I would pay $4.00 to watch this movie
Well, to get the obvious out of the way: Schwartzenegger is old. I mean, for most movies, this doesn’t bother me. I mean, who am I to judge who may or may not be an action hero? But the T 800 is supposed to be a robot… you know, never-aging and all that jazz. Well then, why does the T 800 in “Terminator 3” have a dewlap?
Now that that’s over with, “Terminator 3” is surprising in many ways. Many of the aspects which one expects to be horrible turn out to be quite good, like Kristianna Loken, of “Mortal Kombat: Conquest” fame. Well, she plays a great Terminator, even though she does seem to be trying a bit too hard to be Robert Patrick from “T2”.
Although I liked Nick Stahl in the lead role, he wasn’t ideal. I don’t understand why Hollywood has had this trend of trying to find the dullest actors for their lead roles lately. I suppose they didn’t want him to upstage Arnold like Edward Furlong did in “T2”. Also, this brings up the issue of “Why not Edward Furlong?” I mean, “Terminator 3” is supposed to occur about twelve years after “T2”, and it has been 12 years since “T2” came out… am I the only one connecting the dots here? The buzz is that they turned him down because of his “shady image”. If so: Shame on you, Hollywood! After all, if Eddie Furlong has a shady image, tell me again about HOLLYWOOD, for heaven’s sake. This is the land of assaults, drug use, and sexual shenanigans… give me a break. That’s like Hannibal Lecter turning down dinner with Jeffrey Dahmer.
Regardless, the other actors in the movie performed well, and Claire Danes did a great job. Now for the rest of the breakdown. The special effects are outstanding, especially the car chase scene. The soundtrack is nowhere near as memorable as the prequels’. The direction is not notable. The dialogue is good in general, with a few breakout scenes and a few failures. But the best thing about this movie is the story… and the story is what the makers of the film focus on the least.
This is my big problem with “Terminator 3”. In this, the third part of the saga, the writers explained more about how SkyNet got out of control, an aspect of the story that was breezed over in about three minutes of screen time throughout the movie. Here is what I gleaned: SkyNet became unstoppable once it was released onto the Internet, as it had no particular computer it was based on. Basically, SkyNet is the bogeyman of distributed computing, a sort of demon in the machine. Now this is a very newly-popularized idea, in terms of science fiction, and it’s nice to know that the writers were up-to-date on this. Now, perhaps it’s simply a matter of time, but it irks me regardless.
Other aspects of the storyline were similarly glossed over, like John Connor’s “lieutenants”, which the T-X was sent back in time to kill off. That last sentence tells you pretty much everything that is said in the movie about it, but I thought it could have been a very interesting thing to play up in the film itself. But I guess the producers wanted to make a straight action film with a few one-liners in it. This would have been fine if they hadn’t done it to what seems to have been an excellent screenplay.
There are a lot of little “in jokes” in “Terminator 3” that one needs a knowledge of the first two films to get. Some of these were clunkers, like the basic plot being the same as the first movie. This was done well in “T2”, but we don’t need it again. Come on, Hollywood, you’re supposed to be the creative ones. But some of the jokes were quite good, like Earl Boen’s appearance as Dr. Peter Silberman, only this time he’s a police hostage psychologist. I also appreciated the interior of the military complex, where we get to see the new projects in development… technology we don’t see in the other movies except in the shots of the future.
Another thing that irritated me about this movie was its attempt to be darker than the other two. Although the thematic point driven home throughout the movie is that we can’t escape fate, it is obvious that, if this were true and John Connor were “destined” to save humanity, we really don’t have to worry too much… and we certainly needn’t bother seeing the next sequel. And, other than the ending, this movie had much brighter lighting and fewer shocking moments than either of the previous films did. In the end, one is left feeling more like one just got out of a bad “Final Destination” franchisee than a “Terminator” one.
In terms of this year so far, “Terminator 3” is by no means the best movie to see. Maybe if it were more ambitious, it would be a great movie, but all I got out of it was a sense of wasted potential. To reiterate: This movie would have been great, possibly, if it had been another hour longer. Only clocking in at a little over an hour and a half, however, it leaves a lot of points underexplored. Overall, I’d suggest watching this movie if you’re a fan of the series, but don’t bother otherwise.