REVIEW - Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines Articles / Guys Night Movies Posted by thebryon on Jul 07, 2003 - 06:58 AM |
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Have you seen T3 yet? I tossed together a quick review of the flick for randomdrivel's movie review section, but it wouldn't post properly. Rather than waste it, I figured I'd psot it here. Click read more to read my review... Side note... If Rampy was able to fix the reviews feature, to get rid of the bugs and such, would any of you our regular site visitors be interested in posting semi regualr movie reviews? Would anyone be overly offended if his fixes inadvertantly deleted the old reviews?  Directed by:Jonathan Mostow Written by: James Cameron Gale Anne Hurd Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger [1] – T-800 “good Terminator” Nick Stahl [2] – John Connor “future savior of mankind” Claire Danes [3] – Kate Brewster “future assistant of the future savior of mankind” Kristanna Loken [4] – T-X “bad Terminator, naughty!” In a Nutshell: John Connor (Nick Stahl) is now 18 and is living incognito to avoid becoming Terminator food. His low profile has made him difficult to locate, so an advanced female Terminator (Kristanna Loken), called T-X, is sent back in time to kill off his future Lieutenants, including Kate Brewster (Claire Danes). Fortunately, another T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is sent back through time to protect John yet again. Meanwhile, everyone’s favorite evil technological terror, Skynet, is about to become self-aware and give a quite a few of my Air Force brethren a very bad day at the office. Full Review: There’s a finite list of things that never get old for me. Fortunately, stories involving killer robots and post apocalyptic worlds rate high on that list. Sure, there was very little that was original in T3, but that’s just fine by me. Some of my favorite movies are little more than several clichés compiled and wrapped in fancy duds and dazzling action. (*cough* Star Wars *cough*) T3 uses a basic story concept that’s nearly identical to that of T2. A “liquid metal” advanced Terminator goes back in time to make trouble for John Conner, and a T-800 is sent back to save the day. There’s a good car chase and several Terminator rumbles and ultimately John Connor survives to see an uncertain future, after all, “the future is what we make of it” right? Well, apparently that’s not the case. The reoccurring theme in the first two installments of the Terminator franchise was that our destiny is in our hands. In T2 we were lead to believe that Judgment Day had be averted when John and his mommy took out Cyberdyne and destroyed all the salvaged parts of the original T-800 from the first movie. But when another T-800 and the T-X appear on the scene in T3, it’s clear that an unhappy future still lies ahead for mankind and that our friend John still has a date with destiny. The point is driven home numerous times by Arnie’s character, the friendly T-800, when he tells John that Judgment Day wasn’t averted, but merely delayed and that he is still the last best hope for mankind. Suddenly the gears have been switched from free will, to a mixture of free will and predestination, John Calvin would be so proud. I suppose that was necessary though. T3 would be pretty boring if it was just about some kid with emotional issues who might have been the savior of humanity rather than just some weirdo working at a Taco Bell, if only he and his mom hadn’t blown up an office building when he was 13. Without the concept of pre-ordained destiny, we wouldn’t have much of a story at all now would we? Casting aside the philosophy of predestination and the classic notion of man vs. machine, I decided to go into this film expecting nothing more than mindless action rather than a well developed plot and thought provoking social commentary. But I had some serious concerns, a poorly made sequel can ruin an entire franchise. (*cough* Highlander *cough*) To be honest, I had low expectations for T3, which maybe one of the reasons why I liked it so much. Despite my fears, Jonathan Mostow, with the help of his cast and creative team, managed to pull it off while doing two very important things. He remained true to the Terminator story while adding his own style and feel to the movie, which gave it a sense of freshness and familiarity all at the same time. A healthy dose of humor was also tossed into the mix, a dangerous move that was executed very well. Inappropriately placed humor can ruin a perfectly good movie, but T3 proved to be a good blend of action and humor. I defy you not to laugh out loud at the scene where Arnie first gets his clothes or the moment when he bluntly explains the benefits of levity while driving a Winnebago.  Arnie is still perfect as the T-800. Having more fun with his role as the friendly killing machine this time around, he poked fun at himself and the film with subtle and not so subtle sight gags and deadpan one liners. Minus a couple of weak moments, Nick Stahl and Claire Danes did fine as John Connor and Kate Brewster. Although, I felt that Stahl lacked the charisma and presence a true savior of mankind would posses, the character was still young and if we’re lucky we’ll be given the chance to see him develop those characteristics in T4. The Kate Brewster character was a little too prepared for the personal tragedies she experienced in the film, but I suppose you can’t be the savior of mankind’s assistant without being emotionally and physically tuff. With only about 3 lines of dialog, short of a bad hair day or a pimple on her nose, it would have been difficult for Kristanna Loken to fail in her role as the T-X. I wonder if John Connor ever captured a T-X and reprogrammed her for other duties? “John, I like your pants! [5]”Here’s an observation, the T-X is a shape shifter, and her “clothes” were just a part of her fluid outer shell, so she had no clothes to be destroyed in the time travel process. So why would she come through the time machine “naked” and draw more attention to herself? Could it be to satisfy the prepubescent boys flocking to the theater to see this film? Wasn’t it stated in T1 that inorganic material would be destroyed in the time travel process? Besides aiding him in infiltration, wasn’t the point of coating the T-800 in skin to facilitate the time travel process for an otherwise inorganic character? How in the hell did the T-1000 or the T-X, both possessing liquid metal exteriors, travel through time? I must have missed something. But back to the review…  Fans of the now classic Fallout PC games [6] are in for a bit of a treat near the end of the film when we see a facility that just reeks of Vault Tec. Experts on Terminator lore get to see some cool stuff including Skynet before it goes completely bad, the T-800’s Great-Great-Great-Grandfather [7] and the origins of the infamous Hunter Killers briefly mentioned in T1. The film is full of eerie parallels to modern day life, including large-scale computer viruses [8], unmanned military drones [9] and a controversial national missile defense system [10]. On the whole T3 delivers exactly what you’d expect, fast action, a little humor, a few moments of suspense and cool killer robots. It also manages to surprise you at the end with a slight plot twist setting itself up for yet another sequel that will hopefully at last satisfy my need to see a post “Judgment Day” world scarred by full scale epic combat between the last remnants of mankind and thousands of gun toting spooky looking skeletal robots. The brief scenes with a battle weathered John Connor addressing his troops before a tattered US flag and a battalion of T-800s sans living tissue on patrol through a field of human skulls were just enough to wet my appetite for T4.If you’re a fan of the original movies or you’re just looking for a fun ride, grab your dark shades and your leather jacket and check out T3. If you’re bringing along a Terminator novice, do yourself a favor and rent or buy the first two and watch them before hand to spare the rest of us your endless chatter and attempts to explain the past movies during the film. |
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This article is from Random Drivel http://www.randomdrivel.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.randomdrivel.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3570 Links in this article [1] http://us.imdb.com/Name?Schwarzenegger,%20Arnold [2] http://us.imdb.com/Name?Stahl,%20Nick [3] http://us.imdb.com/Name?Danes,%20Claire [4] http://us.imdb.com/Name?Loken,%20Kristanna [5] http://www.terminator3.com/content/image_downloads/photography/DT3-15227r_v2.jpg [6] http://www.interplay.com/fallout/' target= [7] http://www.terminator3.com/content/image_downloads/photography/pGal1_m.jpg [8] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/1464337.stm /fantasy [9] http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/11/04/predator.background /fantasy [10] http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/19/national/main559397.shtml |
