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Terminator Genisys – Why is Skynet so Stupid?

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Terminator Genisys Script ReviewAn excerpt from my script review for Terminator Genisys which will be available 07/20/15:

2.) Plot Stability

This script checked all the boxes, plot-wise, but I can’t shake the feeling we’ve seen this all before.

Even with Daenerys throwing open the door to the truck, expecting Reese’s arrival, it’s still our heroes running from a terminator version X.0 thought up by Skynet.

The Ahnold version in terminator.

Mercury T-1000 version in Terminator 2.

Femme version from Terminator 3.

Salvation…alright, I don’t know what happened there aside from Christian Bale’s meltdown, and the gem it produced that is my “go to” reply anytime someone brags about themselves.

And finally this version, a terminator meets Lost smoke monster.

Characters continue to shoot at it, try and blow it up, outrun it, until finally tricking it into getting trapped/killed in the end.

Then there’s the huge FLAW I have with Skynet…

For a system bent on destroying the human race, it sure goes easy on them.

Page 5 – Refugee camps? Why not just kill humans on sight, instead of saving them for giant blast furnaces? (Or if you’re going to keep them around, USE them for something, like the Matrix uses humans for energy.)

Page 22 – T-1000 and T-800 wait around for Reese? How does it not know the exact time he’ll arrive, and they just stand there with two shotguns. (Ahnold’s Guardian version knows when the bad guys are coming.)

Page 23 – Same thing with the design of T-1000. Skynet gives these models the ability to form up as liquid metal, but can’t include some sort of “heat sensor” vision to find humans easier?

Page 110 – Skynet is about to take human form, but we have this long countdown before the Genisys code can be implemented? Why can’t John just type that shit in?

Seems to me that Skynet is THE WORST, and possibly stupidest, self aware computer program ever conceived.

Send like 5 T-1000s back in time to when Sarah Connors is a baby. Boom. Game over.

And here’s the merest of glimpses into The Captain’s take on the film…

So the consensus on this film is… it is terrible. Well, I disagree completely. Yes I hated Jurassic World for the same reasons I love this movie. Am I contradicting myself?

Yes.

Shut up.

This film has flaws. I won’t deny that. For me I think that stems mostly from poor casting choices. I don’t care how hard the studio tries, STOP trying to make Jai Courtney a thing. He sucks in everything I’ve seen him be the lead in. Maybe I still harbor some ill will towards him for A Good Day to Die Hard. That film was an insult to the senses.

Jai Courtney is better suited to play a Terminator, not Kyle Reese. He literally could have been cast as anyone else and have been good. Besides being a bland block of wood, his character was also completely different from how the character should be. Michael Biehn played him kind of intense, maybe a little insane oh and a virgin. Which is something that completely went unnoticed by me until recently. He’s been obsessing over this photo of some dead woman for god knows how long. The guy most likely was suffering from PTSD at birth. So I’m saying he’s a pretty good catch. In Terminator Genisys, he’s bitchy and complains a lot. He acts more like Nick Stahl’s John Connor than Reese.

Before wanting to see Terminator Genisys at the theater, I wanted to watch the first two films over again. It has been a few years since I’ve seen either film and wanted to catch up on the role that made Arnold a mega star. I heard Terminator Genisys intertwined the two films, retconning the third and fourth films. Thankfully.

To my surprise, I found it impossibly hard to get a hold of a theatrical cut of Judgement Day. I can’t stand the director’s cut. It has too many elements I don’t think works. Also that alternate ending is complete garbage. It ruins the whole film for me.

Judgement Day is the one that most (me included) thinks to be the best of the series. But after watching both over again, I might have to go with the first. It’s more of a sci-fi horror film, which the series stopped being after 2. The music/score in that film is just so great and 80’s. Not to mention the SFX… a little dated today but god, Stan Winston was a damn genius.

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