Early reviews call Terminator Genisys 'tedious'

Arnold Schwarzenegger has been on the promotional trail for what seems like months, promising the new Terminator film harks back to the glory days of the franchise's first two films.

"I know that we have to outdo T2 (Terminator 2). The director knows that. The producers know it. The studio knows it. I think everyone is in sync with that ... so that's the idea, to come out with a movie with a big bang," the actor told Slashfilm.

Critics say otherwise. The first reviews of the fifth instalment of the Terminator franchise call it a tired retread of previous glories.

"The film just lumbers along, often tediously; there's no sense that the scenario has been carefully kneaded, structured and shaped by attentive dramatists. Visually, we've seen these images, or many like them, so many times before," wrote The Hollywood Reporter's film critic Todd McCarthy.

"It spends half its time showing unkillable cyborg characters getting shot up only to quickly heal themselves, and the other half trying to explain a plot that rewrites the entire series. Terminator: Genisys will serve as a good litmus test of how keen the public is to see basically the same old thing in a new (but very similar) bottle," he says.

Variety's Justin Change shared similar views, calling it "back-to-basics and confoundingly revisionist".

"The movie's willingness to veer crazily off-course feels less objectionable than the monotony and sense of self-parody that kick in long before the whimper of a finish.

"The Terminator franchise, by now, has become its own worst Skynet - a monument to self-regeneration that endlessly repackages the same old thrills in ever sleeker, sexier models, and that gladly screws with its own past to ensure its future survival."

The wrap headlined James Rocchi's review with: "Schwarzenegger's Swagger Can't Save This Redundant Tentpole."

"The least inspiring thing about Terminator Genisys is how it's a fifth film that doesn't improve or expand on the prior four so much as it's meant to clearly set up Part Six, Part Seven and possibly even more," wrote Rocchi.

"In 1984's The Terminator, machines came back from the future to wipe out humanity; with Terminator Genisys, a whole franchise comes back from the past to water down summer moviegoing."

Slashfilm was more positive, calling it "the best Terminator film since Terminator 2".

"It is a clever take on the idea of the reboot/sequel, which really takes advantage of the series' time travel premise to make things fresh again," wrote Peter Sciretta.

Terminator Genisys opens in New Zealand on July 1.

- nzherald.co.nz