Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Scott Manning
July 10, 2003 | Comments (8)

Director: Jonathan Mostow
Release Date: July 2nd, 2003
Rating: R (for strong sci-fi violence and action, and for language and brief nudity)
See it on Amazon

I'm a sucker for robots. Robocop, Terminator, Transformers, Robotech, Voltron, etc. I love them all.

In an attempt to recapture my childhood, I made my dad take me to this movie. I even bugged him about it for a while just for old time's sake. I was eleven years old when Terminator 2: Judgment Day came out, and I couldn't have been more excited about any other movie at the time. The only problem is that the parents thought that it was probably a little too violent for a little kid to be seeing. I was devastated, but determined.

After weeks of harassing and stating my case, the parents eventually caved in.

I mean, what could be cooler than a machine that looks like a tough guy trying to kill you? Well, Judgment Day showed me a machine that looks like a tough guy trying to protect you is much cooler. It's like your own giant toy.

Rise of the Machines
More than ten years later, after stopping the T-1000 and blowing Skynet to hell, John Connor is a drifter (played by Nick Stahl, not Edward Furlong who was reportedly dropped due to concerns over his problems with the law (DUI) and substance abuse.). With Connor's mother dying six years previously, he saw the date of Judgment Day come and go with no nuclear war. After being told his entire life that he was going to be the savior of mankind, Connor is without any purpose and living in complete paranoia.

Enter Kate Brewster (played by Claire Danes). If there is one thing Danes can do well, she can cry. And what does a girl who has a promising career and future with her fiance have to lose by meeting John Connor? Everything. The fans of Danes won't be disappointed. She does cry and she does put forth the best performance of the movie... which is not saying much compared to the competition.

Anyway, the T-X, a new breed of terminator even nastier than the other two shows up as a woman. She is both solid and liquidy. Plus she can pull out the craziest gadgets out of her arm including a flame thrower and a buzz saw. She also has the ability to hijack other machines and have them do her bidding. And let's not forget that she has an "X" in her name which is very fashionable nowadays.

Luckily, the T-800 (played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) is here to protect John Connor once again.

Upon a chance meeting with Connor, Kate Brewster also runs into the T-X and the T-800 minutes later. This is the starting point for a movie that is a nonstop chase sequence. Arnold, who is an extremely outdated terminator compared to the T-X will do everything he can to stop her including run multiple vehicles over her, shoot her with a bazooka, crash a helicopter on top of her, and smash a urinal on her head. I mean, what would you do? She has a freakin' "X" in her name!

The most impressive scene in the whole movie happens when our female terminator chases Connor with a crane that is about four times the size of a fire truck. To avoid interference from Arnold, the T-X beings operating the crane's arm while in motion. For nearly 20 minutes, the crane crashes through cars, light poles, and buildings. I never realized how much damage one vehicle could do to a city. If I were a betting man, I'd say this is where a bulk of the 200 million dollar budget went and it was money well spent.

Connor, Brewster, and Arnold must find a way to stop the T-X and save the world.

The ending leaves it all open for a sequel. In fact, there is an unconfirmed rumor that Arnold has already signed on to do Terminator 4 and Terminator 5.

Impressive, but I need more
Although I've already talked myself out of most of the plot holes, I've still determined that I need more from this movie. After twelve years of waiting for a sequel and with the largest budget ever for a single movie, this film needs more bang for the buck. An hour and 48 minutes did not suffice my terminator craving.

What more could I ask for? Well, in the trailer for the Terminator 3 video game, we see how Arnold is originally captured in the future, reprogrammed to protect John Connor, and then sent back through time. Why couldn't that have been in the movie?

So my childhood was definitely recaptured in the sense that I saw Arnold in another terminator movie, but the adult in me wished it could have been a little more than just decent. But, if you don't see this movie for any other reason, see it to understand why a crane will now be my chase vehicle of choice from now on.

If the storyline continues in order, the next film will show us what we've all wanted to see since the first film: Judgment Day and humans going to a full out war with machines.

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Comments (8):

1) Posted by: PhilB
July 11, 2003 12:27 PM

I haven't seen it yet, but am looking forward to it. At the moment though I find myself getting depressed.
You were 11 when Terminator 2 came out? I am feeling very old. Thanks a lot Scott :(

2) Posted by: andy
July 23, 2003 3:54 PM

Terminator 3 and bad boys are the two movies people should see. It was $9.25 worth spending.
Lots of action and full of dead people.

