Historical Terminator is Surprisingly Charming

Shooting me will void your warranty

 B   efore driving to the closest IMAX theater to see Terminator Genysis with my eleven year-old daughter, I gave her a brief history lesson. Together we watched the first five minutes of 1984's The Terminator—which I had first seen on video in 1985—on Netflix, she understood the premise easily, and we headed off to the theater in, you guessed it, a car from 1984.

We stopped off at a local Tim Horton's where our discussion continued to revolve around my "weird car" that's so old it does not even have power steering and after a quick bite to eat, off we went to stand in line with the rest of the products of the Baby Boomer generation who were now taking their own kids to see Mr. "I'll be Back."

The latest version of the now classic story essentially about preventing a retroactive abortion in order to save the world starts off, ironically enough, as a history lesson of the last 31 years of one of the more successful franchises in movie history. The first few minutes pay homage to the original movie and give die hard fans something to drool over until poof, a ludicrous change in the timeline of The Terminator alters things and changes everything we thought we already knew.

Sarah Connor, Kyle Reese and Arnold are all back together again but this time, they are all on the same team. A grizzled Schwarzenegger (the good guy) is still a robot, only his organic outer layer has cleverly aged with time. His hair is grey, his once massive pecs have sagged and his famous biceps are hidden by his black jacket. Now, he's a father figure to Sarah and has already been protecting her since 1973. Kyle thinks he's been sent to once again save Sarah but this time he's under scrutiny from Sarah's surrogate father even though he's probably expected to mate with her in order to create John Connor, the savior of the human race.

To make matters worse, somehow or another, John Connor becomes a villain altered by Cyberdyne systems and is head of Genysis—an "app" that everyone wants as much as the latest iPhone—that has already pre-sold one billion units but when released will ultimately mean the end of the world. Sound ridiculous? It is. 

Surprisingly enough though, this movie is not without its charm, and despite its crazy bus-flipping stunts, dazzling special effects and clever jokes (at one point Arnold is being questioned by two cops Law-and-Order style and they ask each other "Can this guy even speak English?"), most of the charm is generated by, you guessed it: Arnold. There is genuine chemistry between his character who Sarah calls "Pops", Sarah and Kyle.

Sarah (Emilia Clarke) looks like Linda Hamilton (the original Sarah Connor) and even though she might not want to "mate" with Kyle at first and create John, they too have a connection that is somehow palpable and fun to watch.

My daughter, who is definitely not a science fiction fan and had to be lured to the theater with the promise of popcorn liked the film immensely and her favorite character was, you guessed it: Arnold's. 

The Terminator has become "Pops," history has been re-written, the franchise has been tastefully rebooted for a new generation of viewers to enjoy, and like my car, Mr. Schwarzenegger is "old but not obsolete."