10 Reasons Terminator Genisys Isn't As Bad As You Think

The biggest complaint about Genisys has been the "confusing" time travel plotline. Only, it's not so bad.

So, to break it down: two terminators are sent back to the 70s. Sarah Connor's parents are killed; "Pops" protects/raises her so she's combat ready by the 80s, when Kyle Reese arrives to "save" her - as he did in the first Terminator film. At this point, it's already an alternate timeline/universe, but not really problematic. 

There's a complaint that the extra two Terminators should have accelerated Skynet towards judgment day somehow, but that doesn't make much sense unless they were discovered, which they weren't.

When Reese returns to 1984, Pops takes care of the original Terminator from the first film and Sarah, Kyle, and Pops eliminate the T-1000. Kyle and Sarah then jump forward to 2017, while Pops takes the Bender route to meet them. This causes a small issue with the events of T2 and T3 being bypassed, however it's already established that they're in an alternate timeline originating after those events, so Connor still exists.

Skynet, meanwhile, realizes killing Connor isn't the answer, and moves through time itself to change him. The end of the film sees Sarah giving a message to young Kyle, which is what allows him to remember to go to 2017 in the first place.

Understandable enough, frankly.