3) Posted by: Marc
August 12, 2003 3:30 AM

I actually laughed the whole way through T-3... I can't listen to Arnie without smiling. I just can't decide if this movie is making fun of itself on purpose, or trying to be serious.

4) Posted by: Veive
August 23, 2003 1:04 PM

I came to this site because one of my friends sent me a link to the MAtrix Reloaded articles... that turned out to be a book and a half, but was extremely satisfying nonetheless.

Of course the terminator series is no Matrix series, but still there are some elements that I wanted to get straight, and was wandering if anyone here had any ideas. First of all, how EXACTLY does the TX control other machines? I mean sure, other electroni robots with microchips and everything, but how exactly does she change gears on a stick shift, or steer a car? The next thing concerns the whole inevitability of Judgement Day... is the movie suggesting that the leadership of John Conner is also inevitable? Because its logical to think that Conner ends up the leader of the Humans cause he was at the right place at the right time, but this only comes about AFTER the events that would have made him the leader anyway. I know this is a little confusing, but I'm still wondering about it.

Whats more, he makes his junior high buddies his lieutenants... I don't know why they would be qualified. Some of them looked really unlikely as military commanders to me.

5) Posted by: Scott Manning
August 23, 2003 1:37 PM

Veive,

You bring up some of the same points that I was wondering. As opposed to just saying, "It's just a movie", I think some of this stuff can be explained.

The part about the high-school buddies becoming his lieutenants is probably the easiest to explain. None of them were his buddies. Even his future wife wasn't his friend at the time. It would seem that they were all thrust into the roles of leadership in one form or another. They all just happened to be in the right place at the right time, as you already said.

The concept given in the secton Terminator movie was "There is no fate, but what we make". That's just a romantic was to say that we control our own future. But in T3, it turns out that we don't control our own future. It would seem that with the advancing technology, especially AI, that there would always be an instance of the machines becoming "aware" and attacking humans.

It's not as deep or thought-provoking at The Matrix, but interesting nonetheless.

As for the controlling car thing... I have no idea. ;)

6) Posted by: Tomic Goran
March 11, 2004 2:53 PM

>>> ! ! ! A T E N T I O N H E R E ! ! ! <<<

First - English is not my language so there are going to be some mistakes (and I won't bother to correct them, because it's just not worth it)!

Commenting Terminator 3... Well... (pause) Realy... (pause) It's a sad day for all of us... (minute of silence) ...For shame...
The third part of Terminator is jumping out of general outlook of the very concept of Terminator (the thingy that made it the best movie there is (by the way...)). It looks like they didn't have enough money to pay Harlan Ellison (the one who thought it all) to tell them what happened next, so they went improvising and hired those who invented "Matrix" to help them... ("Matrix" is good, but - my point is that they aren't the same category of SF movies) (also let us all have in mind that many people are comparing "Matrix" to conceptual-cyber-kung-fu-techno-balet) For shame, realy... IF THEY HAD HAVE HIRED ME TO CREATE SCENARIO FOR "WHAT HAPPENED NEXT" I ("I" - and I tell that with full responsibility) WOULD MAKE BETTER, MORE EXCITING, MORE LOGICAL & LESS EMBARESING NEXT PART OF TERMINATOR (well - that's the easiest part...) - AND ALSO I MUST SAY THAT I WOULD MAKE A FEW SEPARATE(!) PARTS OF IT TOO... (maybe you are asking yourselves "What is this man talking about?" right now, but if you would know what I'm talking about (the scenario) then you would be saying something completely different...)...
Q: Am I chalenging those who produced T3 to try me?
A: Yes. Very much! ...YES - I would make it better...

I say: Let us all pretend that it is all just a bad dream; forget all about "Terminator 3" that currently exists in reality as a movie; discard it, and say that people who made scenario for "Terminator 3" were on some serious sedatives when they wrote it... THEN(!): make the REAL movie of what ACTUALY(!) heppened next!

The first two parts of Terminator movie gave us hints of what would happen next... the shame is that those who wrote T3 scenario were blind to see it... (a thousand shames... dissapointing...) They vomited on it all...

Best Regards & blah, blah, blah...

7) Posted by: get xombiefied
April 7, 2004 5:50 PM

the was awesome best termonator yet.i bet that guy who put his name as scott manning isn't scott manning

8) Posted by: Scott
August 27, 2006 11:14 AM

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