From the offset Terminator Genisys, the fifth movie in the Terminator franchise, was touted as transforming the series into event level entertainment, with Producer and Terminator movie rights holder David Ellison making it very clear by stating the following about Skydance Media (the production company responsible for making Terminator Genisys)…
“We want to be Marvel,”
David Ellison
This also included continuing on the franchise as PG-13, something that fans had made abundantly clear that they didn’t want; believing that it had prevented the previous installment ‘Terminator Salvation’ from living up to its potential.
Director, Alan Taylor was tasked with doing what could be considered impossible; and a lot of fans were going to rail hard against it and understandably so (though the task of further converting a franchise, which was born in horror into a child friendlier model seemed far more possible in 2015).
Even Alan Taylor’s partner Jane Wu, also part of the industry and whom Taylor met on the set of Thor: The Dark World told him not to take the Terminator Genisys gig; with Taylor recounting what his partner told him after she read the Terminator Genisys script with a laugh.
“Well, she read the script, she said, ‘You should be doing something you love right now, something that’s more personal.’”
Alan Taylor told THR
Taylor however wanted a shot at redeeming the franchise and fancied working with Arnold Schwarzenegger after meetings for Terminator Genisys went well. Perhaps blindsided by the Austrian Oak‘s charisma, charm and also the past legacy of the franchise with James Cameron leading the charge.
“All the voices in my head, and all the ones around me, were saying I should do it because who didn’t love the first two films? I thought we would go in and fix the script and everything could be great.”
Alan Taylor
However, Taylor and producers had presumed that the fanbase was an open book, and easy to satisfy.
“I had lost the will to make movies, I lost the will to live as a director. I’m not blaming any person for that. The process was not good for me. So I came out of it having to rediscover the joy of filmmaking.”
Alan Taylor told THR
Terminator Genisys did well at the box office thanks to Asia, largely in part due to what could be attributed to curiosity, a curiosity that was not present for the sixth entry (Terminator: Dark Fate), resulting in a box office blunder and not the sure fire hit in Asia that the studios thought they were sitting on.
Had Alan Taylor been given more freedom, been allowed to make a Hard R Terminator and been given a lower budget; we may have seen him shine more within the property. We don’t consider Terminator Genisys to be the worst entry in the franchise but (we feel) it stands on the same level as Terminator: Dark Fate.
We wish Alan Taylor great success with his new Sopranos prequel film, The Many Saints of Newark.
