Film Review:- 'Terminator Genysis'
Written by Madeleine Saghir

THE latest film in the Terminator series is in the cinema now and we popped in to take a look, at what some are calling a fantastic film but others look very unfavourably on it. This film, as our Editor calls it, is a "Marmite Film." You either love it or hate it...

Terminator Genisys, is directed by Alan Taylor and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, back again as the Terminator, along with franchise legend are also Emilia Clarke as a young Sera Connor, Jason Clarke as John Connor and Jai Courtney as the new Kyle Reese.

Just before we start, it is worth noting that Emilia Clarke is British actress and she has come to the fore since breaking through on 'Game of Thrones' as the "The Mother of Dragons." But taking over the iconic role of 'Sarah Connor' just shows how red hot she really is right now. Interestingly, despite the name connection and the suggestion in the film that Jason is related to Emilia,it isn't true in real life... Anyway back to the film...

From the perspective of someone who grew up in the Noughties', Terminator is not a film I had grown up with and, up to now, I had never even watched it.  I found "Terminator Genisys" was an enjoyable film to watch and was entertaining, but after watching the others since, this film that can't compare to the ones made before it, as too much time is taken in explaining things that still don't seem to make that much sense.

As a person who is predominately into the documentary, true life and romantic genre of firms, Terminator Genysis did not particularly appeal to me, due to the Sci-Fi genre that surrounds it. Besides this, the trailer gave too much away and involved almost every action scene which was disappointing! Yet, I found I was pleasantly surprised and found it very entertaining to watch and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The film will be more likable to watch if you have no set of expectations for the film, because you are not comparing it to a timeless classic, something that this film is not!

The film begins in a futuristic time line in 2029, after Judgment Day, where the world is in bleakness and darkness and humanity is all but destroyed, because of the Sky Net Robots. Attempting to overthrow the revolution is a promising John Connor (Jason Clarke) who leads a revolution to fight back. Aware of this plot, the Sky Net Robots sends a Terminator back to 1984 to destroy Sarah Connor, and Kyle Reese, (Jai Courtney) is sent back to stop this. However, an older version T-800 is already there to protect Sarah and has taught her to fight and Reese learns he has a much different mission than to what he had expected. As the film progresses we learn the app 'Genysis' will blow everyone up and kill them and the events in the film aim to prevent this from happening.

The film is action packed with the most memorable scene for me was seeing Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) and Reese dangling from a school bus off Golden Gate Bridge. Again, this was not surprising to see as it had been revealed in the trailer. Whilst this was entertaining, there is no particular action scene that stands out for being iconic and especially incredible.

The acting in the film was moderate. Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) did manage to come across as a bad ass' and as did John Connor (Jason Clarke), although they were very much into their roles this came across too strong; you could tell on some scenes they were acting; which is not a good thing. Emilia Clarke oversold her character. Arnold Schwarzenegger made the film for me, and was without a doubt the best part of the film. Schwarzenegger as Terminator played the role extremely well and was very convincing. There were good strings of humour saturated throughout the film, but I found this took away the dramatic and fearsome nature of Terminator.

Overall, the film was enjoyable for a newbie to the Terminator series.

Yet, after watching Terminator Genysis I decided to watch number 1 and 2 for the 1st time and my view of the film changed by a lot. I found that Terminator Genysis goes out of its way and tries too hard to explain events that happened in Terminator 1 and 2 whilst it simultaneously adds a lot to the time line and makes little connections.

The time line was confusing and in some parts just didn't make any sense. It seemed that the 1st and 2nd Terminators were ruined regarding the time line, whilst they remain great films and are effortlessly much better than Genysis their meaning has been taken away by the last film. This is because the events in the time line have been changed in the latest film. It also seemed although too much time had been spent dragging this film out. In relation to this, I was surprised that Sarah and John Connor were still the main focus, 3 decades later. Surely, something else or someone else could have affected the time line and the course of events, why did it still have to rely on them 4 films later?

It is a very hard question how to rate this film as it has too many twists and turns to be able to rate it as one rating. So we have opted for 3 ratings to be passed for this film...

1. Our editor's view, who remembers the original films:- "Not as dark as the original, so it does not get under your skin. The music is not sinister and the special effects are too cheesy and look like digital effects! In some parts you could have been watching clips from Superman or X-Men... It has lost its iconic, groundbreaking mojo... Why did they go for a 12a rating, as it is just not what Terminator was about? Sorry, but when placed in the context of the other films, this is a poor, but reasonable 2 out of 5. I was tempted to put it down as 1, but I did kind of enjoy it as a standalone film. What a lost opportunity!"

2. My view as a first time viewer, 4 out of 5, as I did enjoy it, but sadly it just not that iconic and does not stand out from all the other action films as of late!

3. In context with the others, having since seen them, 3 out of 5.

If you do go to see it, please email us your views about this film and any other you go to see at:- news24@southportreporter.com.

Running time:- 2h 6m
UK Film Certification:- 12a

Warning to TalkTalk Users

A pop up window on some websites has been displaying what looks like a legitimate survey for the firm, but appears to be brand new phishing attempt. The advert window pops up, often behind your browser window, but shows up when you close you come to close your windows or tabs. It displays your IP address and identifies your IP as TalkTalk, but we are told it can do this with other Service Providers as well.

Pages like these sometimes mirror the look and layout of the service provider's website, when you are asks you to fill in questions about the service they provide. "This is a new trick, but on a very common theme." TalkTalk Technical support told us.  In this case the suspected sites shows your Internet Provider, IP address and also refers to your service provider in some form that makes it appear that it could be your service provider.

Please note that on the photos we have smudged some information for security reasons.

Often what you find out is that once you finished the survey, in this case, it asks you if you want to enter a kind of prize draw, and this is when the interesting thing happens. Others forms can then also ask your for your contact information, as in phone number and address.

These sites asks you to make a payment to enter for a variety of gift draws. "Never fill in or give your details out on any site that says you have been randomly selected to give feedback, especially if you are then asked to add your credit card information or contact information. If you get 1 of these pop ups, please make a note of the sites you have been on, also take a screen shot of the pop up, then copy the URL the popup is displaying. Then please contact us and/or Action Fraud  and report it. Action Fraud is the UK's national fraud and internet crime reporting centre. That way we can track and stop these types of thing happening to our customers." said TalkTalk's Technical Support Team to us.

Please also report it to us as well, via:- news24@southportreporter.com as we are interested to find out how wide spread this is.

We can not confirm that the sites these links come from or the survey itself is a not legitimate, but we strongly advise our readers:- "If it quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, swims like a duck and walks like a duck, then you can make the logical connection that it is a duck!"