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MOVIE REVIEW
T-3: Rise of
the Machines
(2003)
Starring:
Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, Kristanna Loken, David
Andrews
Director:
Jonathan Mostow
Rating: R
Studio:
Warner Bros.
Release Date: 7.02.03
Review
Posted: 7.02.03
Spoilers:
Minor
By
Sara Michelle Fetters
"Arnold’s
Back but All Sequel Terminates is the Audience"
He’s baaack…
Arnold
Schwarzenegger returns in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,
reprising the role that launched him to international
superstardom almost twenty years a go. Once again, he’s a
Terminator, model T101, and, like T2 over a decade a go,
he’s been sent back through time to ensure the survival of the
human race. This time, not only is he trying to protect the
future leader of mankind John Connor (Nick Stahl, replacing
Edward Furlong), but also Connor’s future wife Kate Brewster
(Claire Danes).
Standing
against them is the newest terminating cyborg, the T-X
(Kristanna Loken, performing her stone-face mannequin duties
admirably); a machine with the ability to take on the form of
any living soul it comes in contact with as well as able to
infect all computer systems with a virus putting them under her
murderous control. She’s a formidable opponent, and the T101’s
an obsolete model, but all he has to do is keep John and Kate
alive long enough to stay alive after the coming apocalypse and
he’s got more than enough tricks up his sleeve to accomplish
that mission.
This all
comes as news to John Connor. After all, he thought he and his
mother stopped the apocalypse a decade earlier. Turns out, all
they did was just postpone it, it being inherently in mankind’s
nature to destroy themselves. Now, all John and Kate can do is
survive the devastation, preserving the hope that they can lead
humanity away from the brink of annihilation after the bombs
have fallen and the machines rise up to eradicate them.
Or is it?
What if SkyNet can be destroyed before it completely takes over
and launches its nuclear attack against humainty? It’s not like
they don’t have an in with the military. Kate’s father Gen.
Robert Brewster (David Andrews, A Walk to Remember) is
the man-in-charge of controlling and activating all of SkyNet’s
systems. If they can destroy the computer’s core module, maybe
John and Becky can finally do what he and his mother originally
set out to do so many year’s a go: ensure the future of mankind
without the threat of nuclear extermination.
That, in a
nutshell, is the plot of the latest entry in James Cameron’s
hugely popular and influential Terminator saga. Numerous
questions swirled around the production of this movie, not the
least of which was whether or not the saga could survive without
its Oscar-winning writer and director. Choosing not to return,
Cameron instead gave his blessing to star and friend
Schwarzenegger, deciding to move on to other material feeling
he’d said all he had to say in the immensely popular T2.
Writers John
D. Brancato, Michael Ferris (co-writers of The Game) and
Ted Sarafian (Tank Girl) give it their best shot, trying
hard to keep the same seminal tone of Cameron’s originals while
attempting to take the movie in its own unexpected trajectory.
In some sense, they have succeeded beyond words. Make not bones
about it, Terminator 3 is probably the most expensive
franchise film (and at $165 million it’s also the most expensive
rated-R movie in history) to dive head-long into depression and
ennui since Tim Burton had the Caped Crusader lose at the
end of Batman Returns. The writers have truly crafted an
ending I just did not see coming, and as such, I applaud them,
director Jonathan Mostow and star Schwarzenegger for having the
guts to risk complete audience alienation by taking it there.
That aside,
I’m still hard pressed to wonder what would be the point of
caring. For the most part, Terminator 3 is completely
devoid of any new ideas, instead choosing to retread those
brought forth in the first two installments and finishing with a
conclusion so blatantly engineered to lead to a fourth chapter
that “to be continued” should have been scrawled across the
bottom of the screen.
It doesn’t
help that the film shoots its wad pretty much right away,
opening with a spectacular car chase through some crowded
California streets that must be seen to be believed. If there is
one thing Mostow knows well it is action, his work on the
wonderful B-movie thrillers Breakdown and U-571
proof enough of that. More and more, it is looking like summer
2003 is going to be remembered as the year of the awesome car
chase. What with Matrix Reloaded,
The Italian Job
and 2 Fast 2 Furious already setting an incredibly high
bar, Mostow surpasses them all with all the fire and fury of
Mad Max-ian demolition derby.
Unfortunately, this is Terminator 3’s high point, a
delirious mixture of action and comedy that almost puts Cameron
and his kinetic masterminding of the two previous films to
shame. Only almost, though, as Mostow can’t ever reach these
feverishly entertaining heights again, the rest of the movie
trying desperately to do so only to fall further and further
from the high standard set during the opening half hour.
None of this
seems to bother the ever-stoic Schwarzenegger. He looks as good
as ever as the T-101 and at over fifty-years-old he appears as fit
and ready for action as ever. Some of the sequences in this film
have to be some of the most physical the Austrian muscleman has
ever attempted and I was impressed with how well he still seems
able to do them with such apparent ease. I also liked how easily
the actor was able to poke fun at himself, going through the
film with a semi-serious smirk that was deliciously engaging.
His initial appearance in the nude, particularly, has a rye,
winking sense of humor to it that’s particularly engaging.
Too bad both
the immensely talented Stahl and Danes don’t seem to be having
near as much fun with the material as Schwarzenegger. Stahl, the
great young actor of In the Bedroom and
Bully just
full of promise and poise, walks through Terminator 3
with a tiring air of juvenile posturing. Danes fares little
better. This is nothing more than a paycheck movie for the
usually picky actress. None of the life and spark she showcased
so wondrously in Romeo & Juliet or Little Women is
on display here, save for one brief instant where Kate finally
stands up and embraces her destiny. Too bad, for the rest of her
performance desperately could use the spunk she showcases in
that one moment.
The biggest
problem of Terminator 3, however, doesn’t lie in the
performances or Mostow’s direction, but in the complete
repudiation of the themes and ideals spelled out so eloquently
in Cameron’s originals. There is "no fate but what we make" says
Michael Biehn to Linda Hamilton back in the 1984 original, a
statement she makes sure to pass on to her son and live up to in
the 1991 sequel. The idea that a person controls their own
life, that a future based on perceived destruction can be
changed if only different choices are made, is completely thrown
out the window this time around. Controlling fate and destiny is
revealed to only be an illusion this time around and the idea
that one controls their own destiny, so beautifully fleshed out
in Cameron’s work, is summarily discarded here.
I can give
all the props I want to Terminator 3 for daring to take a
dark and twisted turn in its final act, but I can not forgive
the complete disdain for principals and ideals contained in the
prequels. It is as if Mostow and company were so sure of their
sinister conclusion that they forgot to hold dear to what it was
that made Cameron’s films so memorable. It wasn’t the effects or
the action, even if they were both exemplary, it was the human
element that made them so superb. But humanity is exactly what
Terminator 3 is missing and, as such, it’s a technical
wonder and an emotionally disenchanting mess all at the same
time. Arnold may be back, but all his return really succeeds at
is terminating an audience’s good will.
Rating: 2 out of 4
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