If nothing else, TERMINATOR GENiSyS is a cautionary tale of putting all our technological eggs in the one basket. It’s a basket to hell.

Speaking of baskets, the last foray into the Terminator film franchise was Terminator Salvation, which was a basket case that made even Terminator 3 look good.

TERMINATOR GENISYS lives up to its name by going back to the beginning, sort of, and having that immutable ingredient – Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Arnie is back, and back and forward, and back again. Because, you see, TERMINATOR GENISYS is not just about time travel but parallel universes in the space time continuum. So in this movie, Arnie’s original T800 gets beaten up in 1984 by Arnie’s Judgement Day T800 from 1997.

Kyle Reese is sent back to protect Sarah Connor, but Arnie is already there as her protector who she calls Pops.

TERMINATOR GENiSYS relies on suspension of disbelief, plenty of action, and Arnold Schwarzenneger, and in that regard it ticks all the boxes.

Emilia Clarke plays Sarah Connor more like a wide eyed Disney ingénue rather than the sassy kick arse characterisation of Linda Hamilton, and Jai Courtney similarly is more frat boy than the world weary, war worn and cynical performance we know and love from Michael Biehn.

Jason Clarke as John Connor is solid, playing a variation on the Virgin Birth and the expulsion of Lucifer from Heaven, and there’s a  creepy cameo from Matt Smith channelling Dalek out of Doctor Who.

Other  than Arnie’s deadpan delivery, comic relief is served via J K Simmons veteran cop who has been on the case since he had a rookie encounter in 1984.

Writers Laeta Kalogridis – a scribe on the Bionic Woman TV series- and Patrick Lussier, who’s execrable reboot Dracula 2000 put a stake through the vampire genre, take up the cudgel of James Cameron and Gale Ann Hurd’s original concepts, and then mimic, milk and ramp up the Rise of The Machine scenario while exploring the traditional epic storytelling hooks – creator, paternity, rebellion.