Terminator: Genisys

As you might recall, the first two entries in the Terminator franchise were pretty good. The makers of Terminator: Genisys agree, because they spend more time paying tribute to previous installments than taking the series in any meaningful new directions.

Arnold Schwarzenegger notoriously said he’d be back, and indeed he is — still keeping the train rolling 31 years after James Cameron’s original — with gray hair and a new self-deprecating catchphrase of “old, not obsolete.” Still, this entry feels more like a cash-in that recycles tired characters and ideas into a technically slick package.

There’s an early fight sequence involving Schwarzenegger’s terminator against a hologram of his younger self. There’s yet another actor playing Resistance leader John Connor. And there’s another half-hearted cautionary tale about technological overreach. None of it adds up to much.

The story opens in 2029, when John (Jason Clarke) looks to finally defeat the Skynet machines that have left Earth in post-apocalyptic ruin. But when he learns that the robots have sent a Terminator back to 1984 to kill his mother, Sarah (Emilia Clarke), John’s best friend Kyle (Jai Courtney) volunteers to travel back to save her.

Schwarzenegger plays his iconic T-800 model, whose mission is to protect Sarah at all costs. Eventually, the trio travels ahead to 2017 to stop the introduction of Genisys, a precursor to Skynet, where a struggle to save mankind ensues just as personal secrets are revealed.

Schwarzenegger, who skipped the most recent sequel in 2009 while he was governor of California, sees his role diminished to that of a sidekick here but gives the material a boost with his charismatic presence.

As directed by Alan Taylor (Thor: The Dark World), the film is visually innovative, using an abundance of 3D effects and pyrotechnics to bring to life its world of shape-shifting cyborgs, time travel, and high-tech weaponry.

That might be enough to satisfy some fans just looking for a nostalgic kick. The pace is kept lively enough to avoid allowing pauses to consider the narrative gaps in logic, courtesy of a convoluted screenplay by Laeta Kalogridis (Shutter Island) and Patrick Lussier (Drive Angry) that fits awkwardly into the chronology of its predecessors.

Perhaps more than anything, Genisys proves again that the series has simply run its course. Yet it will be financial, rather than creative, circumstances that determine whether the concept should finally be terminated.

Rated PG-13, 125 minutes.