Familiar 'Genisys' a case of deja-view

To me, time-travel plots involving “alternate timelines” work the same as other plots where somebody wakes up and we discover, “It was all a dream!”

In other words, forget everything we thought happened already, because it didn't.

This is one of many annoying elements in “Terminator Genisys,” the fifth installment in the popular science-fiction franchise, one constantly colliding with a freight train of visual effects and a complex time-travel plot that not even Fox Mulder could explain to Dana Scully without sounding like a raving conspiracy nut.

“Terminator Genisys” shows how Skynet launched the War of the Machines by detonating the world's nuclear weapons. (Are Hollywood studios legally required to show the Golden Gate Bridge being destroyed in all disaster movies?)

In 2029, humankind's savior John Connor (Jason Clarke) almost defeats Skynet. But no! Skynet sneaks an Asian version (Byung-hun Lee) of Robert Patrick's T-1000 Terminator back to 1984 to kill Connor's mommy Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) before John can be born, therefore rewriting history.

So, John Connor dispatches his buff bud Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) to stop the Terminator, therefore blocking the rewrite of history by re-rewriting it to make things right.

In 1984, Kyle becomes confused when Sarah seems to know all about him and the future. (It's a different timeline, right?) Kyle freaks when he sees Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator (reprised by the actor 30 years after creating the role) now protecting Sarah, who calls the old robot “Pops.” Schwarzenegger plays the role for laughs. He even fights his younger, 1984 self.

“I'm old, not obsolete!” he reminds us.

Once the premise has been established, screenwriters Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier merrily shove their characters through one action set-piece after another, then different future time zones.

This movie sure looks new. But why do we keep thinking we've seen all this before?

Cameron's original thriller cost an estimated $6.4 million and relied on a strong plot and well-defined characters, not effects, to carry the movie.

“Genisys,” directed by Alan Taylor (primarily a TV director with the anemic “Thor: The Dark World” to his credit), cost $170 million and had no economic restraints on what it could show. So, it shows us way too much.

Except for J.K. Simmons' hilarious but woefully underused Carl Kolchak character, a cop who keeps meeting the unaging Kyle and Sarah in different time periods and doggedly investigates to figure out their secret.

Call him “The Determinator.”

“Terminator Genisys”

★ ★

<b>Starring:</b> Jason Clarke, Jai Courtney, Emilia Clarke, Arnold Schwarzenegger, J.K. Simmons

<b>Directed by:</b> Alan Taylor

<b>Other:</b> A Paramount Pictures release. Rated PG-13 for language, nudity, violence. 119 minutes