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Why do people hate Terminator 3?

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Why do people hate Terminator 3?

Old 01-11-04, 11:01 AM
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Why do people hate Terminator 3?

I absolutely positively LOVED it. I saw it yesterday on DVD and was floored. It was by FAR my favorite of the three and I can't wait to rewatch it. I loved all the references to the first two. When the T-X spun her head I was so waiting to hear Arnold comment "Hmm, updgrade" a la Matrix It was a really awesome movie. Why do people seem to hate it? I not only NOT hate it, but it's my favorite. Nick Stahl pulls off a perfectly whiny, ticked off Connor who finally comes into his own by "I am (in charge)."

A+ all around.
Old 01-11-04, 11:06 AM
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I liked it, and thought it was great fun. Still, in terms of how much I liked them, I'd arrange them as such:

Terminator 2: Judgment Day
The Terminator
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
Old 01-11-04, 11:11 AM
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Why do people hate T3
I don't think most people hate it..just take a look at the Matrix/Terminator thread.

As for me, I put it at the bottom of the Terminator movies, but I don't hate it. I give it a "B"

Terminator = A
Terminator 2 = A+
Terminator 3 = A
Old 01-11-04, 11:36 AM
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I liked it a lot...but the first is the best imo...
Old 01-11-04, 11:40 AM
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I liked it better than the first one, but I still think T2 is the best of the trilogy.
Old 01-11-04, 12:00 PM
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I don't hate it. But I think it is the weakest of the 3 Terminator films (tough pedigree to follow IMHO). It felt like there was something missing - something just felt rushed about it.
Old 01-11-04, 12:58 PM
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lots of critics, me, my friends and many from the general public seemed to really like it. We were all expecting to hate it I think, but were pleasently suprised.

Arnie hanging off the crane and smacking into fire trucks was the shit.


"talk to the hand bitch" sadly, was not.
Old 01-11-04, 01:04 PM
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I don't like it. It's just rather ridiculous to me, the first time I saw it, I thought, this is decent. The second time I saw it, I thought it was crap. Can't explain it, but the whole film seems like a joke to me.
Old 01-11-04, 01:33 PM
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I was very pleasantly surprised by this movie. I went in expecting a lame third installment but I wanted to finish the trilogy anyway. When I walked out of the theater I immediately ranked it above the first but not quite as good as T2. I really liked the
Spoiler:
non-happy ending
. Perfect way to end it.
Old 01-11-04, 01:53 PM
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The ending made a good movie even better.
Old 01-11-04, 02:11 PM
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the end of the film, when the theme becomes clear is a nifty little corker, and makes the movie, though quite a bit of it takes place in sunny California during the daylight, dark as hell.

in essence
Spoiler:
you can't change fate- no matter how hard you work to achieve (or prevent) something, if its fated to happen it will


unlike Alien3 , which is fawned over by Fincher fans, the nihlism here isn't telegraphed in every shot
its really only one long chase film, even moreso seeming than the other two, but there did seem to be some thought put into the characters continuity.

the first film was just pulp sci-fi, competently directed at a B movie scale (working for Corman obviously taught Cameron how to do much with limited resources).
the third film reminds me a lot of the drive and narrative leaness of the first, combined with the stunt and pyrotechnic values of the second.
i had completely written it off last summer.
big surprise.

Last edited by ckolchak; 01-11-04 at 02:15 PM.
Old 01-11-04, 02:11 PM
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Confirmed hater.

1. The ending makes the first two films completely pointless. If this is what happens, why did I bother sitting through them?

2. Camp. Specifically how Arnold gets his clothes- where he was at one point a fearsome killing machine- now the Terminator is cute.

3. John Connor. Why change the actor to some blond haired pretty boy that makes Paul Walker seem talented?

4. T-X. No nudity. And the existence begs the question, "Why didn't Skynet send a Battalion of these things back?"

5. No Sarah Connor.

6. Car chase that has no purpose other than to be a car chase.

I have more, but T3 seemed like one long fan-fiction wank. Cameron should have been paid a king's ransom with instructions to finish it so there would never be another Terminator movie.
Old 01-11-04, 02:18 PM
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Hated it.

1. Poorly integrated action scenes, aka action for the sake of action.

2. "Talk to the Hand" WTF?

