8 Reasons Why You Should Go See Terminator: Genisys

I come from a family of happy nerds, and on June 30^th, we were sitting in theaters, ready for the midnight showing of Terminator: Genisys. My favorite Terminator movie is the second installment. The first was a fun slasher-style sci-fi with robots (and my favorite character dies. Again) but the second was deeper and better and more exciting and more emotional and more everything. As for the others, well – we don’t speak of those. I enjoyed Genisys as much as I enjoyed the second Terminator movie – although, if I’m being perfectly honest and objective, I would have probably enjoyed it less had two of my favorite actors (Jai Courtney, Byung-Hun Lee) and my girlcrush (Emilia Clarke) not been in it.  Still, even then it was almost as good as the second Terminator movie, and I’m here to tell you why you should go see it.

Note: This is a spoiler-free post. There is nothing here to ruin your cinematic experience.

 

• Arnold Schwarzenegger. Not gonna lie – this is my favorite role of his, ever, and I love Arnold movies. They’re all campy, strangely thought-provoking, ridiculously unrealistic, and super fun, but his role as Pops beat out all his others. You will fall in love with this Terminator – even over the Terminator in #2. (He even made me cry a couple times. I kid you not.)

 

• Jai Courtney as Kyle Reese. If you know me at all, you know that Jai is one of my favorite actors/celebrities/people. I’ve been ‘following his career’ (*polishes glasses*) since he first started, and he’s usually cast as a villain (Divergent, Insurgent, Jack Reacher, I Frankenstein). Even when he’s cast as a hero (A Good Day to Die Hard, Unbroken) his role is mostly action without much character development. Here we get character development, an action-packed hero role, a completely likable character, AND – AND – AND – (drumroll, please) – HE GETS THE GIRL. For the first time in his cinematic history.

• Emilia Clarke as Sarah Connor. I love seeing Sarah as this tiny, tough, adorable, dangerous, gun-toting woman, and Emilia Clarke did a great job with her. Her relationship with Pops was freaking adorable, and I loved every second of it. She was a fun juxtaposition to Kyle – they had a bit of a Spock and McCoy vibe, with Sarah being the hard, logical, yet not unbendable one and Kyle being the emotional warrior.

 

• Byung-Hun Lee as the T-1000. The T-1000 was one of the best parts of Terminator 2, and sadly Byung-Hun Lee’s role as the T-1000 only lasted about 15 minutes. Still, the man takes whatever role he gets and does amazingly with it, and the T-1000 is no exception. He got the whole ‘dead-eyed, single-minded killing machine’ thing down to – dare I say it – a T.

 

• The chemistry. At first, there was no chemistry between Kyle and Sarah and I was afraid it was because the actors had none – but as the movie progressed, the chemistry actually developed. On-screen. Where I could watch it. It was great, because with most movies the main actors either have a) no chemistry or b) chemistry right off the bat. Watching it actually unfold was amazingly fun to watch.

 

• Matt Smith. I’ll be honest – I actually forgot he was in this movie until BAM! He shows up on screen. Then I remembered – and boy, did The Powers that Be keep his role a secret. Let me just say, his part was small, it was weird to see him with a (very good) American accent, and it was a fun twist.

 

• The special effects. They looked pretty bad in the trailer, but on the big screen they’re quite impressive – even the time-travelling Schwarzenegger Terminator was well done (and it looked terrible in the trailer).

 

 

• It’s a really adorable movie. I’m not kidding. This movie is downright cute in many places. It’s a sci-fi romantic adventure with robots, explosions, artificial intelligence, time travel, and humor. While there are a few plot holes (shhhh just enjoy the movie) and some of those plot holes are pretty big (see last comment in parentheses) my excitable little nerd heart was satisfied and happy with Terminator: Genisys. I highly recommend watching it on the big screen at least once – how else will you see the blueness of Sarah’s eyes, or Kyle’s glorious muscles?

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