The original Terminators worked because James Cameron was a director with vision and a bag of interesting tricks, rather than a work-for-hire filmmaker who produces a slick, uninteresting product. Ideally Terminator: Genisys would've taken a gamble on a similarly interesting young director, but instead Paramount plumped for Alan Taylor, whose most recent work was Marvel sequel Thor: The Dark World. Taylor didn't get chance to leave much of an impression on that film but, well, nobody really gets to really indulge in any interesting visual flare or directorial trademarks on a Marvel film. His previous filmography, meanwhile, is...well, interesting. He's probably best known for his TV work, especially for HBO, where he's been behind the camera of such disparate works as stoner detective story Bored To Death and the epic fantasy of Game Of Thrones. So he can clearly handle a number of different projects - and those two have some interesting visual styles - but his films have been a little more rote and workmanlike, with The Dark World being preceded by offbeat indie crime drama Palookaville, historical Napoleon drama The Emperor's New Clothes, and downbeat thriller Kill The Poor. He's shown that he can work in a number of genres, but has yet to break out as a "name" director - maybe Terminator: Genisys could be his chance?
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