3. The film was a cynical attempt to cash in and it feels that way. You feel dirty when you watch it.
Old 01-11-04, 02:21 PM
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I'm not a hater but don't think it should be cannon.

It feels tacked on. It feels exactly like it is, a sequel to a shut completely resolved series that doesn't have any of the original people attached but Arnold.

Was it a good thrill ride, yes.

plus the fact that they
Spoiler:
killed off the best character in the series
really stunk.
Old 01-11-04, 02:36 PM
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Add me to the list of haters, but I didn't think that the list was that long of us haters anyhow?

I found it to make the other two films pointless and the action was just blahish. not my taste, decent popcorn flick for a one time viewing, but I wouldn't go beyond that.
Old 01-11-04, 02:50 PM
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Very enjoyable movie. I never liked the argument that the 3rd movie ruined the other two or didn't fit in, simply because T2 does a very similar thing. With time travel plots, there's always huge holes and i think it would be silly to fault T3 for that. While it certainly didn't need to be made and has a different feel then the other two, i like the way it tried to explain the gaffs made in the previous films and the direction it took.
Old 01-11-04, 02:54 PM
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2. Camp. Specifically how Arnold gets his clothes- where he was at one point a fearsome killing machine- now the Terminator is cute.

Frankly the whole camp thing started with Cameron in T2. That whole Bad to the Bone thing as we first see Ah-nold was a bad directoral choice (playing up that the Terminator was a bad guy for the whole movie only to blow it all on a cheap gag? Sorry Jim - no cookie for you!)

3. John Connor. Why change the actor to some blond haired pretty boy that makes Paul Walker seem talented?

Because Eddie Furlong was tripped out on coke at the time, or so I'd heard.

4. T-X. No nudity. And the existence begs the question, "Why didn't Skynet send a Battalion of these things back?"

No nudity? You mean aside from the ass shot?

As for the whole whole battalion thing - well, there's just a couple of things you have to put on the shelf when dealing with Time Travel? I mean why hasnt Skynet sent a whole bunch of terminators back to the stone age to exterminate mankind once and for all? Hell, set up an empire in ancient Rome and away you go. One terminator vs the Roman Legions? Piece of cake.

6. Car chase that has no purpose other than to be a car chase.

And the truck chase in Raiders of the Lost Ark is there to be nothing more than an action piece. And the chase through the asteroids in Empire is nothing more than a razzle-dazzle money shot.

A chase is what it is - an action sequence that's designed to knock the socks off the viewers, and nothing more.

Now I'll freely admit that the Hottie Terminator did nothing for me (aside from getting a full on robot chubby). She didnt have the Unstopable Badass-ness of Ah-nold and the deadly elegance and grace of Robert Patrick. She was just a babe with an arm that turned into a bazooka and that's it.

Did I hate the movie? No? Do I think it was as good as Terminator 1 or 2? No. It was however a good action movie with lots of stuff blowing up. In that, I am satisified.
Old 01-11-04, 02:54 PM
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Why do people insist that T3 made the first two films irrelevent? That's the easy answer, but its not true at all. If anything, T3 changed T2's message, but that changed Terminator's message.

In T1, it is shown that intereference from the future cannot change things. Basically, the machines failed in changing the future. The whole paradox is that Kyle is John Connor's father. But on the other hand, the machine ensures its survival because its daddy so to speak is the damaged CPU and hand. Thats a time travel paradox, and there really is no way to get around it.

In T2, Cameron changed things a bit - things MAY be able to be changed. Thats the whole point. Even Sarah Conner says she is not sure if the future can be changed. In fact, if you look at the deleted future coda ending, its even murkier - "Sarah says something about John fighting Skynet in the Senate" or somethnig like that. So even in the theaterical cut (or the director's SE), it is not guaranteed that the future war could not happen.

T3 seems to go back to the original Termnator's idealogy about the future. If you want to blame anything, blame T2 as the "odd man out" in terms of inevitability of the future.

Last edited by chanster; 01-11-04 at 02:57 PM.
Old 01-11-04, 04:14 PM
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I don't care what anyone else thinks, when Arnold said calmly, "No, I am not shitting you," I cracked up. And hard, too. I thought the movie was full of funny moments like that. Some action, some humor=a good time.

