'Terminator Genisys': Will the movie triumph at the box office? Does it matter?
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Molly Driscoll Staff writer
As the newest 鈥淭erminator鈥� movie arrives, one can see a certain resemblance between the tireless Terminator and a certain Man of Steel.
鈥淭erminator Genisys,鈥� which was released on July 1, returns to the well-known story that started with the first 鈥淭erminator鈥� film in 1984. In the future, John Connor is leading a revolution against the evil Skynet and discovers that a cyborg has been sent back in time to kill his mother. He sends along his compatriot Kyle Reese to protect her.听
鈥淕enisys鈥� takes this origin story and tweaks it. Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) goes back in time but finds that Sarah (Emilia Clarke) knew he was coming and thinks fondly of the Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger), while Sarah鈥檚 son John (Jason Clarke) now has a terrible secret.听
The thing is, we recently had a 鈥淭erminator鈥� movie and popular opinion said it was not good. 鈥淭erminator Salvation,鈥� which was released in 2009, starred 海角大神 Bale as John Connor and got many negative reviews from critics, with the movie currently holding a score of 52 out of 100 on the review aggregator website .听
Yet now only six years later, here we are with another 鈥淭erminator鈥� movie. The quick turn-around echoes the current path of the 鈥淪uperman鈥� franchise, which was brought back after almost 20 years with 鈥淪uperman Returns,鈥� the 2006 film starring Brandon Routh. "Returns" got mixed reviews and didn鈥檛 really capture public imagination, so in 2013 came an all-new 鈥淪uperman鈥� film with an all-new Superman, the movie 鈥淢an of Steel鈥� starring Henry Cavill. Cavill鈥檚 on board for the upcoming 鈥淏atman v Superman鈥� movie.
In recent years, it seems as if it鈥檚 become harder for a franchise to stay down. Did one movie based on a popular previous movie fail? Throw in a new actor and a new story a few years later and see what happens. A 鈥淭erminator Salvation鈥� could once have been enough to sink a franchise, or at the least buy it several years before it was kicked back into action. Now, if Hollywood has a property people loved once, the reboot time seems to be getting shorter and shorter.
鈥淭erminator Genisys鈥� is getting poor reviews so far, but if it performs well at the box office this weekend, expect stars Clarke, Clarke, and Courtney to return. And if it doesn鈥檛 do well at the box office 鈥� well, the Terminator will still most likely be back, in one form or another.
