Me Before You

Me Before You was a strong draw, mainly because my guilty pleasure is romantic movies. The controversy and attention it had gotten from disability advocates around it's portrayal of euthanasia didn't slow me down either because love trumps all, am I right guys? But when your romance features very little in the way of love, it's hard to get on board.

Lou Clark (Emilia Clarke) is down on her luck after being fired from the cafe she has worked at for the last six years. But a new opportunity arises when Will Traynor (Sam Claflin) is in need of a new companion. Will had an accident two years ago that left him a quadriplegic and his parents Camilla (Janet McTeer) and Steven (Charles Dance) feel as though Lou will lift his spirits. They get off to a shaky start, but soon Lou gets through to him. However, she soon discovers that he has applied for euthanasia in Switzerland and decides to try and do all she can to change his mind.

The major problem with this movie is that it is poorly written. After an extremely brief introduction to each of the characters and where they are in life when the story starts, there is too much time spent on both how much of a bastard Will is and how much he hates his life. There is barely any development in building a relationship between Lou and Will, but that's okay because she's dating super stupid Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom from Harry Potter) for three quarters of the movie. By the time any sort of relationship has begun to form, you end up wanting the film to finish. There is also way too little emphasis put on the issue of euthanasia. It seems to skirt around it without giving a solid opinion so as to not offend anyone, but ends up doing a so from a lack of decisiveness. There is a slight class commentary as well with all the lower class characters having a lack of direction, while all the rich people have ambition.

At least the two leads have an alright chemistry with each other. Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin get along really well and give decent performances despite working with a bad script. Emilia Clarke plays definitely against type, which isn't exactly a good thing here. She normally is a strong woman who will do whatever it takes to reach her goal, but Lou is an idiot who doesn't have any drive. At least her expressive eyebrows are a fun distraction. Sam Claflin plays the character exactly how it is written; an unlikeable miserable snob. It's not like he doesn't have any charm, he was wonderful in Love, Rosie, but in this movie he doesn't have a lot to work with. Steve Peacocke plays Will's nurse Nathan, but does so in an Aggressively Australian way, meaning that once the director noticed that they'd hired an Australian, they kept giving notes to make his character sound more Australian than he needed to be. Charles Dance adds a little bit of heart to this movie and his usual tough exterior is removed to show a softer side.

Me Before You is not high on my list of enjoyable romantic flicks. It barely even tries to make the audience want to see any sort of relationship between the characters and handles both the sensitive subjects of disability and euthanasia in a rather sloppy way. Especially Sam Claflin's extremely distasteful My Left Foot impersonation.

Terminator Genisys

As an avid fan of Terminator 1-3, and somebody who personally didn't really mind Salvation (which is saying something), I have been of course eagerly awaiting the release of the latest instalment in the kickass time-travelling cybernetic organism series Terminator Genisys, no matter how poorly it has been first received by critics. It's now Alan Taylor's (Thor: The Dark World) shot at the franchise and it begins full-circle, with a different take on the events of the first film.

In 2029, the human Resistance, led by John Connor (Jason Clarke) seek to destroy Skynet's super-weapon, a time machine that will allow them to effectively win the war. By the time they arrive, Skynet has already sent the T-800 back to 1984 to attack Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke). John sends Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to protect her, but as the machine begins its process, Kyle sees John get attacked by another of the Resistance fighters (Matt Smith) and simultaneously receives memories from an alternative version of his twelve year-old self.

The T-800 arrives back in 1984 and confronts a group of punks for their clothes, just as he did in the original movie The Terminator, however Sarah Connor and a reprogrammed T-800 known as Guardian (Arnold Schwarzenegger) - and affectionately referred to as "Pop" by Sarah - turn up and destroy the T-800, altering the original timeline. Similarly as Kyle arrives, the two turn up to rescue him from an attacking T-1000 (Lee Byung-hun). After consulting Kyle's flashbacks from his alternative self, Kyle and Sarah travel to 2017 whilst Guardian waits 33 years for their arrival as they attempt to prevent the new Judgement Day from happening...again.

Dealing with the often-confusing concepts of time travel can really screw with the audience' heads, and is one of the core constructs of the Terminator franchise that has remained largely unexplored. Yes, the leads are almost always trying to change the future and prevent events from happening, but in Genisys the characters are negotiating an altered timeline and are shifting through time. No, this isn't a crossover with Back to the Future - despite the lovable reference to the 80s style Nike shoes from the first Terminator - but is a change in focus that attempts to breathe new life into the series, whilst remaining true to its roots. For the most part, it achieves this. It's a relatively easy to follow plot that promises new adventures with the same old Terminator vibe. The classic 'arrival' sequence from The Terminator is mimicked beautifully here even without a digitally de-aged Bill Paxton, and I must say, the CG/prosthetic effects utilised to bring young Arnie back are much better than the attempt in Salvation. It's genuinely like watching an alternate version of the first film. 

There are constant references for fans to enjoy from the first films, and not just the obvious one-liners and beautifully cheesy attempted smiles. The T-1000 is back! Hoorah! The clichés are embraced - If you like predicting character's lines, you'll love this - and whilst it follows the core formula of many of the previous films, even down to the classic terminator v terminator finale, there's enough substance for it to be both intriguing and endlessly enjoyable. Moving away from Salvation, they choose not to introduce numerous new and uselessly specific terminators and stick with the tried and true classics, other than the compulsory badass new model. The one thing I can't work out is why they have T-800 models - effectively their soldiers - driving trucks? That might be a gap in my fan knowledge base but with all the computerised UAVs and whatnot that they have, surely the machines are capable of putting in a small microchip to drive their vehicles! 

The one area that the film is somewhat let down in is casting. I don't quite understand Hollywood's obsession with hiring British and Australian actors and making them put on poor American accents. Out of the actors for Sarah Connor, John Connor, Kyle Reese, the T-800 (Guardian), T-1000 and the T-5000, the only American citizen is Arnold Schwarzenegger?? There's also a question of likenesses. The plot harks back to the original films, and Jason Clarke and Jai Courtney are passable as Michael Edwards and Michael Bien respectively, but Emilia Clarke is much more of the Sarah Connor Chronicles era. Also, Matt Smith's role could have easily allowed for a British persona instead of his terrible American accent. J. K. Simmons's character, who is essentially the fall guy that everybody passes off as a nut job, was actually very likeable I found, despite his small screen time, which just goes to prove that he really deserved that Oscar!

Terminator Genisys revamps the Terminator franchise and embraces the past films that everybody loves. The action is visceral and only occasionally over the top. It sets up for the customary sequel of modern Hollywood high concept films, and for once, I'm genuinely excited. The bad reviews? I guess haters gonna hate, but this is ultimately a movie for the fans.