Terminator Genisys (Alan Taylor, 2015)

2015 is shaping up to be a fruitful year for those aiming to drown my fond childhood memories in an ocean of swill. Riding on the coattails of two similarly needless sequels, Terminator Genisys is an ill-intentioned love letter to franchise roots a la shitty expository posturing and the personality of dirty underwear. Even still, the prospect of another Terminator film excited just the right bunch to put this puppy on the fast track to middling success amid its money-grubbing contemporaries.

1984’s The Terminator was for all intents and purposes a borderline exploitative sci-fi horror yarn. It was deftly concise, well-written as such and pandered to James Cameron’s strengths as a conceptual storyteller and visual dynamo. Exposition was force fed as needed, however key plot points were just that – necessary. They were butter to the film’s bread, the Terminator’s relentless pursuit of its target ringing reminiscent of earlier Carpenter and the like thanks to effortlessly sustained dread. It’s because of these streamlined sensibilities that The Terminator was so successful and continues to find solace in its unprecedented singularity.

Many will undoubtedly argue that T2: Judgment Day is the poster child for the rare superior sequel. In expounding on base-level mythology outlined by its predecessor, T2 certainly has enough to talk about as John Connor becomes tangibly integral alongside his mother and a reformed killing machine. It’s intermittently hokey for sure, what with Sarah’s ineffectual ramblings, John’s bonding with Arnie and the like failing to age as well as the film’s straightforward narrative integrity. In intelligently providing expansion and (then) closure to his own brainchild, Cameron did so amicably to a considerably larger degree of blockbuster bombast.

This is the point where I can disavow the existence of Rise of the Machines and Salvation on account of how little they contribute to and thrive within the realm of potentiality. In their seldom represented defense, I can safely say that Genisys is truly and deplorably an unnecessary waste of studio resources at its most gratuitous, prompting me to ask both you and myself the following: Are the powers-that-be truly satisfied with this bullshit? After all, both entries laughably forgo intelligence to put forth iterations of different points along the same timeline, to little avail.

Bypassing a typical synopsis is easy to do for Genisys on account of how it merely puts the pivotal events of the first two films in a blender. In gathering and illustrating various details presented throughout the franchise’s superior origin stories, Genisys‘ self-assured alternate timeline conceit is the hottest bag of garbage I’ve had to handle in a long time. Not only is a bulk of the film’s first third purposefully (embarrassingly) familiar, but the all-encompassing vapidity exuded by lackluster key players entirely fails in making literally everything the least bit exciting.

“But what about the twist?!” the avid fanboy yells in protest. To be honest, I’m usually a sucker for cross-dimensional and/or time travel bullshit when it can assuredly work within a universe conceived around the concept. To take a preexisting legacy and tarnish it with rudimentary anachronisms is something mildly insulting and, in the case of Terminator Genisys, transparent in intention when compared to other entries into this most recent rash of sequels. Bland contrasting punch-for-punch machine bouts do little to elevate the stilted and CGI-laden bulk of it, and callbacks to the original films ring stale and serve to exacerbate just how inferior it is in general to the same groundbreaking inspirations that are responsible for all of its revenue.

Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)

Another effective dramatization of an indisputably important event in world history, Kathryn Bigelow’s follow-up to The Hurt Locker is keen-minded and attentive to detail if unavoidably familiar. Focusing heavily on the individual(s) responsible for putting an end to “the greatest manhunt in history,” Zero Dark Thirty deftly zips along a carefully plotted post-9/11 timeline to tell us exactly what we want to know.

Being that affiliations were the best link to those associated with the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the film steadfastly highlights the procedural highs and seedy, frequently (and literally) torturous lows of an arduous, decade-long process. As to be expected, tensions remain high throughout as they should, conveying a sense of urgency whenever possible to hold our attention even though Maya (Jessica Chastain) and company’s efforts spanned the entirety of the period in question.

Avoiding an overly pro-American sentimentality despite the mission at its core, Zero Dark Thirty sticks to the facts, embracing the actuality behind the events on display and avoiding the realm of the heavy-handed. Unfortunately, this means we’re not given much to work with in terms of multifaceted characters and genuine human emotion – something that Bigelow’s previous effort sported a slight abundance of. Even still, the film remains compelling at frequent junctures as Maya’s steel resolve and unbreakable determination pave the way toward one lead after another in the manhunt to end all manhunts.

In light of an obvious adherence to the occasionally mundane, the talk of the town recently has been very third act-centric, of which refers to the raid on Bin Laden’s presumed place of residence conducted by the fabled SEAL Team 6. Of course the events that ensue easily overshadow that of what precedes them – and for good reason – but without giving too much away, an unflinching recreation of said raid benchmarks what’s otherwise an above average retelling of a more recent if increasingly important sect of human history.

All things considered, Zero Dark Thirty is an inherently compelling dramatization based on the testy subject matter Bigelow and the gang have chosen to document. Despite concerns about its depiction of torture, the film builds competently enough toward an almost overwhelmingly strong final stretch, overshadowing but not putting to shame the importance of other events. This in mind, Zero Dark Thirty literally can’t avoid the familiarity coinciding with Maya’s persisting efforts, what with the inner workings of these various US government sects being illustrated elsewhere as of late, and even still, the film as a whole is too important to discredit. It’s dramatically and technically sound, unbiased regarding its narrative and wholly engrossing wherever it counts, thus making Zero Dark Thirty one of the better reality-inspired productions to come around since, well, The Hurt Locker.

Lawless (John Hillcoat, 2012)

Based on Matt Bondurant’s “The Wettest County in the World,” Lawless tells the tale of the infamous bootleggin’ Bondurant Brothers – prohibition-era heroes that fought authorities and rival factions alike to continue peddling their alcoholic moonshine to neighboring regions. Focusing explicitly on a rather precarious run-in with a corrupt, pompous Chicago deputy (Guy Pearce), the trio of brothers bands together amid countless hardships to maintain their good name and keep living the American Dream. Although this sounds like the stuff legends are made of, Lawless is, unfortunately, far from legendary as a few trip-ups keep it from being a wholly compelling piece of storytelling.

Partially falling victim to the true story aspect of it all, Hillcoat’s latest suffers from an incomprehensibly sparse narrative, moreover one that relies a bit too heavily on a wonderfully realized late-Twenties aesthetic and not much else. Outside of the brutal punch-for-punch that ensues between the Bondurants and Deputy Rakes and his lackeys, there’s not much of a story to be told outside of something we’ve seen from similar entries into the ultraviolent gangster subgenre. This in mind, the striking and warranted violence successfully emulates the tumultuous exchanges of the era quite well in spite of how periodically scatterbrained the proceedings are, and above all, there’s nothing like Tom Hardy going to town on a guy’s jaw with a pair of brass knuckles.

Putting aside the archetypal central characters, Lawless‘ beautiful locales, set pieces and costume design do wonders for our involvement’s sake, and at the end of the day, it’s easy to appreciate the film’s primary source of conflict more than anything else. Sure, people will gravitate toward the budding romances that blossom between individuals and so forth, but in the end, it’s all fluff that caters to staying true to the film’s source material. Thanks to some pretty stellar production values and solid performances though, Lawless at least has two sturdy legs to stand on.