We begin a much delayed Terminator Week here. Expect the rest of the trilogy soon. As well as a couple of non-Terminator films to make up for the absence.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Review by Jon Waterman
**1/2
John Connor, future leader of the human resistance movement, lives in LA with no home and no way to contact him. He fears for the future that he helped to prevent. No longer will robots take over. Or will they? Two terminators from the future come to the past (which is the present to the audience) looking for Connor: One to kill him and one to protect him.
Arnold Schwarzenneger reprises his role as the Terminator sent by future Connor to save current Connor. Kristanna Loken comes back to wipe them both out as the evil T-X. The T-X is the strongest, smartest, baddest motherrobot this planet has seen. Her eyes don’t glow a puny red like the others. Nope. Hers are the menacing light blue! Her arms can turn into myriad complex weapons and are not limited to simple metal hooks and claws. Hell hath no fury like a woman programmed to go back in time and kill humans. Now, Arnold has been doing this a while, so he has gotten good at acting like a machine – emotionless and stiff. On the other hand, that’s not really much of a stretch for him, is it? Loken comes in as the new, improved machine. I guess new and improved means more human-like characteristics. She showed too much emotion. She practically had an orgasm when she learned she was close to Connor for the first time. The other actors give typical action movie performances. Claire Danes as the love interest. Nick Stahl (not Edward Furlong, thanks to drugs) as Connor. The dad from the Twisted Sister Video (“What do you want to do with your life?”), I think – correct me if I’m wrong -- David Andrews, as the love interest’s father. Chris Hardwick (MTV’s “Singled Out”) as the guy that is for some reason in this movie for five minutes.
Ok, I have to give this film a lot of credit for limiting the digital effects. There were some parts where it seemed necessary (but fake) like when Arnold crashed through a glass building during the excruciatingly long and overtly pointlessly destructive crane chase scene. But the machines were real virtually all the time. The introductory Terminators (the T-1s and the like) were real moving touchable metal pieces. Sure they look like a cross between Johnny Five from “Short Circuit” and ED-209 from “Robocop,” but hey, they actually exist.
What I didn’t like, though, is that some of the shots seemed to be altered in other ways. I’m pretty sure I saw some shots that were digitally sped up or slowed down. This irked me. I’m not a real big fan of slow motion shots in action movies to begin with. I feel they are overused and clichéd. But to go back and slow down regular speed shots in post-production is going too far.
Now, let me just say quickly that this film probably shouldn’t have been made. The second film wrapped the story up so tight that it made this one improbable. It seems like the writers pretty much just ignored the ending of “T2” and went and did their thing to make a buck. It’s a decent action movie, but probably would have worked much, much better had it been a stand alone, instead of a sequel.
Most of you will have already seen one or both of the previous “Terminator” movies and will base your decision to see this new one on that, thus rendering my writing useless. But, just in case some of you haven’t seen any and are considering making this one the first of the three to watch, let me warn you that the other two are better and more entertaining. Sure there are plenty of crashes and gunshots and car chases and metal things, but it’s not as intelligent and doesn’t really leave you with the “Wow” feeling that was there with the first couple. It’s worth it to go ahead and see the whole trilogy, but start from the beginning.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Review by Jon Waterman
**1/2
John Connor, future leader of the human resistance movement, lives in LA with no home and no way to contact him. He fears for the future that he helped to prevent. No longer will robots take over. Or will they? Two terminators from the future come to the past (which is the present to the audience) looking for Connor: One to kill him and one to protect him.
Arnold Schwarzenneger reprises his role as the Terminator sent by future Connor to save current Connor. Kristanna Loken comes back to wipe them both out as the evil T-X. The T-X is the strongest, smartest, baddest motherrobot this planet has seen. Her eyes don’t glow a puny red like the others. Nope. Hers are the menacing light blue! Her arms can turn into myriad complex weapons and are not limited to simple metal hooks and claws. Hell hath no fury like a woman programmed to go back in time and kill humans. Now, Arnold has been doing this a while, so he has gotten good at acting like a machine – emotionless and stiff. On the other hand, that’s not really much of a stretch for him, is it? Loken comes in as the new, improved machine. I guess new and improved means more human-like characteristics. She showed too much emotion. She practically had an orgasm when she learned she was close to Connor for the first time. The other actors give typical action movie performances. Claire Danes as the love interest. Nick Stahl (not Edward Furlong, thanks to drugs) as Connor. The dad from the Twisted Sister Video (“What do you want to do with your life?”), I think – correct me if I’m wrong -- David Andrews, as the love interest’s father. Chris Hardwick (MTV’s “Singled Out”) as the guy that is for some reason in this movie for five minutes.
Ok, I have to give this film a lot of credit for limiting the digital effects. There were some parts where it seemed necessary (but fake) like when Arnold crashed through a glass building during the excruciatingly long and overtly pointlessly destructive crane chase scene. But the machines were real virtually all the time. The introductory Terminators (the T-1s and the like) were real moving touchable metal pieces. Sure they look like a cross between Johnny Five from “Short Circuit” and ED-209 from “Robocop,” but hey, they actually exist.
What I didn’t like, though, is that some of the shots seemed to be altered in other ways. I’m pretty sure I saw some shots that were digitally sped up or slowed down. This irked me. I’m not a real big fan of slow motion shots in action movies to begin with. I feel they are overused and clichéd. But to go back and slow down regular speed shots in post-production is going too far.
Now, let me just say quickly that this film probably shouldn’t have been made. The second film wrapped the story up so tight that it made this one improbable. It seems like the writers pretty much just ignored the ending of “T2” and went and did their thing to make a buck. It’s a decent action movie, but probably would have worked much, much better had it been a stand alone, instead of a sequel.
Most of you will have already seen one or both of the previous “Terminator” movies and will base your decision to see this new one on that, thus rendering my writing useless. But, just in case some of you haven’t seen any and are considering making this one the first of the three to watch, let me warn you that the other two are better and more entertaining. Sure there are plenty of crashes and gunshots and car chases and metal things, but it’s not as intelligent and doesn’t really leave you with the “Wow” feeling that was there with the first couple. It’s worth it to go ahead and see the whole trilogy, but start from the beginning.
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