Whoever is in charge of the marketing, specifically the trailers, should be terminated... pun intended.
There were three key moments, or two geek-out moments, that were given away so freely in the trailers. So much so that they actually took away all the hard work of director Alan Taylor in crafting out those scenes to make them pop.
If I had not seen any of the trailers, I would have enjoyed those moments so much more because even knowing that the scene was coming, I was still able to enjoy them. I'll talk more about them in the spoiler section below.
I thought Taylor did brilliantly in reigniting this franchise. The story by Laeta Kalogridis, who was responsible for Shutter Island, and Patrick Lussier was very commendable. I liked how they linked a lot of scenes to the original - I myself having just re-watched the first two, could really appreciate all the references.
The action sequences were also some of the more enjoyable parts in this blockbuster. The chase scenes with the T-1000 played by Lee Byung Hun was a reminiscent of T2: Judgement Day, especially when how close the resemble of Lee was with the original T-1000, Robert Patrick. I found this quite amazing since both actors looked nothing alike and yet Lee was able to capture the mannerisms of Patrick when he moved as the Terminator.
What I didn't like about the movie was the expositions, and they usually came from Arnold Schwarzenegger himself. He seemed to be a know-it-all Terminator. Any questions that needed answering to move the plot forward, he's there to spew theoretical gibberish (gibberish because as the audience, I found it hard to follow - much like Kyle Reese played by Jai Courtney).
I also didn't like how the main antagonist towards the end suddenly kept getting stronger with no apparent reason why he's able to upgrade that way.
And finally, the ending, another upgrade that was just written in so lazily that I actually took off 0.5 from my total score.
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And now for the SPOILERS section:
"Come with me if you want to live," one of the most iconic lines from the franchise, and we saw it happened in the trailer. If I hadn't seen Emilia Clarke ramming the truck into the clothing store in the trailer, that would have been a brilliant first scene for her. (Though I have to say, her faking the American accent was a bit distracting at first.)
When Schwarzenegger's older T-800 ambushed the "original" version in the opening of the movie, the way Taylor made us hear "I've been waiting for you," and then seeing Arnie remove his hoodie and started blasting; that would have been the biggest geek-out moment of the entire movie. But then, it was spoiled in the trailer.
Jason Clarke as a Terminator? What a twist! And it came out in the trailer too! Are you kidding me? I Because of this, I kept waiting for something else to happen, to make me go "whow" but nothing really topped that.
Courtney was not as horrible this time around; however, I didn't believe the chemistry between him and Emilia Clarke. He's still not a leading-man kind of talent. But at least he didn't make me dislike the movie.
J.K. Simmons was good, he was funny and charming; but why was he in this movie again? He didn't do much at all and I thought he was a wasted talent. The only conclusion I can make is that the producers are setting him up for the next two sequels. Hopefully he'll have a bigger role then.
And I would have liked to see a bit more action out of T-1000, seeing as Lee was probably the fittest out of all the Terminators. But he was disposed of so early in the movie though. That was a shame.
And here's the biggest problem of a time-traveling movie. Why, when you have the ability and capability to travel around time, why go to a time when you only have about 24 hours to complete a mission. Why not 48? Why not a week? That just doesn't sit well with me.
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But all in all, I really enjoyed this. It was a sequel worthy of James Cameron's legacy. I would watch this again.
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