Lee's Movie Info - Visitor Ratings For Terminator 3

I have always liked the ?Terminator? movies, but I have never considered myself a real fan of them. The first was a clever, intelligent sci-fi/action film that allowed us to watch a young James Cameron sharpen his considerable talents. The second was a thoroughly enjoyable visual marvel that lacked the originality or story of the first replacing it with an unnecessarily bloated length. Now comes ?Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,? the first ?Terminator? movie to be guided by hands other than Cameron?s.

It has been years since the teenaged John Conner and his mother Sarah stopped SkyNet with the aid of a reprogrammed Terminator. Believing to have stopped the so-called Judgment Day ? a nuclear attack made by SkyNet destroying much of humanity -- John took to the streets after his mother?s death, embracing the life of a vagabond; no home, no cell phone, no realistic way of anyone contacting him. Now a 22-year old adult, John (Nick Stahl) lives his life almost like an escaped criminal. Working when he can for money, he sleeps wherever he can lay his head and does his best to remain below the radar undetected by anyone.

Little does John know, SkyNet was not destroyed, only delayed. Over the years, the United States government and military have continued with the SkyNet project and the increasing dependency on machines. The Judgment Day John believed he and his mother were successful in stopping is now upon the world.

Unable to kill John twice, SkyNet sends back a new model of Terminator -- the T-X (Kristanna Loken) ? a melding of the original Terminator model with the liquid metal technology of the T-1000. Fast, deadly and incredibly advanced, the T-X comes to the past in search of those who would make up John Conner?s lieutenants as well as John himself. Among them is veterinarian Kate Brewster (Claire Danes) who posses a future link to Conner himself and man?s war with the machines that SkyNet would very much like to stop. As before, a reprogrammed T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger), is sent back by the resistance. With Judgment Day fast approaching, the obsolete model is given a simple mission: protect John Conner and Kate Brewster from the nuclear onslaught and keep them safe from the pursuing T-X.

?Terminator 3? is much more of an action film than sci-fi. The science fiction remains only because of the well-known back-story that comes along with it from the previous films. The film is 109 minutes (the same length as the original) of almost unrelenting action, with only occasional bits of humor. Most of the humor comes from self-parody, an almost winking acknowledgement that we have all been here before.

The acting is on par with the previous films. Stahl and Danes are welcome additions to the franchise. Stahl is most notable for injecting a sense of real emotion to the character, rather than falling on the bad boy personae that Edward Furlong overly relied on in ?Terminator 2: Judgment Day.? Schwarzenegger is Schwarzenegger, meaning he is the Terminator. It is his most clearly defined and most recognizable role. Every tick in his acting ability plays perfectly off the mechanized life force that is a Terminator. Loken, however, does not come off as well. Beautiful to look at, the model-turned actor shows too much emotion for what is supposed to be a machine. Yet at the same token, she does not project the same sense of menace or relentlessness that the emotionless Schwarzenegger did in the original and Robert Patrick perfectly expressed in the second.

The shortness of the film works to both its advantage and its disadvantage. Like many others, I have theorized that in the absence of the endless filler that permeates through all of Cameron?s movies that the ?Terminator? films were 90-minute stories stretched to their limits. Writers John D. Brancato and Michael Ferris (from their story with Tedi Sarafian) make good use of the shortened clock they give themselves presenting a script that is clever and often amusing if not truly funny. Director Jonathan Mostow has a good feel for pacing, but something just is not quite right about the film. The movie?s length makes it feel like an accelerated ride, one going so fast it distracts from the enjoyment of it.

Technically, the film is a mixed bag. The effects match the excellence we have come to expect from the ?Terminator? movies, but here they are not a means to an end as with Cameron?s films. While Cameron?s moralizing is a welcome casualty of this changing of the guard, the effects exist for spectacle and add nothing to the story. The sound is appropriately loud, yet Don Burgess? cinematography leaves a lot to be desired, reminding me of straight-to-video photography once to often.

The main problem with ?Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines? is it looks cheap. While the effects are seamless, there is nothing onscreen to warrant a $200 million budget. The film, even in it outdoor shots, has a claustrophobic feel to it, as though you can feel the constraints of working with small sets. Despite the spectacle, it is impossible to shake the inherent ?B? movie feeling that surrounds the film, words that should never be appropriate to use about a movie costing over $200 million to make.

The film leaves the door open for sequels to follow the continuing saga of John Conner and the Terminators, but I am not sure this film warrants one. Overall, I enjoyed ?Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,? but I could not help leaving the theater thinking to myself that James Cameron could have done it better. And cheaper.

*** / ****
Grade: B

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