Last edited by Corvin; 01-11-04 at 04:16 PM.
Old 01-11-04, 04:27 PM
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Too much humor in it. It felt out of place to me. I know there wasn't a lot, but still.

Also, the lack of Hamilton/Furlong probably makes it slighlty less enjoyable.

Lack of Cameron. It felt like a decent attempt at a action movie, I guess, but it didn't truly feel like a Terminator film.

Something about a Terminator action sequence taking place in broad daylight--granted, it's different, but it doesn't work. One of the same reasons why JP3 was terrible. Actions scenes in the day time--unless they are car chases, simply don't work. Especially when you've established, in two previous films, that most of the action--the stalking, the gun fights, etc are at night.
Old 01-11-04, 04:28 PM
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I hated it because it felt like a lazy cashin-in, it was too campy, it didn't advance the story in any worthwhile way and they killed off Sarah Connor. This movie simply did not need to be made.
Old 01-11-04, 05:20 PM
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Hated it.

It was far too self-referential.

Both movies were largely one large chase... the chase in T3 is not well done, no sense of urgency.

In light of the ending, the whole series is entirely pointless
Spoiler:
If u cant change fate, there is absolutely no reason to doubt the outcome of the film and even if the Terminator managed to kill Jon, it wouldn't matter... someone else would take his place since its fated. The concept of fate generally kills off any tension a movie has


The actors and all the action scenes were all terrible.
Old 01-11-04, 05:52 PM
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I didn't think it was bad, but compared to the first 2 it was. While watching the extras I kept hearing the director saying how he was making this huge epic. See, that's what really bothered me! I didn't feel like I was watching an action epic. The camera work was ALL WRONG!!! For a movie that's supposed to be an epic, everything seemed cramped together. No big sweeping shots, terrible, just terrible. The cinematographer should have been fired. Maybe that's why everybody is still debating the aspect ratios for this film. The new actor playing John was great. Arnlod was so not needed in this one. He was basically playing the same character from part 2, (I was cringing at the stripper Arnlod, pretty much the same opening from part 2) while I liked his "cold" terminator from the first one more.

PS. I thought Hulk and both Matrix movies were more entartaining than T3, but I also think Hulk was one of the better comic book movies since Burton's Batman, so what do I know.
Old 01-11-04, 05:53 PM
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in light of the ending, the whole series is entirely pointless
not from where i sit.

i was in the theater in '90 when the trailer to T2 got shown and at first i thought it was a parody. i kept think "they can't seriously expect to cash in another time with this premise can they? the first film was closed ended."
But Cameron found a story to tell, and told it well and in a very entertaining way and gave a few twists to the material (an ass-kicking Sarah Conner was not expected, nor was a liquid metal terminator).

if i can fault T3 for anything, its that the film seems a little more like just a set-up to a kick-ass T4 that takes the characters and situations to a whole brand new playground.
was it great sci-fi? no.
was it an instant classic? no.
but i found it enormously entertaining anyway.
i was expecting to groan constantly and hat the humour in it, but i thought it was mostly well done and grew out of characters and situations and not just generic "talk to the hand" pop references and things of that ilk.
liked Claire Danes, thought she was handled in a fairly credible way for this kind of material.
my favorite scene was in the rv
Spoiler:
when she and Stahl start to joke around and flirt.
my first thought as this interaction starts was "ok, it was good up till now, but here's where the film is going to jump the shark", but then the terminator makes a comment about it and the two get all quiet and dejected again...i loved that!
i loved that the filmmakers had the presence of mind to turn an inevitabley clumsy scene like that around on its ear, and with humour.


no way i can see this film being criticized for its time trael paradoxes while the others get a free pass. it goes with the territory here and has from the start.
the film has a driving, relentless forward motion, and doesn't try to pretend to be more than what it is

Last edited by ckolchak; 01-11-04 at 05:56 PM.
Old 01-11-04, 07:39 PM
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I had many issues with Terminator 3. Its lousy and rushed story were two of its many problems. It pretty much was a remake of T2 with an older John! Why the hell did we need to see that a gain? Like someone said above, the ending made this entire movie pointless. Also, turning the Terminator himself into a complete joke... that was where I had enough. Oh, and the music sucked too.

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