Pros: Terrific special effects. Creative visuals. Exciting action choreography.
Cons: Doesn't really advance the storyline that much. Feels like a retread of T2: Judgment Day.
The Bottom Line: Though it doesn't surpass the excellence of Terminator 2: Judgment Day, or even suspense of the original film, Terminator 3 is at least a very entertaining film.
BillTK's Full Review: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
BillTK’s TRIVIA QUESTION: The host of which reality TV dating show appears in Terminator 3 as a computer techie?
Guesses will be received in the comments section, and as soon as the correct one is received, I will post the answer right after the question along with who first answered it correctly.
So far the score is: tbrown -1
Everyone else so far: 0
With this sequel, The Terminator series has suddenly morphed into a possible series of trilogies, a la George Lucas’ concept for the Star Wars movies. The script doesn’t advance the story as much as it feels almost like a remake of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The denouement of Terminator 3- Rise of the Machines wraps up a sense of closure to the events, depressing on some level as it is, yet promisingly opening the way for a new series of Terminator flicks taking place in that awful future the previous films kept warning about.
This FX-heavy blockbuster fulfills most of our escapist summer-movie prerequisites, at times grandly so, but the writing does often feel a little thin especially when compared to the accomplished screenplays of the previous Terminators. At times it’s as though the screenwriters here (James Cameron and Gale Anne Hurd were directly involved in this effort’s screenplay) rely too heavily on all the story-work being done for them already with the first two films. The time-travel conundrums and character storylines have been pre-scripted in a way, so all Terminator 3 seems at times to do is drape on a few more accessories—Claire Danes character as Kate Brewster future lieutenant of John Connor’s, for instance. Otherwise it’s a retread of Terminator 2’s on so many levels—Arnold as a good Terminator; a blonde liquid metal Terminator (albeit this time a Terminatrix); our hero trio’s quest to shut down Skynet (John’s mother is replaced by love interest Brewster, although he even reflects at one point that she reminds him of his mother); dour voice-overs bookending the film, etc.
Linda Hamilton does not reprise her role as John Connor’s mother. Here, she is reported to have died of leukemia back in 1997, leaving son John to carry on. Despite having supposedly eliminated the Skynet threat, Connor retains a careful suspicion about it, and so exists “off the grid” as he intones, living without credit cards, a driver’s license, or any other way for Skynet to locate him.
Hamilton explained her non-participation to a British newspaper, The Independent this way: "I read the script and it didn't take my character in any new directions. The film is really about turning the baton over to Sarah's son John, played by Eddie Furlong. It's Eddie's movie - and Arnold's. It was like a no-win situation for me." Despite her divorce from Terminator creator James Cameron, she retained a respectful outlook regarding his talent. When it became clear that Cameron wasn’t involved with this film she said, “The best I could hope for was that I wouldn't be compared too unfavorably with myself 10 years ago. Without Jim breathing the breath of life into the film? No, thank you."
Claire Danes, a very good actress, commits admirably to her task, having jumped into the role at the last minute when director Jonathan Mostow deemed actress Sophia Bush too young for the role after viewing dailies. Danes is game for the task—she screams convincingly and shows some facility for physical action, but something about her delicate actress’ persona feels out of place, especially when compared to Linda Hamilton’s supremely buffed body and tough, all-business attitude in Terminator 2.
We’re a little too accustomed to seeing Danes in high-falutin fare like Romeo and Juliet and the vastly overrated glorification of self-pity and suicide, The Hours. But I respect that she definitely gives this project her all, not turning up her nose at it, or tossing off ironic lines with tongue in cheek. As she herself has said in interviews: "I really don't appreciate elitist attitudes about art, I don't identify with that. I don't get it. I appreciate raw entertainment... [Besides], how lucky am I to be able to experiment with different styles of filmmaking and acting?"
As welcome fun as the sight of Schwarzenegger as the Terminator is, I would have appreciated from him a dash more of the seriousness that Danes approached the film with. He’s not that cavalier really, he still keeps up a mostly robotic manner, but he injects even a little more anthropomorphism into the android then he did in Terminator 2. I miss the more realistic depiction of the very first Terminator, when a robot was a robot, without the hint of emotion. Filmmakers always seem too giddily eager to endow their machines with humanistic characteristics. Isn’t this counter to the film’s very thesis? That humans are humans and we run the danger of giving ourselves over to machines, machines that lack the very essential quality of emotion that guides us in important decision-making and policy?
