Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES (2003) - May 22, 2009 (Third Viewing)
A passable enough action movie, though pretty much a failure as a follow-up to the first two Terminator films, this was about the further adventures of John Connor in the days leading up to the apocalypse. Though Jonathan Mostow is a decent enough director in his own right, this movie is an unfortunate demonstration that he is no James Cameron. The action scenes -- which thankfully avoid the tiresome quick-cut/shaky-cam device employed by most contemporary action films -- for the most part feel perfunctory and unexciting; they're not necessarily bad, nor are they particularly good. They're just there. "Meh" would be a good word to describe them. As for the rest of the film -- Arnie's T-101 has essentially been reduced to a clown, particularly in the first half of the film. Kristanna Loken's "Terminatrix" makes for a passable, though bland, villain (it's hard not to compare her to the perfectly cast Robert Patrick) -- though attempts to play up her sexiness, such as when she sultrily licks a used bandage (!), just come off as laughable. The film does improve in the second half, when the plot starts to really get into gear, and the movie starts feeling more like a legitimate Terminator film and less like "The Super Wacky Robot and Friendz Happy Hour!" Special props must go to Nick Stahl, however, as his casting is the one element that this film gets 100 percent right. If this had been just a random action movie, I would have said it's a decent if unspectacular summer blockbuster. But as the follow-up to the nearly perfect Terminator 2, it's a pretty big let-down. **1/2