{"id":10599,"date":"2025-01-14T17:18:17","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T22:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=10599"},"modified":"2025-01-14T17:18:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T22:18:17","slug":"terminator-3-rise-of-the-machines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/01\/14\/terminator-3-rise-of-the-machines\/","title":{"rendered":"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines <\/strong>(2003)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Sci-Fi-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong sci-fi violence and action, language, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jonathan Mostow\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Brancato and Michael Ferris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Marco Beltrami\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Don Burgess\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 2, 2003 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $150.4M (US)\/$433.4M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0You would think that after twelve years that somebody could have come up with a better story for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines<\/strong>. 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\u2019t. You just try to make an entertaining movie that\u2019s not a complete rehash. For the most part, T3<\/strong> succeeds in that respect.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The most obvious difference between T3<\/strong> 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\u2019s been sent to the present to kill the future leaders of the Resistance.<\/p>\n

\u00a0John Connor (Stahl, In the Bedroom) lives a nomadic existence off the grid. He\u2019s convinced that despite his best efforts, he didn\u2019t stop Judgment Day from happening. He only delayed it. He still thinks he\u2019s being hunted by machines from the future. As it turns out, he\u2019s right. He\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Just when it looks like they\u2019re 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\u2019s 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\u2019s he\u2019s been programmed to know, but who programmed him?<\/p>\n

\u00a0The two humans soon learn that not only does Judgment Day still happen; it\u2019s going to happen today. The Terminator\u2019s primary objective is to get John and Kate to safe ground. They\u2019d 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.<\/p>\n

\u00a0T3<\/strong> 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\u2019s the best part of the movie.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One of the biggest problems with T3<\/strong> is Stahl. He\u2019s 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\u2019t see it. She doesn\u2019t project the same toughness as Linda Hamilton who\u2019s sorely missed in this installment (it\u2019s 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\u2019t give off one-tenth the menace that Robert Patrick did in T2. She may be hot, but an actress she\u2019s NOT! Schwarzenegger, looking older and moving slower, plays his part with a mixture of bemusement and boredom. He\u2019s still willing to play even though he\u2019s had it with the whole cyborg thing. It\u2019s the last movie he starred in before taking a hiatus to serve as California\u2019s governor (the Governator!).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Everybody watching T3<\/strong> knows how it’s going to end. It’s a foregone conclusion. The title Rise of the Machines says it all. \u00a0It 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\u2019s 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\u2019s obvious CGI is doing almost all of the work.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What I like most about T3<\/strong> 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\u2019re definitely NOT an improvement over T2.<\/p>\n

\u00a0That\u2019s not the only way T3<\/strong> 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\u2019ve 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?<\/p>\n

\u00a0T3<\/strong> 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\u2019s Dark Fate. You can read all about it in that review.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Sci-Fi-Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong sci-fi violence and action, language, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Jonathan Mostow\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John Brancato and Michael Ferris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Marco Beltrami\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Don Burgess\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 2, 2003 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, Kristanna Loken, David Andrews, Mark […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-sequels-remakes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Terminator-3-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10599"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10770,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10599\/revisions\/10770"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}