Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines (2003)

[Scott]

TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES (2003) - Enjoyed this one as much as the previous two films. For some reason I had the impression that this one might not be very good, but I was mistaken. It's excellent with great action, dialogue, and of course the story which continues in one big cycle. Always get a kick out of these time travel films trying to figure out which came first the chicken or the egg type thing. Anyway if you get the chance and you haven't seen it then by all means do. I'm probably the last to have viewed this film.

(8 out of 10 Stars) This film had me totally engaged. The ending was to soon and left me wanting to see more.

[Ash]

I thought this was a decent entry into the Terminator series.

I liked the bonding scenes between John and Kate.
Especially the "Mike Kripkey's basement" dialogue where they remember that they had shared a first kiss.
You can bet that first kiss scene will be in "The Sarah Connor Chronicles" TV show.

The chase scene with the crane was f*cking spectacular!

I loved the opening scenes where Arnold enters a women's bar.
"Talk to the hand."

[trekgeezer]

Arnold actually gave back part of his salary to get the crane chase filmed. The studio balked when asked to pony up for it.

They actually built false extended fronts on some real buildings.

I liked this entry (I have it on DVD), but like Scott I wished for more.

Since Arnie is not likely to ever return to the bige screen, I hope they tap Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to play the Terminator in the next one. Hey, they wouldn't be very good at infiltrating the humans if they all looked the same.

[Bill C.]

T3 really wasn't a bad film.  It had some okay ideas, and the setpieces in their way were fairly impressive (far and away the chase scene).  But it skewed far closer to the venerable T2 then it needed to, though--more so in terms of feel than execution--and to me that hurt it a bit.

Except for one thing.  The score.  It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either.  It just...was.  Thanks a heap for phoning it in, Marco Beltrami...

[Torgo]

I will always like the 1st Terminator film the best.

Scared the crap out of me when I was little!  Mainly when the endoskeleton is going after them in the last 15 minutes.

[Kooshmeister]

Regardless of whether Terminator 3 was well-made or not, I severely disliked how it basically rendered moot much of what the first two movies so painstakingly set up; that being the idea that the future is not set, and that it can be changed (I'm especially annoyed that they don't even try to offer an explanation for how Skynet ended up being built despite the fact they completely destroyed everything gaving to do with it in T2, and the scientist who was supposed to invent it was killed). But then along comes the third movie and whoops, Judgement Day has to happen, no matter what.

It just seems like a big cheat. And worse, the T-X as a character didn't work for me because it seemed like they were trying way too hard to make her cooler than the T-1000. And I also think not enough was done with the fact she was female. The closest they came was having her make her boobs bigger when she's pulled over by the cop, but then they completely negate that by having her kill him. What was the point of increasing her breast size if she's just gonna kill the guy? Sheesh! And I won't even go into how silly I think it is for her to be liquid metal but over an actual metal skeleton, and how this should, logically, severely limit her shapeshifting abilities.

I prefer to assume that the story just ends after Terminator 2, with T3 as a "what if" alternate ending. It's certainly not a terrible movie, it's just a bad direction to take the story in. The subtitle "Rise of the Machines" made me think it was going to be the story of the future, with the adult John Connor fighting against Skynet's forces, and maybe end with Kyle Reese getting sent back, thus providing a nice bookend to the series. But alas, 'twas not to be.

[Joe]

Since Arnie is not likely to ever return to the bige screen, I hope they tap Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to play the Terminator in the next one. Hey, they wouldn't be very good at infiltrating the humans if they all looked the same.

CAN YA SMEEEELELELELEL WHAT THE T-800 IS COOKIN?................hell no, not at all.

i dont know anyone off the top of my head who would be a good terminator but def not the rock.

[Jack]

The first is my favorite.  I really liked the simplicity of it - unstoppable dude after two people.  The chemistry between Sarah and Reese was fantastic, I really cared about both those characters.  And the very visceral violence of it, Arnold emptying an entire clip into somebody at point blank range, with no expression at all on his face, that really made an impact.

Part two was excellent as well, but in a very different way.  I liked the incredible special effects like the tow truck chasing the kid on the motorcycle and Arnold chasing that on a Harley.  The plot was interesting and the characters pretty good as well. 

Part three, well, the crane chase was awesome.  It was a good movie overall, no doubt about that.  But it didn't have nearly the impact of the first two.  Arnold emptying an entire clip into an unsuspecting citizen had WAY more impact than that the new terminator firing all her fancy gadgetry at stuff.  And I really didn't feel connected to any of the characters, not the human ones or even Arnold.  The ending was the same way, Arnold chasing after Sarah and Reese in part 1, first in that tanker truck and then that whole scene in the factory, that was awesome.  The gazillion dollar special effects in the end of part three were cool, but didn't make much of an impact on me at all. Too much special effects, not enough heart.

[Scott]

TERMINATOR 3 almost had some Matrix type moments with the whole network/machine idea. Jack is pretty close to how I feel about the three movies, but I thought it had the right type of heart for being the 3rd film.

[Mr. DS]

Regardless of whether Terminator 3 was well-made or not, I severely disliked how it basically rendered moot much of what the first two movies so painstakingly set up; that being the idea that the future is not set, and that it can be changed

I'm totally with you on this subject although I'm nerdily overthinking it.  The film sets up too many questions plot wise at the end.  So apparently Judgement Day takes place in a NEW light because its been "postponed".  However, the film fails to answer the question(s) if this is in fact a NEW Judgement Day, would Reese still get sent back in the NEW future?  That makes you question John Connor's existence in the first place.  If Reese/the original Terminator didn't go back, there would be no John Connor or Judgement Day.  After all, its the computer chip from the first Terminator that eventually lead to Skynet. And Reese wouldn't have gotten it on with Sarah obviously.

I guess these questions truly started for me in T2 when they supposedly stopped Judgement Day.  Too bad T3 didn't think to address that.  Still, T3 proves to be a good popcorn movie.  Have to say Arny in the first one is still the best.  Its too bad he didn't go on to perform more villain roles.

[Scott]

DarkSider your right about Arnold. He should do some strong "bad guy" roles if he ever leaves politics.

Then again we love all the great lines that his characters have and that may be best suited for the "good guys" roles. Then again I may be wrong about that. The only thing about those famous lines is that they add humor and are hard to bring out of a bad guy unless maybe he's a robot. 

[Torgo]

I thought that T3 was just too much of a re-tread of the 2nd film in a lot of respects.

The only thing it added to the series IMO was the fact that they actually ended it with the beginning of the nuclear annihilation.

[Panic_Attack]

People balk and laugh at me when I make the mistake of saying I really liked T3. 

[Gerry]

I liked T3.  Not as good as the first two, but a lot of fun nonetheless.  Best than most second sequels.

[ghouck]

I hate to admit it here, but I liked 3 the most of all, then 2, then 1. The way I interpret all the things in 3 that go against what seemed to be laid down in 1 and 2 is that they (JC), are not only going against the machines and such, but also against fate and destiny. In 2, everything involving skynet was destroyed, , but, destiny being as resilient as it is, allows someone else to stubble across the answers, bringing skynet to fruition. Or, , it's possible that not everything was completely destroyed in 2, or possible that their network was (unknowlingly) backed up off-site.