caiman

His opinion is wrong because it's in the minority? Don't think so. Although I don't like the way he states his thoughts ("byte me"), I wouldn't call him wrong just because his opinion differs from mine. Afterall, it's his opinion.

Mad Dawg

First of all, you need to cool it. Get mad at the movie if you will, but these guys haven't done a thing to you.

Secondly, are you sure that people who liked T3 are the fan boys and not the people who insist that if Cameron wasn't involved it wasn't worth making?

Joe Schmoe

THE GOOD: Great action scenes. Great fights between the Terminators. Probably the best chase scene I've ever seen in a flick. Arnold was funny. First half of the film was fun. The TX was gorgeous.

THE BAD: It was too short (which is usually a sign that there wasn't enough good material to sustain 2 hours). The second half of the film was a disappointment, especially the ending. The new John Connor sucked (bring back Edward Furlong). Neither the music nor the intro title sequence was memorable like in the first two Terminator movies.

THE UGLY: Character development sucked.


SPOILER WARNING

Kate lost 2 loved ones and was not too upset about it. That she was able to carry on and fight as well as she did after losing her fiance and father on the same day was ridiculous.

And how did John, Kate, and the Terminator break into the control room in the military base? That must have been quite a struggle, but for some reason the director chose to skip that sequence unlike Cameron, who in "T2" showed us exactly how Arnold & Co. got past security measures in the Cyberdyne building. Instead, the heroes and the TX all show up at precisely the same moment with no explanation as to how they got past security. Sure, we all know that Arnold and the TX probably made easy mince meat out of the guards and their weapons, but it still would have been fun to watch.

Sarah Conor deserved a better fate than dying from an illness. This kick-ass warrior desrved to go down fighting. Learning her fate was as disappointing as watching heroine Ellen Ripley commit suicide at the end of "Alien 3."

END SPOILER

Joe Schmoe

atari2600,

Are you serious? You didn't recognize Dr. Silberman? Have you not seen the first 2 Terminator movies?

lesterlong

THERE ARE SPOILERS BELOW!!!

Now, did anyone think the ending was a smack to James Cameron's face? If you've been on the attraction at Universal Studios, there is a Skynet core in the future. But according to T3 there is no core. Which I think works much better, T3 was a bit smarter than what Cameron probably would of dreamed up.

CCGoldRush

I really liked it as well. This was the slam-bang non-stop action that Matrix wanted to be without all the overblown philosophical mumbo-jumbo.

Is it better than X2? Well, I think they are different movies. I liked X2 (better than the first), but X2 made it by with several different characters--T3 basically had 4.

Reviews of the film consistently said that the script was good--I have to agree--this is the best script of all three movies. It certainly isn't as basic and primal as the first film, and isn't as innovative as T2 (thanks to updated CGI and the fact that we're "used" to it), but T3 on its own stands out.

In fact, I will go out on a limb here, and taking it from a quality standpoint, the Terminator trilogy might just be the best trilogy of movies ever made. All three are better than Return of the Jedi, Lethal Weapon 3, Beverly Hills Cop 3, Godfather 3, Back to the Future 2, and the last 2 Jurassic Park films. Think about it. The only thing close is probably Indy, but that's very close.

Comparisons to T2 are going to be obvious, but the script for T3 is definitely better then either previous film, as is the acting--Nick Stahl was much better than Edward Furlong, whose delivery needed a lot of work. Character development with the humans and Terminator was more fleshed out in T2, but the character development between humans--i.e. John and Kate--was better in this one.

The ending also kicked major ass.

DRG

It's funny. This may be the first $170 million sequel to a huge blockbuster to be a word of mouth hit.

Zodiac_Speaking

It deserves it. I'm seeing it again.

atari2600

long time ago when i was younger. just dont remember. thanks though.

