T3 is a guaranteed SMASH! BRING IT ON!


T3 Rise of the Machines = Not as good as it could've been!   December 29, 2003
 35 out of 47 found this review helpful

My initial impression upon hearing that there would be a third Terminator movie was that it would be excellent, thinking that the majority, if not all of those involved the making of the first two films would be involved in making this third one. Upon hearing that James Cameron and many others from the first two films would not be involved, some of those expectations were dashed.

When I saw this third film in the theaters there "was" an obvious letdown when considering that in "some" ways, the mythos that was established in the first two films seemed to have been forgotten. Upon watching this film a second time, now on DVD, I've changed my opinion somewhat. Taken as a whole, this film does extend upon the mythos of the futuristic battle between man and machine and gives an even greater impression of the "history" of events in the Terminator genre. Where the film takes some hits is it's few too many attempts at brevity, which are interesting the first time but they're so cliched as to actually distract from the overall enjoyment of the film.

Despite some of those misgivings about those "too many" trips to the humor well, I would still suggest to those that either saw the film in the theaters or have overlooked this film completely that they give this film an open minded viewing because in many ways it does develop the overall story of the Terminator!

What can one say about Arnold Schwarzenegger and his past and present performances as the Terminator; he brings the character back fairly well in this third film. It is very interesting to see the T-101 model Terminator with a psychological profile but, as stated above, that is interesting but it also plays too heavily in the trips to the humor well.

While Nick Stahl may be a good actor and may have done well in the other films he's been in, I thought his characterization for John Connor was more or less weak, they should've brought Edward Furlong in to reprise the character. Claire Danes does a good job in her first action role. The extraordinarily gorgeous newcomer, Kristanna Loken does an exceptional job as the Terminatrix, future performances by her should be looked forward to with great anticipation.

Jonathan Mostow does an acceptable job as the director of this film, given the script that he had to work with but one cannot help but wonder how different and that much better this film might've been had James Cameron taken the job. The overall score for the film does an acceptable job in carrying the film along!

The Premise:

As we soon learn, Skynet, just prior to it's defeat sent back not two but three Terminators, The T-101 of the first film; the T-1000 of the second film and now the T-X Terminatrix of this third film. The T-X Terminatrix is sent to terminate John Connor's lieutenants but to her great luck she not only finds one of the lieutenants in Kate Brewster but she also finds evidence that John Connor himself is nearby and becomes locked on him. In comes Arnold Schwarzenegger as the latest T-101 sent to protect John Connor and his lieutenants and he is now not only a Terminator but also he's also a Terminator with a psychological profile, ready to dispense his "wisdom" at any time.

What follows from there is a very good Terminator movie that is entertaining but doesn't measure up to its predecessors. I would still recommend it to fans of the series as it does do an acceptable job of advancing the Terminator story as a whole! {ssintrepid}

Special Features:

-Feature film with 2 commentary tracks with the stars and the director
-Movie and Video Game Trailers
-Introduction by Arnold Schwarzenegger
-Go on-set with the HBO Fist Look Making of Documentary
-SGT Candy Scene - This is absolutely hilarious and should've made it into the film!
-"Terminal Flaws" Gag Reel
-T3 Visual Effects Lab:
*Build Your Own Eye-Popping Action Sequences
*Skynet Database of Weapons
*Personnel Dossiers
-Terminator Timeline

-Storyboards
-Dressed to Kill
-Toys in Action
-The Making of the Video Game


Third time is not the charm   October 17, 2003
 28 out of 46 found this review helpful

I found this movie a bitter disappointment. Early on, the scene with the Elton John glasses on the Terminator was ludicrous, and (for me) somewhat spoiled the truly cool scene in T2 it parodied.

The cast is weak. Nick Stahl is a poor John Connor. If I can believe the internet, Edward Furlong has had drug problems and that's why he's been replaced by Nick Stahl in the role of John Connor. It's too bad; I greatly preferred Furlong's take on the character - his portrayal of John in T2 came across as competent and tough, with enough angst for seasoning. T3's John Connor is a whiny loser. Though I wonder if Furlong could have done any better with this script.

Claire Danes has grown up from being kind of cute into a woman of amazingly average looks and acting talent.

Honestly - no exaggeration at all - I found myself yawning repeatedly during the truck chase scene. We've seen this sort of mindless property damage countless times before. And since neither John nor Kate (the Danes character) had grabbed my sympathies, I couldn't really get emotionally involved in it, or care what happend to them.

And there were just so many moments in this movie that made no logical sense, that were obviously inserted because the writer thought they were cool, and didn't stop to think them out:

The Arnold Terminator is programmed to obey the lady vet's orders but not John's. WHY? She sent the thing back to save her life, and John's. Why not program it to obey his orders, too? What if she'd died - John would have had no control over the thing. Obviously the writer and director thought it was funny to have John vehemently order the Terminator around, to no effect, then have it immediately obey the woman's orders. Maybe it was funny....until you actually think about that for a pico-second.

We have more scenes of the Terminator machine-gunning cop cars with zero casualties (only it was done SO much better in T2). WHY? Okay, in T2 the teenage John Connor was uncomfortable having "his" Terminator kill people. But after decades of combat, knowing she was fighting for the very survival of the human race, are we expected to believe Kate would be braindead enough to so severely handicap the machine that's her last, desperate hope? Okay, it has to kill someone. When we balance that against the entire human race dying - well, it's a full-throttle Terminator kinda day.

We see the female Terminator going around killing the people who will be John Connor's lieutenants in the future, the hard core of warriors that saves the world. True, we only see two scenes of what these people are like in their teens, but what are these future heroes? A brother and sister preppy blasting their brains out at a kegger, and a short-round guy with wispy mustache working drivethrough at a burger joint. I mean, sure, maybe severe hardship can cause profound changes in some people's personalities, but wouldn't we expect the saviors of humanity, by their mid-teens, to be serious A-type personalities? Maybe we might even see a few older folks with, dare I say it, some military experience.

It's a tradition in Terminator movies to have a scene where the present suddenly transitions over to the bombed-out Terminator future. In T3 it happens when John, in an boozy funk, drops a partially empty beer bottle off a bridge. The problem is, the bottle doesn't disappear when it hits the water, it continues travelling downward until it lands on the bottom, carpeted with human skulls. Let's think about that for a moment. In order to believe this scene, we have to accept that someone in that future world, where humans live in underground bunkers and only come out at night to wage guerilla warware, where flying HKs constantly patrol the air....was on top of a bridge drinking beer and then dropped the bottle into the water. The movie crowd was literally hooting at that scene, it was so stupid.

Then we have the scene where John and Kate are trying to enter the passwords to break into the mountain complex. The TX blasts a helicopter through the doors and then WALKS toward them. WHY? Well, because if she moved as fast as we've already seen she can, the movie would've ended right there.

John powers up the super-magnetic field which works on the TX so well it actually pulls the metal right off her body....but doesn't affect anything in his backpack. Jesus wept.

I've read the comment from one reviewer of T3, "I wish they would destroy every copy of that movie, reshoot it with a competent script, with a competent director and with some good actors." I disagree. I don't see the need for a better T3. Rather, I don't see the need for any T3 at all. The ending scene of T2 was so perfect, the series should have ended there.