I love the Terminator.  Not the cyborg so much, but the first, low-budget film in 1984, co-written and directed by James Cameron.  It’s as close to a perfect little movie as one can get, astonishing in its execution.  Most people prefer the next one in the series, Judgment Day, with its even more astonishing action sequences and special effects, but I still love the first one the most.  I even liked the third and fourth adventures, as derivative as they were.  Now a fifth adventure returns us to the halcyon days of the premise, essentially ignoring the third and fourth iterations.

Alan Taylor’s film recasts every main role except for the Terminator itself (Arnold Schwarzenegger), now affectionately referred to as “Pops”.  Arnold has aged since 1991, of course, but this is accounted for in the very witty, clever script.  In fact, the script is the best part of the film; it provides a mind-blowing ride through alternate realities, pasts and futures.  And because it sticks so closely to James Cameron’s initial premise and character focus, it delivers some powerful emotional scenes along the way.  I didn’t think it possible to be moved again by a Terminator film, but I was wrong, and I am thrilled that this series has been resurrected so beautifully.

This PG-13 rated film is lighter on the bloodshed than its brethren, but still packs an enormous amount of action into its 126 minute running time.  Only the helicopter chase failed to excite me; it was too obviously phony.  But the others were very well staged, as were all the flashbacks.  The new cast members are serviceable or better, with Jai Courtney a standout as the new Kyle Reese.  Emilia Clarke is fine as Sarah Connor, but she can never quite replace Linda Hamilton in my mind.  I’m not crazy about what they did to John Connor (Jason Clarke), but what can you do; something had to drive the plot.

This is the fifth movie in 2015, by my count, to explore the boundaries between mankind and machine.  I’m a big fan of humanizing the Terminator (Pops), which is shown in his San Francisco hideout (watch closely for his drawing of Sarah and himself).  Two more, at least, of these new Terminator adventures are planned with this new crew intact before 2019, when the rights revert back to James Cameron (who has publicly supported this film).  As long as the filmmakers spend as much time on the script as the effects, the new adventures should be just fine.  Welcome back, Terminator, we’ve missed you so.  ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2.  25 July 2015.