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Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines (Widescreen Edition) Customer Reviews (85 - 87 of 105 Reviews)

Having not seen the originals, I'm not here to judge
I thought this film was going to be very confusing for me because I have never seen the first two films. But it was very easy to understand and I thoroughly enjoy the action and the comedy. Right at the start you see John Connor remind us of what has previously gone on, and from there it's action all the way. Although I don't get why everyone was saying that Arnie should've retired all those years ago. Sure, Collateral Damage was the biggest load of tosh ever or something like that, but twelve years since Judgement Day, James Cameron might not be back, but he sure is-with a vengeance!

As The Skynet Turns
Terminator 3 (T3) is Hollywood at its very best and very worst. This is a Hollywood movie - it's dreamt up by money-men, put together by formula, and hyped as far as it can be. Quality takes a back seat to special effects and effective action sequences. And yet there's a subversive tint to the film, culminating in an ending that pulls the rug out against future sequels - though if your premise allows you to alter a time line, nothing can be certain. Terminator's author James Cameron didn't endorse or support the creation of this sequel, so it's arguably not Terminator canon, but he can rejoice in that the franchise is unlikely to be exploited further.

T3 brings us future resistance leader John Conner as a young man, living in what - according to the original films - should be post Judgment-Day, the day the machines were supposed to rise and take over the world. The machines have attempted to kill him twice before using terminators - killer robots - sent back in time from the future. He's living alone as a drifter, staying "off the grid", and still suspicious that the threat of Skynet might still exist. We go on to meet his latest nemesis, yet another terminator, and another protector, another reprogrammed terminator (as in Terminator 2.) After finding out that Judgment Day was merely postponed in T2, Conner and an unlikely partner in the shape of a vet and former school-friend, set out to save the world again.

Does it work? Well, aspects do and others don't. To get the bad parts out of the way first, this has the worst acting I've ever seen in any major film - far worse than you'd expect for even this kind of movie. Most of the actors appear to believe they're in some form of day-time soap opera. They're not helped by a script which is full of hammy lines and awkward conversations. I never thought I'd criticize Schwarzenegger for being a completely unconvincing robot, but... The only substantial non-jarring performance is Kristanna Loken's. who plays the "other" terminator in the film, and does so with convincing coldness. It's pretty sad when the only believable performance in a film is from someone playing a robot. Sanity doesn't seem to be this film's strongest point either. There's a pretty exciting chase sequence which is great except it doesn't make sense - the villain chases Conner (driving a veterinarian van) with a giant building site crane on wheels. It's a good job the civic minded Conner keeps to the speed limit otherwise there wouldn't have been much of a contest...

On a positive note, the action thoroughly enjoyable to watch, well paced, and the aforementioned chase scene could not be better built up to. This is what Hollywood is good at, and this is a great example of Hollywood being good at it. There's some relatively original ideas in these sequences too, though you'd expect that from the people who could dream up the chase's central premise... It's good humoured too, with a number of good natured references to the previous movies, and the occasional "modern social observation". As the film progresses, the tone changes from excitement to some relatively scary scenes, some gory, some as simple as early terminator models patrolling corridors like Daleks. The special effects are effective and unartificial in look. The film's conclusion ultimately deals with a major paradox in T2, and to me it came completely out of left field.

At its heart, T3 is a great action movie. Those most enthusiastic about the first two movies may consider T3 a kind of blasphemy, but for the rest of us T3 is a worthwhile and enjoyable sequel.

Not up to Stirling's Novels
First off, Edward Furlong (sp?) was a much better young John Connor. Furlong is easily old enough to be cast as the older John Connor now... Second, for future scenes, don't slap makup on the idiot they cast this time, re-use the same older John used in T2. Aging a babyfaced actor doesn't work well.

Arnie and the new Terminatrix were good. It was fun seeing Arnie doing a different Terminator and the lady playing the Terminatrix was quite good at her part.

However, the missing Linda Hamilton was lousy. The different actor playing John was lousy.

It was obvious that James Cameron wasn't driving this movie...it was missing his dark, but ironic, flavor. The ending was good, as far as the whole radio and 1960's military facility thing goes...

S. M. Stirling did a series of sequels to T2...much better writing and concepts.

this was a sad a sequel as Lethal Weapon 4.

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