With a fresh spin on the beginnings of the franchise, the newest “Terminator” film ends up coming up short of its legendary heritage. This film is a bit of both a sequel and a reboot, similar to the recent “Star Trek” films and the ninth Mortal Kombat video game. With a bit of time travel, the familiar is rewritten to something totally new. When it works, it works well. The new take on the original “Terminator,” plus the return of the classic T-1000 Terminator, is actually pretty well done. Once the film jumps ahead a few decades, it loses its way. The action sequences are uninspired, with only a handful of exciting moments. The plot isn’t really too dramatically different the any of the other films in the series, but there’s quite a few gaps in logic that are best ignore in order to enjoy the story. While there are some funny moments, there’s a tendency to overdo it, and things border on silly. When it comes down to it, the weakest link here is the actors. Both John Conner and Kyle Reese have been played by multiple actors throughout the franchise. Each actor has had a very different interpretation of the characters. In this new film, there’s just something bland about them. Emelia Clarke takes over the Sarah Conner role and just never musters the intensity that Linda Hamilton brought to the character. While Schwarzenegger is great as always portraying The Terminator, the fact that he’s the only actor reprising his role makes it even more obvious that other characters are played by different actors than they were previously. One odd role in the film is played by J.K. Simmons, whose character just kind of shows up, appears if he may be important, and then just kind of takes off.

**1/2 out of *****