Review of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) by Squall C — 06 Jan 2015

Rise of the Machines was bound to happen.

Well just like John Connor says "It was never our destiny to stop Judgement Day", similarly there was going to be another Terminator movie no matter how nicely the things were brought to a closure in T2. Filmmakers are always waiting to cash on by making unoriginal sequels just to cash on the fame of the original classics. So sick, sequels nowadays are nothing but money grabbing business. I felt relieved when I saw that T2 still grossed more than this unnecessary sequel despite being released way back in 1991.

Plot is again a rehash of T2 which was also a rehash of T1 but with a twist. Still what T2 has and T3 misses is a good story. I liked the concept of the Inevitable Judgement Day in T3 even though it violates the Cameron's closure in T2. Still, the film misses many things that would have made it a likable sequel like T2. One of the strongest character of the franchise Sarah Connor is sidelined from the story which ruined the experience, something like the way 'Alien 3' destroyed the positives of 'Aliens'. Arnold's Terminator character kind of feels more like human than machine. The iconic theme of Brad Fiedel is totally missing till the credits roll, even then again it is not entirely used. The terminator T-X is surprisingly pales in comparison to T-1000 of Terminator 2. The dread and ruthlessness of The Terminator was entirely missing, making the chase sequence more cartoonish than horrific. Well yes that's one thing which became enjoyable in this ride of discontent, some clichéd moments like the truck chase similar to T2 yet less appealing, Arnold putting on pink-star glasses only to find it resenting, etc. Parody and comedy felt like nice breaks in mundane action. The characters of John Connor and Katherine Brewster had some nice potential to built up in the story but no the script focuses more on not the so great T-X. Skynet's rise to become self- aware wasn't explained properly. Also they failed to portray John Connor as an effective leader and Nick Stahl felt completely lost. Even Edward Furlong was able to highlight a better and useful 10- year old John Connor in T2. The CGI isn't much special, almost similar to T2 even though T3 was done in a time of more advanced tech.

The concept of time-travel can be extensively used to churn out repetitive sequels even though the whole thing is riddled with paradoxes. And that's what T3 does. Rise of the Machines feels pathetic in comparison to its predecessors. Still it has some good action sequences. Also I felt the ending was justifiable even though the path taken was disappointing. T3 is never very boring as such, you just have this feeling of pale discontent.

RATING: [2/5].