Warning: May contain spoilers. You've been warned.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is on TV right now, so I figured I'd review it.
The Story.
The story takes place in 2004, 9 years after the events of Terminator 2. John Connor (Nick Stahl) cannot be located so Skynet sends the TX (Kristanna Loken) back to kill his future lieutenants. Meanwhile, Kate Connor (Claire Danes) sends back a T-800 (Model 101) (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to protect herself and John. Apparently, Judgement Day is inevitable.
Personally, I think this movie is very underrated. Yes, the story is basically a carbon copy of Terminator 2, but it has it's own strong points.
This is the Terminator movie not to be written and directed by James Cameron, which is rather said. After the hype that was Terminator 2, James Cameron said there would be one, but when 12 years passed and he didn't move on it, he decided he would just leave it as it was: perfection.
They "killed" off Sarah Connor which was kind of disappointing. Linda Hamilton just wasn't interested in reprising her role (most likely because of her divorce from James Cameron). How did they kill her off? Leukemia. I like this. Now, before you going bitching that I'm glad she died of leukemia, I want to explain that I liked it because she died of something that no one can prevent. And also because it wasn't a gun or a terminator or an explosion that killed her.
Like many things in the early 2000s, everything revolves around computers and viruses. A virus that is Skynet is taking over. Typical.
And sending back a female Terminator is expected. After having 2 movies with only male Terminators, of course you'd do whatever you can to make the new one stand out and that is by having a female Terminator. Although it's unoriginal because it's expected, I liked that it was a she.
The Actors.
Arnold Schwarzenegger reprises his titular role as the Terminator and nothing really changes about him. Although, in this film, we understand that he comes off an assembly line and that he is not the same Terminator as the one that John befriended in Terminator 2.
People complain that Nick Stahl was poorly cast as John Connor
calling him a whiner and a coward. Me? I think he was cast perfectly and his portrayal was right on. People imagine John Connor to be brave and fearless. Well when you're a ten year-old child like John in Terminator 2 and you were being hunted by a machine that can shape-shift, take the form of other people, and carried a gun and lost the best friend because he was a machine, you would become a frightened, mentally-scarred child. Terminator 3's John Connor lives in fear like he should and makes sure he cannot be found. I thought he was perfect.
Kristanna Loken was enjoyable. She had little to no lines. In fact, she spoke all of her character's lines in the first 25 minutes of the movie. She, the actor, never speaks again. I wish she had more lines. It would've made her more frightening.
The Rating.
I'm happy that his movie received an R rating. I believe I express my disappointment in Terminator Salvation's PG-13 rating in its review. I'm happy that the action, profanity, and nudity was enough to give it an R-rating. Sad thing is, there was less action and much less swearing than the original two movies.
The Necessity of the Film.
I was 13 when this movie came out and I was so happy it did. The Terminator series is one of my favorites along with Harry Potter and such. To me, just the fact that there was another Terminator movie was awesome. I'm now old enough to know that this movie was not necessary. I do believe that it was necessary that they made a fourth one after the release of this one. Terminator 2: Judgement Day closed the series, and Terminator 3 opened it again to more films. It was unnecessary to make this film, but I would be lying if I said I didn't want it.
References to the Previous Terminator Films.
The Terminator series is really good with keeping up with tradition... and breaking them. This movie carries on the "I'll be back," "come with me if you want to live" lines. This time the lines were "I'm back," "she'll be back," and "do you wanna live? Come on!" The fourth one also does it's own variations but this one made the most drastic changes and changed them for comedy which I didn't particularly care for.
There were also some minor, unnecessary comedic scenes that I didn't care for. Such as when he is finding clothes and he puts on the star-shaped sunglasses. Really? Why did he need to do that?
Overall.
I enjoyed the movie. I did. It's not my favorite, but it's apart of the original trilogy and I'll back it up if necessary. It's a part of the series... now deal with it!
Previous Film: Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991)
Next Film: Terminator Salvation (2009)
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