By James Robert Shaw
(The Wind up Geek)
**spoiler alert
Is it just me or did Paramount Pictures just drop the biggest bomb with their latest Terminator: Genisys trailer?
You’d think lessons were learned after how Terminator: Salvation was poorly marketed. The trailer for that 2009 film revealed the fact that Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) was not human. Not everyone needed to know that fact despite the bigger news about a computer rendered model of Arnold Schwarzenegger was to appear in the film. It’s still hard to accept that John Connor (Jason Clarke) is himself a Terminator … of sorts. As Connor proclaims, he isn’t a man but he is not machine either. Underneath his skin is an exoskeleton of a T-800. And with this knowledge of what Connor is, I’m beginning to worry. With the second trailer focused on John Connor and not on the T-1000 (Byung-hun Lee), am I to understand his time in this film will be all too brief? I hope not.
As for the shocker, what were the producers in charge thinking when they decided to reveal one of this film’s major plot twists? The first trailer made this movie look damn good.
Fans have been quick to criticize the first trailer. It’s just a rehash of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Instead of Robert Patrick as the T-1000, Lee is in the role. But there are differences to note: A T-800 travels back in time to when Sarah Connor was a child, to protect her, in her young adult years, from the T-800 of the original film. Just who sent the aged Terminator this time is not made clear. Perhaps it is still John Connor’s future self protecting his mother by reacting to each change in the timeline. Just how he knows really needs to be addressed, but to mess with the past only speeds up events meant to happen later. The T-1000 appears sooner than expected. And I wonder if 1980’s technology can stop this threat that appears several years too early?
As good of an actor Jason Clarke is, I don’t think he can provide movie-goers with the type of high-speed action scenes Lee is accustomed to. For one thing, this Korean actor is an accomplished martial artist.
In the grand scheme of things, I wonder if there is another plot twist that hasn’t been slipped? Even with the new information presented in this new trailer, I’m sure there are questions that needs to be answered like where is the real John Connor and what happened to the Resistance?
Even though I believe a good part of the Genisyshas been spoiled, I’ll still go to see it. I’m looking forward to hearing Arnie’s cheesy one liners. As the Terminator, he fires them off as fast as he can shoot bullets. I’m sure those moments will be in the film and in that regard, I feel that it’ll be the perfect sci-fi action film to kickstart the summer blockbuster season. I’m still having withdrawal symptoms after last year’s Edge of Tomorrow and Expendables 3 (where Arnold gets a great on screen moment near the end) left me winded. The satisfaction came too quick and I need another fix soon!
Trailer #1
Trailer #2
It is not entirely clear if the T-John Connor is the John Connor we know and love; either it’s a SkyNet trick (as if there aren’t enough of those) or it’s a result of the script writers doing to much LDS at Berkley in the ’60’s.
Since the T-1000 can imitate what it touches, it’s possible T-John is a T-2000…..but I’m leaving my options open for that explanation….
Peter, that is a possibility that I didn’t consider. Nice way of thinking outside the box. Perhaps there will still be some surprises in store for me yet.