Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

When I first heard that James Cameron wasn't going to be involved with the third installment to this fantastic series, I was less than pleased. The thought of another director taking over the franchise kind of upset me, I just had to hope that they would find a director that could fill those rather large shoes. I later heard that Jonathan Mostow was named director of T3 and was pleased due to being VERY impressed with both of his previous directorial efforts, "Breakdown" and "U-571", but of course I was still skeptical.

So the film was finally released and of course I went and saw it opening weekend. Let me tell you I was NOT let down! I thought the film was truly fantastic! I'm sure a lot of people will disagree with me and I'm sure plenty might even get upset with me, but I thought "Terminator 3" was just as good as both previous installments of the series. They all had their pros and they all had their cons.

I was at first a little uneasy with the idea of a female terminator. But, after seeing the film and thinking about I've come to the conclusion that having a female terminator if a brilliant idea. What would have an easier time infiltrating just about anything? A gorgeous and sexy woman or a large intimidating man? The woman, definitely! Besides, Jonathan Mostow did such a fantastic job with the T-X that it just worked perfectly.

The special effects in the film are truly amazing, looking even better than the effects in T2. There were VERY few times where I thought it looked like obvious CG. There is one scene in the first few minutes of the film that show a slew of Terminators walking around doing what they do that nearly brought tears to my eyes, it looked so awesome! I won't get into the specifics, but the special effects are reason enough to see this film.

The actors all did a fantastic job. I thought Nick Stahl was an excellent replacement for Edward Furlong. When I first heard Nick was taking over the role I didn't think he looked the part, but he really pulled it off. In fact, in the end, I'm happier that Nick took over the role rather than Edward Furlong continuing his role, because I really don't think Edward looks the part anymore, he was fine as the young John Connor, but I don't think he'd work well as the John Connor of this film. Claire Danes did a fantastic job as well, she pulled off a great job in the film and looks as beautiful as ever. Kristanna Loken plays the part of the T-X very well, looking sexy as can be and doing a great job with her facial expressions and her limited dialogue. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for her future work. Then of course, there's the great Arnold Schwarzenegger, reprising his role as The Terminator (T-800/T-101). Arnold, again was excellent as the Terminator and didn't let me down. There is also a very nice cameo by Earl Boen, the only other actor to reprise a role from the first two installments in the Terminator series. Despite having very little screen time, he did a great job and I was very happy to see him in the film.

Personally I thought the story in this film was great and very well thought out. There are a few things that may have been overlooked or improperly explained, but nonetheless, this is a movie we're talking about here and there are bound to be a few plot holes, so I didn't let those little things affect my enjoyment of the film.

The only thing I would complain about if I had to, is some of

Fmovies: Schwarzeneggar is back (he said he would be) as another T-1000 cyborg sent through time to protect the now grown up John Connor (Nick Stahl), and his future wife, Kate (Claire Danes), who are being stalked by the T-X (Kristanna Loken), the latest in murderous machines hellbent on destroying the human race.

Rise Of The Machines might not be the (near) perfect juggernaut of an action sequel that was Cameron's Judgement Day, but as far as edge-of-the-seat, sci-fi fun goes, it's still bloody good! Director Jonathan Mostow certainly makes the most of his mega-budget, and delivers plenty of jaw-dropping mayhem along with loads of impressive special effects. And Schwarzenneggar does what he does best: blowing things up, shooting huge weapons, and delivering cheesy one-liners.

The (mostly) smart script follows on nicely from The Terminator and T2, further developing the character of John Connor, neatly explaining away the absence of Linda Hamilton in a not-too-disappointing way, and brilliantly bringing the whole affair to a satisfying, and not altogether happy, conclusion. There is blistering action (a set piece involving a massive crane causing untold damage to umpteen cars and buildings is absolutely incredible), some nice touches of humour, and a bit of quite gruesome violence (for a DVD that is rated 12!).

Sure, T3 isn't quite as good as its predecessors, but how many films are? Both the original The Terminator and T2 are extremely tough acts to follow. I think Rise Of The Machines does a pretty good job and deserves a lot more praise than it gets.

