Just saw this last night. Here is my review
Terminator: Genysis-5/10
I had no strong interest in ever watching it, but it was on Amazon Prime, and nothing else struck my fancy last night. . .admittedly, I was only half-way paying attention while I played chess on my phone. Seemed mediocre as I expected. Some of the stuff at the beginning, with the future war, and call-backs to T1 with new changes (old man T-800, Asian guy T-1000) were pretty neat. But overall it felt very flat and generic. Removing this from any comparison with the first two Terminator films (by which it would have a much lower score), the action was just an extended videogame sequence, the drama didn't really work, and the story wasn't very compelling overall. I feel Emilia Clarke is one of the worst things about Game of Thrones, and seeing her here reinforces my thought that she's just not a very good actress. Jai Courtney was generic as hell, as expected, and has no charisma or charm to speak of. Hopefully he'll be better in Suicide Squad. The guy playing John Connor wasn't very good. Even J.K. Simmons felt like he was phoning it in, as if he were playing some aw shucks, cheesy good guy cop from a Disney movie. The fact that the "surprise" villain was shown in trailers and on the poster for the movie didn't help things.
And one of the biggest surprises to me was the generally happy, optimistic tone of the whole thing. That is in direct opposition to the Cameron Terminator films, where you are always a bit on edge, even when you realize, as with T2, that you're watching a major Hollywood blockbuster that won't end as bleakly as it otherwise might. But the jokes weren't gallows humor. They were generic, Die Hard 8 or whatever type jokes, that A) weren't very funny; B) weren't very believable for those situations (as the ones in Aliens were for example); and C) made the audience realize there were no real stakes here. It was taking the little comedic tidbits from T2 and really expanding on them in all the wrong ways. So of course, no one gets killed, and everyone is happy at the end, with Kyle, and Sarah, and old Man Terminator, and little John skipping off into the sunset. The reveal during the credits was cliche' as hell, and about as predictable as a Thanos teaser in a Marvel movie.
As I write this up, it makes me like the movie even less, but I'll leave my score as I wrote it
So, few saving graces. It seems to have been made, as I have discussed many times in the past, for those with only a very vague understanding/knowledge of older films, but to be generic popcorn fare with no real substance or long-term value. Pretty much the definition of disposable entertainment. You get some enjoyment watching the crazy CG action, but then toss it into the waste bin of your brain when you're done. No real surprises here, however, and that's probably another reason why I don't rate it lower than I do.