Resistance is futile, persistence annoying and existence pointless. Dominance is quite fun though......
Resistance is futile, persistence annoying and existence pointless. Dominance is quite fun though........
Member since:07.09.2004
Reviews:3
Members who trust:2
Firstly, an apology-I know that this film is now last years news, but I wanted to write a decent review on a subject that I was passionate about and this fitted the bill-also I didn't actually see the movie until it was released on video. Anyways, onwards dear friends......
To start with, the idea was intriguing-how could you possibly have continued the franchise when as we all know, Arnie, his nemesis and the parts of the original terminator from 1984 were all molten slag and any info that was related to the development of the skynet chips was destroyed. Aha I thought, but maybe they had a really clever idea.....and they did.......but the implementation was AWFUL.
So here's the idea-Judgment day is inevitable. You can postpone it but you can never prevent it. Hmm....ok Mr new director, I'm intrigued-tell me more........oh I see.....
And thats my first major problem with this movie-we get this line about judgement day being inevitable-thats right ONE line in a 2 hour movie and thats it. Now I'm never one to encourage an overly navel gazing contemplative plot where the characters do little except ponder the nature of the universe, but for me one of the greatest strengths of the first 2 movies was the fact that questions like this were adressed
(particularly in T2) but in a way that didn't detract from a good action movie. So, judgement day is inevitable, but we never have it explained to us in any way whatsoever why this is the case or how it could be or anything-fair enough. But here is where it gets worse. You see, despite the fact that Skynet gets its jump start 10 years later than planned, its still on a murderous mission to destroy the resistance. John Connor is as important as ever he was but as the machines cannot find him (due to the fact that since the events of T2 he lives 'off the grid') they go after all of his lieutenants instead, including his future wife, one Kate Brewster. Whoa! back up there Sparky! Wife? Oh yes dear reader-but more of her later.
So, being as how the T800 and the T1000 failed in the job twice before (how does Skynet know this given that in the future in which it now resides none of these events could ever have taken place?) Skynet sends back the TX-the Terminatrix. Thats right, a female terminator-you can almost hear the cliches coming can't you? The fact that she can inflate her boobs to distract a traffic cop-the fact that she can analyse blood samples with her tongue etc etc. The TX is of course an anti terminator terminator (for those of you who haven't seen the film-I swear to god that line is actually used) and so is going to be impossible to destroy. Enter Arnie, sent back through time by the resistance to save Kate Brewster (incidentally he runs into John Connor along the way but somehow seems to have already been programmed to save him as well-go figure) As it turns out, he has been sent by Future Kate who re-programmed him after he had successfully assasinated Future John-apparently he was chosen for the mission due to the emotional attachement he felt towards the model number-to come back in time and save present John and present Kate-confused yet?
All of this occurs in the first half an hour or so of the film. The rest of it is devoted of course to the big budget special effects bonanza that you have come to expect of the franchise. Except that it doesn't feel right. It feels very artificial, like a normal brainless hollywood blockbuster and though it might look pretty when everything goes Boom (and it does) there is no sense of danger, or thrills in any of it-frankly its hard to care.
As to the performances-its easy to see why only 2 of the original cast returned to do this sequel as the writing was awful. Arnie is more wooden than ever and struggles painfully thorugh a script riddled with the kind of one liners that would have looked classy in Batman & Robin. Claire Danes as the future wife of John Connor is generally good as she struggles to cope with the enormity of the events unfolding around her, the death of her current fiance, then her father etc. However, once her father is dead and gone she seems to have taken a break from acting for the rest of the movie and seems perfectly content to run round as some psuedo female Rambo cliche. Nick Stahl was always going to have a tough job playing John Connor, and to be fair he does try his best but he seems very out of synch not only with the John that we know and love but also with the kind of person that he should be and the situations that he finds himself in. The excruciating speech where he explains the death of his mother from cancer is just one of the lowlights of an actor way out of his depth for the kind of character he is supposed to be playing. And of course there's Kristianna Loken as the TX-a terminator that constantly smiles and seems to take great pleasure in its work-why would a machine do this? Its an affront to the memorable performances of Arnie and Bob Patrick in the first 2 films (ok so in Arnies case all he really had to do was stand there) but nonetheless its a poor effort-lets hope that she sticks to the modelling in future eh?
So, to sum up-a film that on its own as a brainless popcorn space filler is ok, but as an addition to one of the most thought provoking and intelligent sci-fi franchises of our time, at best a disappointment and at worst a total heresy. Apologies to anyone foolish enough to have struggled through all that but as you may have gathered this is a subject close to my heart.
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Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Production Year: 2007 - Action/Adventure - Director: Paul Greengrass - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Matt Damon, Julia Stiles, Joan Allen, Edgar Ramirez, David Strathairn, Paddy Considine, Albert Finney
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machinesstarts in high gear and never slows down. The ... more
apocalyptic "Judgment Day" ofT2was never prevented, only postponed: John Connor (Nick Stahl, replacingT2's Edward Furlong), now 22 and disconnected from society, is being p...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machinesstarts in high gear and never slows down. The ... more
apocalyptic "Judgment Day" ofT2was never prevented, only postponed: John Connor (Nick Stahl, replacingT2's Edward Furlong), now 22 and disconnected from society, is being p...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machinesstarts in high gear and never slows down. The ... more
apocalyptic "Judgment Day" ofT2was never prevented, only postponed: John Connor (Nick Stahl, replacingT2's Edward Furlong), now 22 and disconnected from society, is being p...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
A decade has passed since John Connor (Nick Stahl) helped prevent Judgment Day and save ... more
mankind from mass destruction. Now 22 Connor lives "off the grid" - no home no credit cards no cell phone and no job. No record of his existence. No way he can b...
Postage & Packaging: £0.00 Availability: 3-5 working days
Advantages: Good acting and direction; action sequences; special effects; the unexpected ending. Disadvantages: The film suffers from some minor flaws and a lack of what made the first two classics.
![Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (Single Disc Edition) [DVD] [2003]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78514688.jpg "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (Single Disc Edition) [DVD] [2003]")
![Terminator 3 - Rise Of The Machines [DVD] [2003]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/80196201.jpg "Terminator 3 - Rise Of The Machines [DVD] [2003]")
![Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (Two Disc Set) [DVD] [2003]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78546904.jpg "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (Two Disc Set) [DVD] [2003]")
Sep 10th, 2004
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