Tag: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

In some ways, I still believe there is no sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The action-packed, sci-fi sequel to James Cameron’s The Terminator.

What really bothers me, what explicitly, forcibly bothers me, is seeing some of Terminator 3 lately on HBO and learning the plot of the movie (along with the outcome)… In plot and scope – it’s a good sequel and could have been outstanding as a movie. In dialog? In direction? Horrendous, absolutely horrendous.

I don’t know if they were trying specifically to separate this Terminator machine film from the previous two models that visited the present-day (past to them) in the first movies but you could see Arnold Schwarzenegger was too stiff for his role (even though going stiff was part of the role). His deliveries are too quick and certain catch phrases from the series aren’t inserted when they actually need to be inserted (“Come with me if you want to live,” dense computer-like talk, and of course the killer –“I’ll be back.”). I think they’re as much a part of the franchise, as Arnold as a Terminator.

Ridiculousness kills this movie as well. What is the T-X? A woman liquid-metal model that can make complex machines as weapons? That’s lame.. . Why do I say that? Because Robert Patrick scared the shit out of me as the T-1000 that could run incredible speeds, overcome being shot by most weapons, and stab the shit out of whoever the intended target is. This Termistress just doesn’t do it for me. It’s an attempt to one-up the T-1000, sure, but it seems like a forced-and-limited-planned instance. Gender isn’t to be blamed, it’s the underlying aspects of the machine that just seem poorly planned.

Skynet not being a central computer but every computer connected to the Internet — that was a stroke of genius which gave a good premise for the film.. But it utterly fails with corniness and just sheer corruption from the other two movies. James Cameron is the master of the Terminator universe and this is sadly no James Cameron film.