Terminator is back - do you care?

I am not against the Terminator movie series as a concept. In light of that fact, I rented Terminator : Genisys to see what new wiles Skynet was going to use to try to kill Sarah Conner.  The best part of this movie was seeing Arnold playing his trademark role as "The Terminator".  This Terminator movie takes some twists to keep things fresh.  First of all it adds in the element of time travel.  Time travel to any sci-fi movie allows the writers to basically reboot ANYTHING.  If time/history can be changed, new characters and plot lines can make a whole new story.  That is one of the main themes of Terminator : Genisys.   Arnold is back in an older version of the protector Terminator from T2: Judgement Day.  However due to his age and the time travel mechanism he travels back to the 1980s and Sarah Conner views him more as a father figure, and affectionately calls him "Pops".

No, that is not a typo.  

Arnold is now "Pops" Terminator and still trying to keep Sarah Conner from dying early.   John Conner is still in the movie a good bit, but the rest of the movie involves a time-traveling character who comes back for Sarah trying to keep her alive with "Pops" Terminator and trying to outwit the Skynet system which continually wants to send indestructible robots to end her life.   I like good science fiction as much as the next guy - but I also know that sometimes you just have to end the series on a high note.  The Terminator series is classic when it comes to science fiction.  However, without Arnold I'm not sure it has much chance of surviving for several more movies.  Yet producers seem to continue pumping money into this franchise in hopes of another movie that has all the timeless appeal of T2 : Judgement Day.   Unfortunately,  I feel that Terminator : Genisys fails for the following reasons:

1. Regenerating robots are cool for just so long.  I like to see good robots beat bad robots, and an exciting plot to help battle them out,  but after a while, seeing a robot regenerate again and again just gets ..... tiring.

2. Sarah Conner is still going to live - if you haven't figured that out by movie 5 in the series - I don't know what to say.

3. Arnold continues to shine in the role he was born for.  Don't get me wrong, Arnold is still great as "The Terminator", and his role in this movie made the movie work.  I just don't know how many more they can crank out in this series.  So point 3 isn't a failure point - just a point that the series may need to close eventually.

4. The plot not completely outlandish but not as easy to follow as prior movies either.   Time travel definitely adds some complexity,  but understanding what was really going on in Terminator : Genisys seemed to be a bit more of a challenge in this installment than in prior movies.

In light of these points, I give Terminator : Genisys a 3 star rating.  It wasn't a movie I will re-watch, nor do I think it added some serious plots/thoughts to the Terminator Series.   It was entertaining and the special effects weren't terrible,  but unless you are a die-hard Terminator fan,  I would recommend skipping this one.  Star Wars : Episode VII was better.