It is a good movie because it is interesting. I like it because of the advanced technology used in the movie, I have watched it a lot of times. Some people say it is a bad movie, but my opinion is that it is a great movie. The bad thing is that I find it boring sometimes, probably because I watched it a lot. I also really like the Terminator T- X. I really recommend that movie. It is in my list of favorite movies. I also think that it is some of the best Terminator movies. I try to never miss it on TV. I enjoy watching it with my friends and family. The first time I watched it was in late 2003, shortly after it was released. I cannot really describe it.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines fmovies. T3 was actually very good. Put it this way, if we had never been treated to the classic and innovative T2, I believe a lot more people would have been in love with T3. T3 was looking at some serious obstacles: 1.) following up T2, a monster success 2.) an aging Arnold Schwarzenegger 3.) making a cohesive story that wouldn't contradict the former Terminators 4.) making a better terminator than the T-1000.

As I said before, they followed up T2 respectably enough. There were good fight scenes with the T-800 and the T-X (I particularly like the fight in the bathroom), and there was an excellent car chase scene near the beginning. The action was good and plentiful, the effects were nice, and there was some good humor in the movie as well.

Arnold was still in shape enough and made up enough to be believable. Of course he wore the leather jacket the entire movie. Not only that, he was an older Terminator model anyway, so any signs of stiffness or slow wittedness could easily be blamed on that.

The story flowed well. John Connor (Nick Stahl) was again the focus except he is now a bit more subdued and scared. In his attempts to stay out of any electronic systems, he chooses a horrible life of joblessness, homelessness, and just plain bumming it. He was complimented by a much smarter, cleaner, and stronger partner, Kate Brewster (Claire Danes); she was tied into the story rather well. They stayed true to the Armageddon type story line and even had a bit of misdirection at the end to make the movie even more interesting.

The T-X model terminator (Kristanna Loken) was nice. Sure, they chose a beautiful woman for the T-X, but she was not to be trifled with. The T-X had the same shape shifting abilities as her predecessor (the T-1000) but she also had abilities to control anything that had a CPU and she could form her hand into a variety of weapons. Similar to the T-1000 (Robert Patrick of T2), the T-X (Loken) took the T-800 (Schwarzenegger) to town, but she was a bit more dangerous even than the T-1000.

T3 was a solid movie for a third installment. Usually by the third sequel you are begging Hollywood to stop, but I can't say that about this movie. This movie is good enough to watch more than once.

I liked it when I saw it as a 13 year old boy and I still like it as an adult. Yes, it's not better than T2. No one expected it to be. And yet it has a coherent story that is the logical continuation of the second movie. I hope that more Terminator fans will now appreciate it after the recent awful sequels like Genisys (with the spelling error) and Dark Fate which destroyed the franchise. And as much as some people want to hate this movie, at least it didn't fail at the box office. By the way, Kristanna Loken is an impressive terminator. Roast me.

No matter what people say Terminator 3 was a turkey.The tone was wrong and bad decisions were made in the casting and character phase of the film.Sarah Conner is feebly written out of this story and the film suffers badly for missing her presence.There is also too much self referential parody,there are times when Arnie is made to look silly through the use of badly timed and misjudged comedy moments.I partly blame Jonathan Mostow,he held the reigns on this one and would have had a big say in how it all played out.I couldn't believe they went as far to copy the scene in T2 when Arnie gets his leathers in the bar only this time he gets them from a gay bar and ends up wearing 70's style plastic Elton John style glitz glasses instead of his iconic shades.This was embarrassing.Ed Furlong is replaced by the inferior Nick Stahl and Clare Danes is just filler. The Terminatrix doesn't really come off although Kristianna Loken tries her best.In all this is a hugely disappointing experience for people that have followed Terminator films so far.It has some great standalone action sequences but as a whole is a lazy retread that indulges parody and comedy far too much divorcing itself from the serious tone set by the previous two films.