Some of the gags one can easily chalk up to the perfectly reasonable explanation that Arnold’s Termintaor is simply trying to assimilate human verbal expressions—an ability that his original programmers thought might come in handy as he tried blending in with humanity. For instance, Arnold gets a laugh when he holds his palm out vertically to a convenience store cashier and tells him to “talk to the hand”, a gesture he picked up from a stripper. But there are just too many cutesy, silly things like his mildly bemused/shocked expression when the Terminatrix grabs him by the crotch as she lifts him overhead to throw him through a bathroom wall. Or his all too human like distress as his benevolent terminator side struggles against the reprogramming to his circuitry that makes him try to do harm to John Connor.
And that fight scene by the way is a doozy. If there were ever a sex scene between two terminators, the mano a mano battle between Schwarzenegger and Kristanna Loken as the T-X would be it. The energy and creativity choreographed into their tossing each other about is perhaps the highlight of the action (although the initial highway chase early on involving a truck-mounted crane, several police cars, a firetruck, more than a few Toyota Tundra trucks, and several other innocent bystanders comes close). Their combat culminates with the Terminatrix pulling a reverse move while clutched from behind by Arnold, bending her legs backward so they now wrap around his waist, twisting her arms and head around as well (she’s a Regan MacNeil for the new millenium). Sitting on his lap facing him now (“rise” of the machines indeed), she blow torches his head as he electrifies hers and they vibrate together until blowing apart from each other in kind of cybernetic climax befitting these two superhuman specimens.
Loken looks great—she’s a former model who stands almost 6 feet tall, and she makes a swift-looking and commanding foe in her tight maroon leather suit, resembling a female counterpart to Ben Affleck’s Daredevil. I enjoy the way this film and the previous both came up with inventive ways in which Loken and Robert Patrick (the T-1000 from Terminator 2) get stalled. Patrick’s metallic self froze up when encountering a barrage of liquid nitrogen, and here Loken gets side-tracked by a super magnet, a better-looking way again of playing up the eroticism in her character as she becomes bound to the huge penile-shaped magnet, spread-eagled against it. But this girl’s brain power is even more formidable than her physical prowess and she quickly determines a way out of her predicament.
The final showdown in the film however presents a puzzling incongruity in terms of the T-X’s abilities. We’ve already seen her get decimated by trucks and such many times throughout the film but she’s always easily regained her menace to no ill effects. At one point she even got torn apart somewhat, but juts as her predecessor was able to recoagulate (great images of the silvery colloidal metal running together to reform a whole again) she too pulls the same recombinant tactic. Why then at the end when the helicopter crashes down on her, doesn’t she reassemble? Instead, she pulls her legless body along (an homage to the climax of the first Terminator?), and faces off against Arnold once more before meeting an end that also recalls the Terminator’s demise in that first film.
Nick Stahl has replaced Edward Furlong as John Connor but I don’t think the film suffers from the move. Reportedly Furlong’s continued trouble with drugs and driving under the influence precluded his participation. Stahl feels like a logical substitute—he’s got the same sunken-eyed look to suggest a John Connor haunted by his destiny. He’s also a better actor in the long run then Mr. Furlong.
Director Jonathan Mostow is the new director, and based on his terrifically bang-up job on the thrilling film Breakdown, I had high hopes for this film. I wouldn’t say my hopes were dashed—not by a long shot as the film is quite fun, but there’s definitely a letdown in terms of our emotional engagement with the characters. James Cameron invests as much heart and soul into developing his characters’ heart and soul as he does in planning and constructing his special effects. And that is saying a lot.
I don’t know whether Mr. Schwarzenegger will reprise his role in any future Terminator films or if he’ll be too busy governing the state of California. It’s a wee bit sad to think of them without him, but not too difficult to imagine really. Aside from Earl Boen as Dr. Peter Silberman (functioning here to successful comic effect), Arnold is the only performer to appear in all three Terminator films. Nevertheless, certainly after this past opening weekend’s grosses, the notion of a Terminator 4 is going to be entertained, with or without Arnold. Oh yeah, it’ll be back.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as a time-traveling T-101 Terminator in this smash hit directed by Jonathan Mostow. With dazzling effecs, bravura thrill...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.