Dr. DVD

Saw it. Thought it was a decent action flick, but Cameron's presence was sorely missed. The style was definitely different from the first two, and IMO, they used too many daylight scenes.
Nick Stahl and Claire Danes really need to work on their acting, as does Kristianna Loken, but then again, none the Terminator movies have acting as their strong point. (Especially part I) Stahl was acting a whole lot like Michael Biehn in the first one, so that may have been intentional.
I didn't really like the fact that they played the T-850 for laughs so much, as I never found him that kind of character. Also, they didn't need to rub in all of the sexual predator methaphors with the T-X. I actually groaned when she started sampling the blood and acting all orgasmic. Please, don't pander to horndogs, not with a Terminator movie anyway.
I give it *** out of four. It was no T2, but then again, how many action movies achieve that goal? Go into it with the attitude that it is little more than speculative fiction, and you'll be fine.

P.S. While not a very good actress, Kristianna is hot.

Pics please!!!!

Dr. DVD

P.S. I only hope this movie does well so that we can see a T4 with some future battles. That's what I wanted in this one dang it, and in more than just fantasies!!!

jarofclay73

I liked T3. With that said, the Terminator Trilogy is pretty strong. Still, I don't feel it's better than the Star Wars Saga or the Indiana Jones Trilogy. I don't think you can compare it to the Godfather Trilogy since it's a different genre altogether. It could beat the Back to the Future Trilogy but, again, BTTF is more of a comedy than an action flick.

I think it easily beats the other trilogies mentioned: Beverly Hills Cop, Jurassic Park, Lethal Weapon.

DVDProfessor

This first came out the year I was born

The second I was seven

Now, I'm nineteen and the third film is out.

And let me say this...

AWESOME!!!!

I loved this film, it had such a different feeling to it, but it was such a great film, I will so go see it again!

jarofclay73

Like I said earlier, most of the chase scene (save for the T-X getting smashed, that was CG) looks like practical stunts. It looked like to me that they had to build building sets and literally destroy them. I guess there were also fake telephone poles and they destroyed them. All the cars looked real.

That's Dr. Silberman from the first two films. In Terminator, he was the psychiatrist who was at the police station. In that film, he said that by writing journals on Reese he could "make a career out of it." In T2, he actually DOES make a career out of keeping Sarah Connor in Pescadero. Cameron said on his commentary that Silberman doesn't want to let her go since she's his "meal ticket" to stardom. Remember, he was giving a tour for a bunch of people. That's probably because he's published his work on Sarah Connor and his now famous in the psychiatric community, I guess. And in T3, he comes to the scene as a psychiatrist from the sherriff's office. He alludes that he's had to deal with bad memories from seeing the Terminators in T2. And that's why he runs away from Arnold in T3. Funny stuff.

lesterlong

As a trilogy I wouldn't rank it that high. I really liked T2 and T3 but the first movie wasn't as good as any other trilogy starter.

CCGoldRush

I knew I'd get some responses for Indy and Star Wars. But I was taking it as a whole. Indy isn't a sci-fi trilogy, so it is unrealistic to compare that one, isn't it?

I was looking at 3 films as a unit. IMO, all 3 Terminator movies were better than Return of the Jedi (doesn't mean I dislike Jedi, just that the T movies were better), and while I love the Indy movies, filmmaking-wise the Terminator movies were better. (Maybe not directing, but certainly in other aspects. The script to T3 was better than all 3 scripts from the Indy series--it makes me sad to say it, because I love Raiders)

Rypro 525

this conner age thing is gonna drive me crazy, so lets see if I have this correct
*the movie takes place in 2004 since there is a brief insert shot of the time, and it has the year
*they mention that the events of t2 take place about 10 years ago according to John
*the first one takes place in may of 84 since when Reece holds the gun up to the officer, he states its may, and it takes place "present day"
*lets just say all births take place after 9 months after intercorse, then John was born early 85.
so how could John have been only 8 or 9 in t2?

VermillionZ

Glad I'm not the only one that saw a ton of plot holes in the movie.

This was one of my many grumps with the movie.
I really liked the fight scenes, the action, and the FXs but the story blew.
The rest of the movie was great.
Again in addtion to my former post...
If any branch of the military was building and storing a mass load of first Generation Terminators how the hell does everyone get into a maxuim security facility and no one notices? No alarms nothing? Come on some gun toting big guy that looks like he got off the meat truck is not just going to waltz in a place like that without anyone noticing.

audrey

Hated it. Sure the effects were huge and the design of the TX incorporated some interesting features, but to what end? The script lacked fire and imagination. Rather than explore new territory, the screenwriters chose to fill the space between the opening and closing voice over’s with a medley of scenes rehashed from T2, many of which, were too campy and self-aware for my taste.

