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Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines (Widescreen Edition) Customer Reviews (31 - 33 of 105 Reviews)

SCHWARZENEGGER FOR PRESIDENT
While The Pentagon and American National Security are franticly trying to unravel the mysteries of an unknown computer virus that's shut down defense systems nation wide a motor home of salvation rolls across the desert in search of answers to the world's ultimate ethical dilemma... if reading this bores you don't buy the movie.

When The Terminator drives the two heroes through the desert to a church the thought that he is actually an angel of God (who also rented this movie and wants his five bucks back) crosses my mind. Of course there's the inevitable brutal fight scene/wrestling match between SCHWARZENEGGER and the new bad guy/girl/android "T-X" a FREDRICKS OF HOLLYWOOD mannequin with no acting ability, super powers, nice T's and a decent A. Watching her get a super swirly almost makes me wish this movie had actually happened. Someone must stop Kristanna Loken before she acts again!

With any luck SCHWARZENEGGER will run for President one day winning a decisive victory and saving everyone from the unthinkable fate of a TERMINATOR 4.

Surprising... I'l give it that!
It's the same old story we have been dying to see again for ten years. The out-dated Terminator-from-the-Future (Aronold Schwarzenegger) has to once again save stubborn, "Aw shucks, why me?" John Connor (Nick Stahl). Yes, he remembers his mother's admonitions and the dark, dank future awaiting Mankind. Yes, he remembers "Hasta la vista, baby." He's hiding in plain sight, roaming the country, staying anonymous. However, a gorgeous new Terminator, T-X (Kristanna Loken), has arrived in L.A. Her mission? Kill John Connor and all his future lieutenants.

First thing of note, Arnold looks fabulous. He's pumped back up and whether it's a mannequin impersonating him, a realistic stunt double, or face and body putty, he's somehow erased ten years without looking like a feminized Michael Douglas. This time, the Terminator talks a lot. He's downright chatty. He has to explain what happened in THE TERMINATOR and TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY. Someone also has to explain the dull, convoluted network, Skynet, that will cause the rise of the machines and the takeover of the planet to the audience and update the technical advances of the T-X over the previous T-1000 (Robert Patrick).

No star wants to be responsible for "exposition," yet screenwriters have not been able to find a good way of bringing back the maligned, but essential, Greek Chorus. This has a way of slowing down the story, especially when you are being hunted by a raging, extreme killing machine with only one purpose. Thankfully, The Terminator only talks while firing a grenade-launcher or carrying a casket.

Are we still waiting for Judgment Day?

Screenwriters John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris (writers of David Fincher's complex, smart movie The Game, starring the aforementioned Michael Douglas) do not bother refining, or, for that matter, deepening the Terminator bible. That would be like updating The Koran. Instead, we have all the set pieces that are retread, but, who cares? The Terminator arrives naked, gets his leather outfit, and gets the sunglasses. His mission, again, is to save Connor. He's a new Terminator made to resemble the old Terminator, but still an older model. There's no "I'm your father" twist.

It's really not easy to come up with a fresh, compelling stories, and sequels, with already terrific characters created, never seem to outdo the original. Why not start with the Terminator being called to his mission?

Connor's reluctant aide is Kate (Claire Danes) who remembers kissing him in junior high school. Their fates were sealed. Danes has an anguished, intelligent face that works well here. What she lacks, and might indeed aspire to, is Sarah Connor's (Linda Hamilton) ferocious determinism and iron will. Perhaps Kate will come into her own in TERMINATOR 4? Stahl's "I'm running away from my Savior of Mankind destiny" attitude leaves him wallowing around without much sex appeal. Perhaps he will mature and show some Spartan grit in the next one.

It's all about the casting and Loken is a fabulous find. She's got one expression and, like Robert Patrick, its "pure resolve." Loken is so definitively exact that the beating she takes from Arnold is not gender offensive.

Director Jonathan Mostow has a lot of technical dazzle to get up on the screen, so character work and nuisances are secondary here. The action scenes are extreme and spectacular, as T-X, in a mammoth crane, destroys everything in a fifty-mile radius. This is the kind of havoc we, the "Shock and Awe Nation," expect.

I'm thrilled The Terminator has left behind obeying a boy and taken charge of the future. And finally, Judgment Day has arrived. The expectation was killing me.


Good but not great
T3 takes up 10 years, I think, after T2. Sarah O'Connor is dead (of leukemia) and John is on his own. In a brief summary of the movie, the machines send back a terminator to kill John's lieutenants and one of them is his future wife. The resistance reactivates an old terminator and send him back to help John.

I admit I didn't really care for this chapter of The Terminator but it grew on me after seeing it a few more times. What disappointed me was the storyline: I think there could've been more depth to it but, of course, the first two Terminator movies didn't have much of a storyline in it either, but then again, both movies had James Cameron.

His absence is felt throughout this movie: In the first two installments, there are scenes, as well as lines, that were memorable and riveting; lines delivered with such conviction that they sparked a fad. I mean, how many times have we heard "Hasta la vista, baby" or "I'll be back"? This one lacked Cameron's creativity and talent with the camera.

With the ending, it is obvious they hope to add another chapter to this series and I hope they do. However, I hope it'll be better than this one and that Cameron will direct it.

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