TERMINATOR GENISYS (2015)

The rather convoluted storyline of the latest in the Terminator franchise involves John Connor (Jason Clarke) yet again sending his friend/second-in-command Kyle Reese (Jai Courtney) back to 1984 to protect Sarah Connor (Emilia Clarke) - when an event Kyle witnesses, just as he's leaving the future, seems to incite a fracture in timelines that has Reese showing up in a new 1984, where the good Terminator (Schwarzenegger) has already been protecting Sarah for the years, the two of them working on a long-term plan stop the machines from taking over.  This is an incredibly lame, confusing and wasted effort to milk the franchise, with a woefully-miscast Courtney (one of my favorite actors) unbelievable from scene one, and one of the industry's best actors, Byung-hun Lee, wholly wasted in a stupid homage to the liquid-metal man Terminator just so producers can tie the first three films with this one.  A weak ending setting up yet another sequel doesn't help, but simply makes viewers realize that as long as they keep screwing with the timelines, this series - long in need of termination - could go on forever. (PG-13)  D