Trailer Park: Terminator Genisys' New Trailer

In which I discuss the latest movie trailers.

I've mentioned before how, after getting hooked by a new movie's trailer, I try to avoid everything else related to the movie until I actually see it in theaters.  It keeps any potential spoilers to a minimum and prevents me from being Tomorrowlanded with too much information about a movie I was already planning to see.  And although Terminator Genisys let some major cats out of the bag that might have better been kept under wraps for the next month and a half, I can't really say that I didn't love every second of it.  Check it out here:

So, yeah.  That happened.  In a desperate bid for survival, John Connor turns traitor to humanity: converted into a next gen, T-1000-esque cyborg and going back in time to destroy his own lineage (presumably, paradoxically, erasing himself from existence).

Like I mentioned earlier, this is the kind of world-shaking plot twist that I would have preferred to not have seen going into the movie.  I would have much preferred being caught with my pants down in the theater than walking in knowing what exactly went wonky in the timeline to screw everything up.

But Jesus, if this doesn't change everything that you ever thought about the franchise.  John Connor - the savior of mankind - humanity's champion against the tyranny of the machines, has finally turned on everything he swore to protect his entire life.  It's a dark twist on one of cinema's most iconic action heroes, and yet doesn't feel like the rage-quitting betrayal that it could have been.  After watching this trailer, I'm just as - if not more - stoked about the movie than when I went into it.

This is everything that I've been hoping for since I saw the first trailer: a temporal ouroboros feeding endlessly off of its own increasingly delineating timeline.  With every pass the franchise makes at sending a Terminator back to either save or murder John Connor, it sends the course of history increasingly out of whack until it becomes hopelessly unrecognizable.  It's finally become the creature that it always had the potential to be: essentially James Cameron's Madoka.

This is undoubtedly not quite what they were going for.  Sure, it's obviously using time travel to horrifically twist its own timeline around on itself, but let's be realistic here.  It's trying to reset its franchise the same way that X-Men: First Class did: with a splashy, crowd-pleasing blockbuster that untangles its decades old continuity to make way for future sequels.  The fact that it's not only awesome, but exactly what I've always wanted to see out of the franchise, is ultimately symptomatic of its blockbuster status.

Still, you won't find me complaining about this turn of events.  I'll be the first in line to see this blockbuster franchise find its footing again.  And for the love of sci-fi, I hope that you're right there in line with me.

So are you excited about the spoilers in the new Terminator Genysis trailer?  Share your thoughts in the comment section below.

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