Review of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) by Liam C — 09 Jul 2015

Just because James Cameron isn't involved doesn't mean that this should be written off completely, sure it would have been nice for him to return, and I think people should realize that this could have been a lot worse than it was. That might sound like a backhanded compliment but this film very easily could have been a copy and paste of one of the previous films where the characters just go on the same campaign or alternatively could have been something silly that just didn't try. 'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines' moves the story forward at a smart place in the timeline with events changed from what was accomplished in the previous films and had some new things to say.

The cast was great, Arnold's Terminator is a more advanced model this time around leading to more comedic interactions and just interactions with human characters in general, which is another advancement that this film offers. I thought the effects were excellent and the action set-pieces were all quite memorable and well put together. One complaint I think most people have is that the film has more humour in it than its predecessor's but like I mentioned earlier, it doesn't have the feeling that nobody is trying or anything. It even has a similar shot in the film that is like the, 'To Protect and Serve', on the police cars in the last two films, where with this one it's a, 'Valley of Peace', on the window of a smashed Hearse. Saying that, the film certainly does have its dark moments and the characters are given time to just sit and talk about what is going on and how they are feeling. And the film still keeps all its iconic moments like the one-liners and the crushed skull, one of the one-liners is, 'I lied', in this film, which must have been done on purpose. Although, it would have been interesting if that character that changes near the end, not saying who it is as to not spoil it, would have stayed the way they changed; but then again, perhaps it wouldn't totally fit.

Out of all the films, I must have seen this one the most and I think that's because I actually owned it on UMD, but I'm not really sure why it gets so much hate, like I previously stated. True, the ending does have a feeling of, 'what was the point?' and does seem to change the whole 'fate' quote from the previous films. But even with that, there is still some hope left at the end about changing everything. If this series was just going to be a trilogy, there could have been a lot worse than this film and I still like it. I'm pretty sure after 'Salvation'; people were looking back more fondly on this.