Rather than spending all their budget money on fancy title sequences, the filmmakers wisely chose to spend it on the action! And the payoff is huge! (Remember the Starship Troopers title sequence? NO? Neither do I! But I remember the action scenes, oh the action scenes!)
T3: Rise of the Machines
This movie is not T2, it is not even T1, thankfully it stands on its own as an interesting entry in the series that IMO makes the first 2 films even better. And that's tough for a sequel to do (let alone a 2nd sequel!). Every one of the actors is excellent, especially Nick Stahl whose portayal of a very different John Conner than the one played by Edward Furlong in T2 is refreshing for its bold take on the future after the events of the second film. Claire Danes is surprisingly effective here, though both characters' potentials (and eventual transformations) are only hinted at in this film. Arnold is also perfect in this film, about as perfect as he could possibly be. There was humor in the film, no more than there was in T2, and even more than in T2 it was mostly incidental humor (ie no goofy mugging to get laughs which I thought hurt T2 in certain instances), and a couple of Arnold lines generated some big laughs, though they were the good kind of laughs if you know what I mean.
The direction of Jonathan Mostow is superb, gritty, and at times, spectacular. T3 looks and feels very different than T2; it is paced more on par with the first Terminator film, and that's a good thing in my mind. Imagine T1's gritty camerawork and down and dirty action except on an exponentially bigger scale and you have T3.
Also, do yourself a favor and do not read reviews, spoilers, etc; just go see the film and if you're a fan of the 1st and 2nd, you will probably love this film, as I did. Perhaps lowered expectations allowed me to enjoy it more than I should have, but I don't think that was the case at the moment (a subsequent viewing might alter that feeling).
The storyline ultimately is what holds everything together here, and especially the promise of what's to come. The story is epic in every sense, and gutsy in that it is all but spelling out that a 4th film is going to happen. I was bummed when the movie ended, I WANTED to just see T4 unspool immediately afterwards, and in my mind, that's the best compliment I can give a film like this.
The action is top notch, and more intense than anything I've seen in a LONG time. Perhaps it's the fact that it's taking place in the "real world" and not "fantasy land" like so many recent epics (SW, LOTR, Matrix, etc.).
The special effects are also top notch, with a couple of truly unbelievable scenes that scream out "WE HAVE MORE MONEY THAN GOD TO SPEND ON THIS!!!"
What else can I say, I need to see this film again immediately, and they need to begin filming T4 NOW with the same people.
One minor gripe is the lack of a Brad Fiedel score, which was always a strong point of the original films, but to me that's only minor since the orchestral/ electronic compositions of Marco Beltrami are actually quite effective here.
1/2 out of 5
