July 3, 2015 -- What can you do with the Terminator franchise after four films and a TV series? The answer is you throw a bomb into the combined story of the first four films and blow it all to pieces, then glue the pieces together in such a way as to make a very different story. It is not a better story, just different. This franchise has been in a downward financial spiral ever since the second film ended. This is the latest attempt to revive it. Amazingly enough, it appears to be successful.

The basic story in the first film was man against machine, and that remained the story for the first three films. Then, things started to get weird, with a strange combination of man and machine -- a man with machine parts and a computer in his head. This fifth movie is even weirder, with an even stranger machine-man -- a character who appeared in several movies before (though portrayed by a different actor each time). This character has now been transformed into a completely different kind of character.

The original Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is back, this time as the “good terminator” as he was in the second film, sent back even farther in time to protect Sarah Connor (this time played by Emilia Clarke of the “Game of Thrones” TV series). Sarah is the mother of John Connor, who will lead the rebellion against the evil computer system Skynet and its killer robots of the future. Skynet uses time travel in a plot to kill Sarah before John can be born.

There has always been time travel in this series, but this time a mind-twisting altered timeline, caused by even more time travelers who go even farther back in time, is added to the plot (as in the altered timeline of the recent “Star Trek” movie). In this film, more terminators are sent back in time to kill Sarah, and the relationship between the main characters is dramatically altered.

It turns out there was no war between men and machines in the future at all. They didn't have time for a war. They spent all their time sending a bunch of time travelers into the past. I can understand the attraction of doing this. It allows writers to explore different possibilities with the same cast of characters in a new set of circumstances.

The problem is this plot way too much nonsense in it. There are too many inexplicable developments, twists and dead ends. Instead of understandable developments in the movie, there is a series of arbitrary actions. I'm not sure if it is an advantage, or disadvantage for audiences who have seen the first four films (and the TV series). You might be better off not having seen them.

Instead of just one time machine, there are now about two and half time machines in different eras, for no particular reason. Instead of a romance between Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese (played by the smoking hot Jai Courtney of the “Divergent” series) you have constant bickering between these two characters for most of the film. The characters in this film are not convincing. Sarah Connor, in this timeline, was raised by the Terminator, so she calls him “Poppy,” which, given Schwarzenegger's problems with paternity, is kind of a joke.

Skynet, the computer system destined to destroy the world, is now a computer program known as Genisys, a real “killer app.” It is funny watching the public stupidly using this app on their smart phones and tablets, as that very same computer program plots their demise. This, and the strange, dual nature of the machine-man in the plot are all potential ideas that aren't really explored in any depth in this film.

The goal of the good guys in the film is to blow up Skynet, Genisys, or whatever, before it can destroy civilization (as if you can destroy a computer program operating worldwide by blowing up one building complex) but there is a lot of wasted time, bickering and frantic pointless action before we get to the big showdown. The main purpose of this plot is to open the door to another sequel. Just what we needed. This film rates a C.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

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