All 34 Arnold Schwarzenegger movies ranked from worst to best

20. Terminator Genisys

I hate putting Terminator Genisys down this low because I was actually a fan of it. The fifth movie in the franchise, it was intended to relaunch it as the first of a new trilogy (after the fourth movie took the franchise past Judgment Day, leaving it nowhere to go). To do that, it needed to go back to the beginning before it went into the future.

It’s as convoluted as it sounds, but the ironic thing is that the half of the movie that is set in the past is actually brilliant. While Jai Courtney feels miscast as the rough-around-the-edges Kyle Reese, Emilia Clarke does a great job finding middle ground between the 1984 young Sarah Connor and the T2 hardened icon, and it’s her reset timeline that poses the most interesting possibilities.

The movie is renowned for bringing Arnold Schwarzenegger back to the franchise as he plays the aged T-800, a.k.a. “Pops”, who is tasked with looking after the young Sarah. To say he’s a natural in the role again is an understatement, as he provides the movie with its best moments.

Genisys‘ struggles lie in the complex plot, the bland action in the second half of the movie, and the attempt to turn Terminator into a PG-13 Transformers-esque saga instead of the gritty and intelligent property that it was.