Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a bit more of a mixed bag of a movie than the first two entries in the series. On one hand, it's an absolute freight train of an action movie moving almost non-stop from beginning to the end that makes it suitably thrilling. On the other hand, for the bulk of it's run time it is pretty much copying the formula of the second film with only a few notable changes. 

We catch up again with John Connor (played by Nick Stahl), quietly living off the grid and not entirely convinced that Judgement Day was prevented. One night, he wipes out on his motorcycle and breaks into a nearby Animal Hospital to patch himself up. Responding to a call is one of the Hospital doctors, Kate Brewster (played by Claire Danes). It turns out that Kate and John knew each other as kids. Kate, thinking John has become a broken down junkie, quickly overpowers him and locks him in one of the kennels. Before she has a chance to call the police, the incredibly lethal T-X (played by Kristanna Loken) shows up on the scene. This Terminator, under the guise of a blond haired female, has been sent back to take out the future John Connor's top lieutenants in the resistance, which includes Kate. It is to the T-X's surprise that it finds John Connor there as well. Before she can execute Kate and John, a new T-800 (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) shows up to rescue them. 

From there, the chase is on with the T-X in hot pursuit of John, Kate and the T-800. It is only when John discovers who Kate's father is does everything he knows about his future fall into place. Kate's father, Robert (played by David Andrews), is an Air Force General in charge of the Skynet global network defense system. Robert is being pressured by the President to bring Skynet online to wipe out a computer virus that has been infecting the nation's major systems. Realizing what is about to happen, John, Kate and the T-800 make their way to Robert's base to try and stop them before Skynet is brought on line. 

I have a bit of mixed feelings about Terminator 3. On the whole, I enjoyed it a lot but there are a few things that annoyed me about the film. There are entire sequences in this film that are strikingly similar to ones from Terminator 2. The biggest one of these is an almost carbon copy of the T-800's arrival in the present to the previous film. He walks into a rowdy bar as he did in the last film, only this time it's lady's night and the crowd of ladies are cheering on a leather clad stripper. The T-800 makes his way to the stripper, who is quickly revealed to be a stereotypical gay man (*groan*). After taking the man's clothes, the T-800 leaves the bar and pulls the stripper's sunglasses out of the jacket pocket and they are of course Elton John sunglasses (*louder groan*). It's such a cheesy moment that needlessly parodies the second film. Oh, and the T-800 also picks up the phrase "Talk to the hand" from the stripper, which was already horribly dated back in 2003 when this film came out and gets trotted out again by the T-800 later in the film in a joke that similarly doesn't land. Although, to be fair, this scene is quickly followed by one of my favorite gags in the entire movie. The T-800 breaks into a pick-up truck to steal it and looks under the sun visor for the keys, much like they  did in Terminator 2 with consistent success, only to find a wrist watch instead. We even get a shot of the T-800's point of view, with his digital readout helpfully letting us know it's keeping accurate time. The reason I found this so funny is because damn near every car they broke into in Terminator 2 had the spare keys on the sun visor and I have never met a single person, ever, who does that and it subsequently was always something that annoyed me about the second film.

The film does move at a nice, brisk pace and certainly picks up once our crew of heroes get to the Air Force base, with the T-X there as well for the climax of the film as the film begins to live up to it's subtitle with the rise of the machines and they start laying waste to the place and the workers there, including an early appearance by Nerdist and @Midnight host Chris Hardwick. There is a no holds barred, beat down drag out fight between the T-800 and the T-X that is certainly a highlight of the film as the two of them lay waste to the better part of one of the Air Force base buildings in the process. That, coupled with an epic car chase that involves several police cars, an ambulance and giant crane truck earlier in the film, makes the new and improved T-X certainly a worthy adversary for this film. Much like her earlier counter-part, this new Terminator has the same liquid metal morphing abilities, but is over a solid exoskeleton that allows her arm to turn into such weapons as a plasma cannon or a flame thrower. She also has the ability to remote access and control other machines, such as cars and other vehicles with on-board computers. 

As much as Terminator 3 seems content to more or less re-hash the second film, I do have to give it points for having quite possibly the ballsiest ending for a major summer blockbuster ever. I won't spoil it for the people who haven't seen it, but I remember seeing the film in the theater back in 2003 and my jaw literally dropping when we got to the end. I genuinely couldn't believe it was ending that way. It is certainly the part of the film that has stuck with me the most over the years. 

Jonathan Mostow took over directing duties for this entry after James Cameron passed on the project, working from a script by John Brancato and Michael Ferris. Aside from my few grumbles above, Mostow did a good job keeping the action moving forward at a brisk and hard hitting pace with the film clocking in at a tight hour and forty nine minutes. Schwarzenegger does a good job resurrecting his trademark character for the third go around, especially since no secret was really made of the fact that his participation in the film was largely a monetary motivation. Claire Danes and Nick Stahl do reasonably well in their roles as well, especially Danes who finds her inner warrior woman late in the film, taking out a flying drone with an AK-47 in a move that John can't help but admit reminded him of his mother. 

Overall, Terminator 3 is not a perfect film but it is one that it's positives outweigh it's negatives for me. It certainly pales in comparison to what came before it, but taken on it's own it remains a reasonably satisfying thrill ride with a doozy of an ending.