Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) Warner Bros./Sci-Fi-Action RT: 109 minutes Rated R (strong sci-fi violence and action, language, brief nudity) Director: Jonathan Mostow Screenplay: John Brancato and Michael Ferris Music: Marco Beltrami Cinematography: Don Burgess Release date: July 2, 2003 (US) Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, Kristanna Loken, David Andrews, Mark Famiglietti, Earl Boen, Jay Acovone, Kim Robillard, Mark Hicks, M.C. Gainey, Moira Harris, Chopper Bernet, Christopher Lawford, Carolyn Hennesy. Box Office: $150.4M (US)/$433.4M (World)
Rating: ** ½
You would think that after twelve years that somebody could have come up with a better story for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines. Instead, we get a fairly standard Terminator plot with a few variations. To be fair, Terminator 2: Judgment Day is a very hard act to follow. How do you outdo such a groundbreaking film? Simply put, you don’t. You just try to make an entertaining movie that’s not a complete rehash. For the most part, T3 succeeds in that respect.
The most obvious difference between T3 and its predecessors is that the cyber-antagonist is female. The T-X (Loken, BloodRayne) has an endoskeleton with built in weaponry, a liquid metal exterior (similar to the T-1000) and the ability to control other machines. In other words, the T-X model is one bad ass fembot. She’s been sent to the present to kill the future leaders of the Resistance.
John Connor (Stahl, In the Bedroom) lives a nomadic existence off the grid. He’s convinced that despite his best efforts, he didn’t stop Judgment Day from happening. He only delayed it. He still thinks he’s being hunted by machines from the future. As it turns out, he’s right. He’s the primary target of the T-X. Her plan is to get to him through Kate Brewster (Danes, Romeo + Juliet), his future second-in command. She finds Kate at her workplace, an animal hospital in L.A., the same one John breaks into after a motorcycle accident.
Just when it looks like they’re both screwed, a familiar cyborg shows up to save their asses. An old T-850 model Terminator (Schwarzenegger) arrives on the scene, scoops up John and Kate and hauls ass out of there with the indestructible T-X in close pursuit. It takes John a minute to comprehend he’s not the same Terminator that protected him as a child. He looks exactly the same, but knows nothing of their previous association. He only knows what’s he’s been programmed to know, but who programmed him?
The two humans soon learn that not only does Judgment Day still happen; it’s going to happen today. The Terminator’s primary objective is to get John and Kate to safe ground. They’d rather try to prevent the worldwide nuclear holocaust. To do that, Kate needs to get to her father Lt. Gen. Brewster (Andrews, Hannibal) before he activates Skynet, acquired by the military after the destruction of Cyberdyne Systems in T2, in response to a virus infecting computers everywhere.
T3 isn’t that bad of a movie, but it does leave something to be desired. There’s plenty of action including an early morning car chase that involves a crane crashing through a building with Arnie swinging wildly on the hook. It’s the best part of the movie.
One of the biggest problems with T3 is Stahl. He’s a decent actor, but he makes for a rather bland John Connor. As depicted by Stahl, it’s hard to believe that this is the guy who will lead the war against the machines. Danes is not the kind of actress you would picture in a role like this. At one point, John tells Kate that she reminds him of his mother. I don’t see it. She doesn’t project the same toughness as Linda Hamilton who’s sorely missed in this installment (it’s explained her character died of leukemia). Dane is just the wrong choice for the role. Loken walks around like a supermodel with a bad case of PMS. She doesn’t give off one-tenth the menace that Robert Patrick did in T2. She may be hot, but an actress she’s NOT! Schwarzenegger, looking older and moving slower, plays his part with a mixture of bemusement and boredom. He’s still willing to play even though he’s had it with the whole cyborg thing. It’s the last movie he starred in before taking a hiatus to serve as California’s governor (the Governator!).
Everybody watching T3 knows how it’s going to end. It’s a foregone conclusion. The title Rise of the Machines says it all. It feels like the producers, among them former Carolco heads Andrew G. Vajna and Mario Kassar, wanted to squeeze out one more story before the world goes kaboom. Director Jonathan Mostow (Breakdown) does a decent job. It’s a slick production. He keeps things moving at a good pace with cool action set-pieces like the shoot-out at the cemetery where Sarah Connor is supposedly buried. There are some great fights between the two Terminators even though it’s obvious CGI is doing almost all of the work.
What I like most about T3 is how it attempts to remain true to its B-movie origins. The 1984 original, as awesome as it is, was basically a B-movie that took everybody by surprise. This third chapter tries, but since when does a B-movie cost $200 million dollars? And what did the producers spend it on? The special effects are good despite a lot of the CGI being questionable. They’re definitely NOT an improvement over T2.
That’s not the only way T3 pays tribute to the original. The psychiatrist played by Earl Boen shows up for a quick cameo. This guy has to be the biggest doubting Thomas I’ve ever seen. He was present during the escape scene in T2. He saw what happened there. How is any of it still a shock to him? What more does he need?
T3 is a pretty good summer action movie. You won’t be bored, but you won’t be all that impressed either. Well, it had to happen sometime. Most movie franchises start to fizzle out by the third movie (e.g. The Karate Kid Part III, Jaws 3D and Superman III). At least, this one is watchable. As for Ah-nuld and his future involvement with the Terminator series, he fulfilled his promise and came back for 2019’s Dark Fate. You can read all about it in that review.
