important secret about our hero, John Connor, played by Jason Clarke. (Hint: it’s not how fake that scar on his face looks). The trailer has been getting the wrong kind of buzz for the revelation — and stop here if you want to be among the very few who don’t find out — that the latest iteration of John Connor, son of Sarah Connor who has been a messianic figure throughout the franchise is (What?!) the bad guy.
Transformed into some kind of Borg-style hybrid between a human and a liquid-metal T-1000, JC is seen plotting to kill his own mother, played by Emilia Clarke (aka Daenerys from Game of Thrones). Like previous sequels, Schwarzenegger is again playing the reprogrammed Terminator sent as a bodyguard to protect Sarah — and the future of all humanity.
The rest of the trailer is filled with barreling action, and time paradox after time paradox, as the past continually evolves via the ongoing fight between the future machine overlords and the last humans on earth after the franchise’s famed nuclear holocaust obliterates most of humanity.
The hero/martyr from the original film, Kyle Reese (now played by Jai Courtney), seems to be the one in need of saving in this latest twist, with Emilia Clarke’s Sarah Connor blasting the latest iteration of the T-1000 in the face, and turning Reese’s own line around on him, “Come with me, if you want to live!” It’s a topsy-turvy new world Paramount has created for Terminator Genisys, where all Terminator bets are off, and no character is safe from reassignment in the battle of good vs evil.
Originally spawned from the mind of James Cameron, the Terminator franchise has always been a wild ride of mind-bending time play, like most franchises that deal with time travel. (Back to the Future, anyone?) Still, even setting the massive spoiler aside, the latest trailer evokes the underlying feeling that the new film may be taking things too far. As fun as one more well-intentioned journey through Terminator-land might sound, is Genisys simply bringing another plot-muddled sequel to a franchise that was much stronger 3 films ago?
We’ll have to wait for the movie’s July 1 release date to know for sure. But until then, don’t blame us for transforming you into the Terminator fan who knew too much — we warned you at the top.
