Movie Review: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

The Terminator series of movies has done something none of the other multiple-movie franchises have done: it's waited a long time between installments, and each has held out for a good storyline with which to work. The second Terminator movie came out more than ten years after the first and it proved to be even more popular than its predecessor; it's been another decade between parts two and three. Was Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines worth the wait? It's not quite the movie that the second was, but the answer to that question is still a resounding "yes".

Terminator 3 takes place ten years after the action in Terminator 2. As that movie ended, you'll recall that the historic track toward "Judgement Day" was averted, and Sarah Connor and her young son, John, faced a future unknown to them, but rife with happier possibilities than they'd ever known. Despite their apparent success, the now 22 year-old John (Nick Stahl) has never felt truly safe. To that end, he lives entirely "off the grid". He has no credit cards or telephone; no permanent address; no utility or bank accounts. He's almost completely invisible to anyone - or anything - that might try to track him down. Although he's successful in his efforts to hide himself, the latest model of Terminator - the unstoppable T-X (Kristanna Loken) - is sent back in time to wreak what havoc it can on the future human resistance by killing other humans important to the cause. A quirk of fate puts John in the same place as veteranarian Kate Brewster (Claire Danes) when the T-X comes for her. As the two run for their lives, they're joined by another machine from the future: an obsolete model Terminator T-101 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) whose mission is, once again, to protect John Connor as the man destined to lead the human resistance. The Terminator tells the two that they must survive because "Judgement Day" hasn't been averted but only delayed, but the two are determined to do what they can to foil SkyNet in the here and now. They work frantically to tell Kate's father, General Robert Brewster (David Andrews) everything so that he'll halt any deployment of SkyNet. But time - and the T-X - is against them.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is the first of the Terminator movies that doesn't involve James Cameron. This incarnation is ably directed by Jonathan Mostow (director and co-writer of U-571). The special effects are, as to be expected, superlative (one minor bobble in the blue screen work isn't enough to mar the overall state-of-the-art accomplishment), and the script is suspenseful yet with moments of real humor (watch especially for a cameo appearance in an ambulance that had the audience at my showing snickering). Schwarzenegger positively owns the role of the Terminator (in an interview with an entertainment news magazine, he laughed when he was asked if his $30 million salary was too much and said he'd like to see them make a Terminator movie without him - a valid point). Kristanna Loken, while okay as the T-X model, isn't anywhere near the villain we learned to know and hate in T2, but that's really not her fault; she just doesn't look or behave like it seems to me a T-X should look and behave. Nick Stahl is just fine (though it's too bad he looks nothing like Eddie Furlong, the actor who played the 12 year-old John and who was tapped to play the role again until his chemical dependency difficulties got in the way), and Claire Danes is as good as the script lets her be. The real star of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, though, is the story and the effects. And with this kind of movie, that's perfectly fine.

FAMILY SUITABILITY: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is rated R. It is, unsurprisingly, a very violent film - graphically so at times. There's some very limited nudity and some harsh language, and the suspense is fairly intense at times. Never-the-less, there's nothing here that's not largely available in many video games, and given the mainstream popularity of the previous two films, I'd say any fan age 13 and up would enjoy this third installment immensely.