Terminator 3:  Rise of the Machines - movie review without spoilers (July 1, 2003)

Arnold Schwarzenegger is back in what is arguably his most famous role, the Terminator.  The third film in the series brings the Terminator back to yet again protect John Connor (Nick Stahl).  This time, the Terminator is up against an even more advanced Terminator model, the T-X, which appears in the form of a female (Kristanna Loken).  The machines make their third attempt to kill the future leader of the Resistance, but on this journey, another person is drawn into the fight in the form of Kate Brewster (Claire Danes), who it turns out has a connection to John.  More sections of Los Angeles and surrounding areas are destroyed during the T-X's relentless pursuit of the fleeing threesome.

I loved "The Terminator", and when "Terminator 2" came out, I went to the convention held the weekend before the film's release and was in line for the midnight showing at Universal Citywalk on opening night.  I absolutely loved "Terminator 2".  It was a lot to ask that the sequel be just as good as the original, but the second film certainly lived up to and exceeded that expectation.  When I first heard that T3 was actually going to be made, and without James Cameron at the helm, I was very skeptical about how it would turn out.  How were they going to match or surpass those two wonderful films, and without Cameron no less?  As the trailers started to be available, however, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the film looked pretty good, and the twist that the new Terminator would be female seemed like a good addition.  As the release date neared, I got more and more excited about seeing the film, to the point where I persuaded my husband to attend the 10:45pm screening at a nearby theatre the night before the formal release.

With mixed expectations, I have to say that I liked the film, but like is about the most that I can say.  I think that for someone coming in who isn't that enmeshed in the Terminator saga, this film is amazing and will blow them away.  However, for someone who knows both prior films very well, this film is mostly a rehash of what has come before but missing some fairly important elements.

The biggest missing element, I believe, is Sarah Connor.  Even though John Connor is the "important" one as far as the story of the future is concerned, and the Terminator is the "star" of the films, Sarah has been our guide through these films.  We've felt connected to her as she was unwittingly thrown into this turmoil and had to rise to the circumstances that she was put in.  Without her presence in this film, we feel a bit lost and disconnected.  While this feeling almost echoes John's own predicament, having this feeling as the audience in this case doesn't sit well.

I also think that the T-X is not nearly as interesting a character as the T-1000.  The T-1000 was such a leap in advancement from the original Terminator that he was an incredibly cool character in and of himself.  Wow, he's made of liquid metal.  Wow, he can morph into looking like anything he touches.  And, he's got a sense of humour about him.  The T-X is much more one-dimensional.  It's a killing machine, much like the Terminator in the first film, but not quite with the same menace, and after two prior films of killing machines, yet another killing machine, even one that has a few nifty new gadgets, isn't that much of a leap from the T-1000.  (That being said, I did think the DNA-checking capability of the T-X was cool.)  There were also a few particular scenes where I thought the graphic nature of the violence was unnecessary and in one case, didn't even make sense as part of the story.  For further elaboration, please see the spoiler review.

The story is interesting and nicely references events in the past, but the T-X's chase of the Terminator, John and Kate isn't that much different from the T-1000's chase of the Terminator, John and Sarah.  The chases and stunts are spectacular as one would expect, but at some point, even that seemed a bit like overkill.  We've seen similar things in T2. I did, however, like some of the battle sequences between the Terminator and T-X, and I especially loved a particular cameo.  (To find out who makes a cameo, please see the spoiler review.)  I liked the little bits that explored John's character, of what it must be like to spend your whole life knowing what you're destined for.  On the one hand, I would have liked a bit more about that, but on the other hand, I also realize that a character study of John Connor is probably not what one would expect from a Terminator film.

I found bits of the film and ending to be a bit preachy on the political front, which might or might not be affected by Schwarzenegger's own political statements and rumored run for the governorship of California.  I have mixed feelings about the ending of the film.  I really liked the hopeful nature of the endings of both prior films.  While this film attempts to have a similar optimistic outlook, it's preceded by such a dark realization that overshadows it.  The most disturbing thing to me about the ending is that it seems to set up yet another installment in the franchise.  This particular Terminator fan would like the franchise to be put to rest.

Schwarzenegger is fine in a role very familiar to him.  It's pretty amazing to see how physical he still can be, and his character goes through one particular situation that hasn't happened previously.  For elaboration of the situation, please see the spoiler review.

Nick Stahl ("In the Bedroom") is good as John, and Nick is certainly a better actor than the previous portrayer of John Connor, Edward Furlong, so that helps quite a bit.  I did run into a problem that many others might not.  Stahl looks very much like a younger Alexander Siddig (fka Siddig El Fadil), who played Bashir on TV's "Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine", so I found that pseudo-connection to another franchise a bit distracting at times.

Claire Danes ("William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet" and TV's "My So-Called Life") is fine in her role, though I had a little trouble recognizing her at first.  Given her filmography, T3 is not something you'd immediately picture her being in, so it was interesting to see her in a different kind of film.

Kristanna Loken is fine as the new Terminator, but apart from the extensive action sequences, there isn't much for her to do with her character.

One of the other elements that I thought was sorely missing was the composing talent of Brad Fiedel.  I'm not one of those who particular focuses on the music in films, but it's impossible to remember either of the Terminator films without immediately calling to mind the themes and riffs created by Fiedel.  While new composer Marco Beltrami does an acceptable job, the music this time around doesn't blend into and enhance the film as Fiedel's scores did, and the well-known Terminator theme is relegated only to the end credits, where there is also inexplicably a song, which I found very jarring for a Terminator film.

I'd still give the film a recommend, and I'll probably see it one more time in theatres and buy the DVD, but it's definitely the weakest film in the franchise.

For the spoiler review of Terminator 3, go here.

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