Terminator Genisys

THE PITCH

WORTH

$$$1/2

THE VIEWING

"This is all wrong! John sent me here to save you!" 

    Terminator Genisys received a lot of bad reviews and probably rightly so depending on the individual expectation level. I am NOT going to be another bad review guy.  Ultimately, I was entertained, a feat the last two installments just could not provide. The ONLY reason it succeeded, in my opinion, is solely because of AH-NAWLD.

    Yeah he will more than likely never win an Oscar or proper recognition for his role in cinema, especially in the 90’s era but that is okay.  Those of us that know realize charisma and originality goes a very long way.  This Terminator movie would have been miserable without Schwarzenegger and that is a fact.

    Whenever you have an iconic movie franchise this fixed on a very specific date ("judgment day"), the more it’s stretched out over decades and decades of movies, the more we lose interest.  It is inevitable, like a kid promised ice cream at the beginning of the day and it’s past nighttime, the moon is out and still nothing… What!? You think we forgot!!???  Enough with the politicking already!!  We know you want to make money but forget that too!  You guys are going to lose a very sizable part of your fan base if you keep twirling that yarn in front of us cats… somebody at Paramount Pictures apparently got that memo.  We finally have proper direction. Amazingly that only adds to my then stagnant intrigue.

     I must admit to being frustrated roughly all the time in the beginning of this story.  Thanks to all the space time continuum being all mixed up and confusing but honestly, each time that happened, the story explained itself and I was able to catch on.  

    Emilia Clarke was decent and so was Jai Courtney as Kyle.  Shout out to J.K. Simmons!  I don’t want to be too prickly with critique.  One thing this franchise is going to have to do along with most other current CGI filled movies is go back to using real fire, real explosions and give more of a percentage to actual mockups and puppets screentime than post production computer imaging work.  Maybe I am becoming desynthesised to great GGI work.  I am shocked that this isn’t being dealt with in the focus groups.    Jurassic World even suffered a little bit of this.  I wrote about that very thing in the review here on Worth Watching.

    I think this movie is Worth Watching.  3D was okay but not a must.

BE SURE TO WAIT THROUGH THE CREDITS FOR BONUS FOOTAGE.

letter grade:  B-

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

THE PITCH

WORTH

$$$$$

THE VIEWING

"... you all know what we're up against! And I want you to know, it's not just about power! It's about giving us the hope to rebuild, to reclaim the world we lost!"

    Remembering how Rise of the Planet of the Apes wowed me, I usually expect lesser from a sequel when the first is that good. For some reason this time I was expecting the sequel to if not be better, at least be on par with the first. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was certainly the latter. While it is debatable if it was better or not, one thing is for doggone sure: They have caught lightning in a bottle.  Meaning if it’s done right they can go 6 movies deep and never lose any momentum.  I would of never thought that the reboot of this franchise could be this interesting.

    If you still have not viewed either one of these films there is no way to win you. Even though that is not my aim, what I do here is  I genuinely give my experience when going to the show.  However if something is really good, I’m going to definitely let you know, especially if I feel like it may get overlooked.  It took a lot for me to see the first one but I am so glad I did.  Fans of the original are happy because of the way this series explains what happened to the world. It’s a win win for everyone young and old.

    ROTPOTA is definitely worth the money.  I didn’t see it in 3D but will certainly like to.  I can not wait for the next one!

  letter grade: A-