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He Came Back

He told you that he would be back. He made good on that promise - for better or for worse.

"Terminator Genisys" marks the fifth outing in the franchise and the fourth time Arnold Schwarzenegger appears as the Terminator (although he is credited as Guardian here). Diehard fans of this franchise - which admittedly does not include me - may or may not like this movie. They will, however, relish seeing Schwarzenegger reprise his iconic role. He even gets a chance to say those three words that have been so firmly imprinted into movie history. Fanboys will squeal with delight.

However, Schwarzenegger's presence is largely problematic in "Terminator Genisys". He is the top-billed star of the movie but it feels like he is here as more of a plot device rather than his famous character. There's a lot of mugging and winking at the camera for the sake of the fans, and forced mawkish pathos added in disguised as character development . I don't think anyone would argue that Schwarzenegger is a great actor - even though he tried to stretch his range with this year's "Maggie" - but his hulking, stoic figure is much more distracting this time around than anything else.

"Terminator Genisys" begins with John Connor (Jason Clarke) sending Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney, bland as ever) back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke, "Game of Thrones"). When he goes back in time, she has teamed up with Guardian in this time-jumping war against the machines. The plot going forward becomes a massively convoluted spectacle.

The effects and action in "Terminator Genisys" are intermittently entertaining and thrilling but are set among such a wacky head-scratcher of a screenplay. When the movie presents fun action moments, you will still be trying to piece together the timeline created by screenwriters Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier. Director Alan Taylor ("Thor: The Dark World") is at the helm this time around and can't seem to keep things in any kind of narratively coherent order.

Adding to the choppy nature of "Terminator Genisys" is two-plus hour runtime. No one can seem to find a period to put at the end of this long-winded sentence and everything becomes exhausting, suffocating what fun is to be had with this movie. Silly spectacle can be a lot of fun ("Jurassic World") but sometimes it becomes numbing and repetitive ("San Andreas"). "Terminator Genisys" frustratingly wavers between the former and the latter.

I love a jigsaw puzzle of a movie, which requires me to think about the movie for days after. Love them. "Terminator Genisys" is just exhausting.