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Genisys pretends to care about the same fears, but really it just leverages them as exercises in branding. Suspenseful pacing and apocalyptic vision are cheerily sacrificed for as many winking references to the earlier two films as possible. Genisys feels like a Disney theme-park take on the series—"Terminatorland: You'll Be Back"—right down to the boy-gets-girl-and-rides-off-into-the-landscape ending. "No fate" is a hollow slogan when you get the same damn conclusion as every other film in the multiplexes.Still, there is something refreshing about Genisys's naked hackishness. Wells's colonial anxieties, warnings, and moralisms are shamelessly diced up for tropes. Here, imperial adventure is dulled into nostalgic corporate comfort food. But isn't it fun to imagine oppression and invasion and freedom-fighting ? Genisys insists. Things blow up, the weak defeat the strong—or is that the strong defeating the weak? Either way, colonialism is served up as empty-headed entertainment for all on the big screen—and for that matter on the nightly news, where our various foreign misadventures grind on for our viewing pleasure without logic or much American emotional investment. The callous stupidity of Genisys isn't exactly profound, but at least it's honest.Terminator: Genisys is in theaters on July 1.Follow Noah Berlatsky on Twitter.On Creators Project: Drawing Robot Sketches C-3PO and a T-800 Terminator