Even the characters seemed out of sync with the story. Perhaps in some misguided attempt to create a character arc, Conner, the leader of the resistance, was portrayed as a bumbling wimp. Unbelievable. And Kate…except for a moment here or there, her reactions never rung true to the situation at hand.

Instead of Rise of the Machines, I think a more fitting title would have been: T2: Recycled.

VermillionZ

Fanboys = simple minded fools that think anything with their favorite actors, story, movie title, whatever is goodness.
Too many people keep telling me this was a great movie..
I think my brain shut off after trying to follow a half ass story and just staired at the screen watching the sex T-X and all the puns.

Patman

I thought it was okay. Ahnuld still gets a lot of mileage out of his wry Terminator persona. The pacing is probably too fast, with little in terms of good character development, though on the flip side, the film doesn't really drag all that much, but there's some strange stuff going on with the Terminators towards the end of the film.

I did miss Cameron's directorial touches that I know he would have infused into the film to get much more resonance out of not only the predicament of the main characters, but also create more mood for the relevatory scenes. Instead, those scenes are played a little too straight, and the dramatic payoff doesn't really hit as hard as the previous 2 Terminator films.

The action in the 1st act is pretty much over the top, but to me, it was cut differently than I expected, like the cadence of the long chase scenes was off just a tad to have me off-kilter, where I didn't have as much access to the action as I normally did with Cameron at the helm.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.

Patman

More thoughts... (Spoilers ahoy!)




To me, this film feels like a polished version (CGI-wise) of a first or second draft of what could have been a better film.

Yes, there's action in the film, but I don't think it's got a lot of humanity in it at all. That was one of the primal strengths of the earlier films.

Kate did have the best line in the film (I forget, something along the lines of "Just die you bitch!"), but just where did Kate get all those moves (when she disarmed John and threw his punk ass into the cage so quick. She's got some mad unexplained skills for a lady working at an animal hospital. Sure, she must have been an Air Force brat, but still... You had to wonder "Of all of the animal hospitals I could have broken into for some painkillers..."

I think the pacing is simply too quick in the film, and they might have deleted some good character background scenes which would have made some more sense of the later scenes. Mostow the director doesn't really mine the material as well as he could have, and the dramatic points have less impact, perhaps because they are too telegraphed, maybe. Like when it's revealed that John gets it from the T-101 (Ahnuld) that's now trying to keep him alive (the irony of sustaining John's life in the here and now after already killing John's future self, getting re-programmed and is sent back to keep him alive to be killed later again), that moment needed either more buildup, or less of a pause when setting up that relevation, have the T-101 state it just like any other emotionless fact, and then show the emotional wallop John suffers from such a BTTF relevatory moment.

Was Skynet really inevitable in John's lifetime? You're left with hope in the first 2 films, but not so in the 3rd, and it seems to trade such bleakness for more sequels.

CCGoldRush

You are insulting and have no place giving such an opinion. If you don't like the movie, fine. But there is absolutely no reason for ANY of us to take your childish name-calling.

Numanoid

I believe that in the movie's logic, Arnie and the kids got into Skynet during the "power outage", when Skynet was coming online. Unfortunately, that was way too fast for them to have made it into the control room...should have been edited much better.

I would give the movie 2 1/2 stars. Not great, but didn't suck, as expected. A little too much humor, I told my friend at the end that it was the best comedy I'd seen all year. Best compliment I can give it - no over-reliance on CGI. Some good, old-fashioned stunt and model work. Arnold had his best performance of the series here, I thought, since he had quite a few more lines, and I never was very interested in that whole "you need to learn to be good" T2 thing. Like others, I did notice the lack of impact on the part of the music. I kept waiting for them to kick in with the soundtrack, but alas, it never happened.

Patman

Nothing like seeing a decent slow-motion shot with crappy or no good background music to set the mood of the shot.