Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
I pride myself on my ability to sniff a bad movie out before it hits the screens. After seeing so many movies, reading so many magazines (like Time, Entertainment Weekly, and Cinescape) and listening to so many interviews, you start to realize before a picture even hits the theaters when something is wrong.
I'm also a big fan -- I helped create the Terminator: Future Fate D20 Modern campaign setting. What, you haven't gotten a copy? It's free! Go! Go right now and get it (under Freebies)!
With Terminator 3, my Spidey sense was tingling.
The majority of interviews all centered on "how great it is to work with Mr. Schwarzenegger." Uh huh. That's nice. Whenever a director talks about how great the movie is, I get suspicious.
Then there's the, "we've made a new Terminator and she's a BAAAAAAAABE!" This idea already hit the comics and novels. But really, why? Why make her a beautiful woman? Is this going to be The Hidden all over again? The Hidden was great -- but it gave a reason for why the bad guy took on a luscious female form. And don't even get me started on calling her a Terminatrix.
And why bring Arnie again? My idea, which was used in the Terminator series of novels out now, was to have Arnie play himself as a human character in present time who is the model for Terminators. Glad S.M. Sterling agrees it's a good idea.
So, with all those thoughts going through our heads, Maleficent and I took in a matinee. Whenever we suspect a movie might suck, we go to a matinee so we don't feel like we were suckered. And...
We were pleasantly surprised. Terminator 3 is really quite good. It is not as good, in my opinion, as Terminator 2. Maleficent liked Terminator 3 better (she hated the squeaky punk in Terminator 2).
This movie follows a T-X (get it, Terminator-X or Terminatrix, although that's a term used only by Connor) who has gone backwards in time to kill all the lieutenants of John Connor since Skynet can't find him.
Right away, we know something is different. The T-X has a blue lighting scheme. Her interface looks more like a Windows environment than the old red-code Terminators. She moves with the same eerie patience that the T-1000 did. For the most part, she's expresionless. When she reacts at all, it's disturbing. A scary, beautiful woman. Go figure.
The reason for the change is because the future has changed. Skynet's birth came and went. If you saw the last two movies, the world was supposed to have gone to nuclear war already. But thanks to Sarah, Judgment Day didn't happen. Not yet, anyway.
Arnold is unbelievably bulked up. I thought maybe they digitally inserted his head on a younger man's body. Nope -- it's him. Naked. 50 years old and the man is bulked. I fear anyone dating his daughters (does he even have daughters?).
The movie doesn't take itself too seriously. It focuses on the chase scenes, the running combat between the two Terminators, and the slow recognition of the whole scary plot by Kate Brewster, John's future wife.
The movie makes several propositions, which I found interesting. For one, it implies that history is self-correcting. Although John didn't meet Kate right away, he met her again a decade later anyway. Although Skynet wasn't built as a mechanical fortress, it was created as a virus over the Internet instead. In short, the future is NOT what you make of it. It all HAS to happen. It's just a matter of WHEN.
The director, Jonathan Mostow, recognizes his core audience. We've all seen Terminator 2. We know how Arnie got his clothes last time. This time, he walks naked into a bar with another fat guy with another shotgun guarding the entrance...and he says without blinking an eye, "You're early, go around back." Now the audience is confused. Why isn't he surprised Arnie's naked? We get the answer in a strip club for ladies who are hooting and shouting at the stripper on stage -- who just happens to match Arnie's dimensions. You've got to appreciate a movie that's willing to laugh at itself.
Although it has an "R" rating, this movie isn't that gory. The moments of possible nudity are actually covered up (no, you don't get to see frontal nudity on the Terminatrix). Almost like they were trying hard to make it acceptable for parents to bring their kids to see it. Hmmm.
The ending is very well done. I say this a lot -- this is one of those movies that had the strength of its convictions. There's a logical, unpopular conclusion to the events going on in Terminator 3. The movie embraces them.
If you're looking for a good popcorn movie and want to see robots beat each other up, this is a film worth seeing. If you're a Terminator fan and want to see more adventures set in the wild and wacky timeline that is constitutes the Terminator universe -- this is a MUST SEE.
I'm also a big fan -- I helped create the Terminator: Future Fate D20 Modern campaign setting. What, you haven't gotten a copy? It's free! Go! Go right now and get it (under Freebies)!
With Terminator 3, my Spidey sense was tingling.
The majority of interviews all centered on "how great it is to work with Mr. Schwarzenegger." Uh huh. That's nice. Whenever a director talks about how great the movie is, I get suspicious.
Then there's the, "we've made a new Terminator and she's a BAAAAAAAABE!" This idea already hit the comics and novels. But really, why? Why make her a beautiful woman? Is this going to be The Hidden all over again? The Hidden was great -- but it gave a reason for why the bad guy took on a luscious female form. And don't even get me started on calling her a Terminatrix.
And why bring Arnie again? My idea, which was used in the Terminator series of novels out now, was to have Arnie play himself as a human character in present time who is the model for Terminators. Glad S.M. Sterling agrees it's a good idea.
So, with all those thoughts going through our heads, Maleficent and I took in a matinee. Whenever we suspect a movie might suck, we go to a matinee so we don't feel like we were suckered. And...
We were pleasantly surprised. Terminator 3 is really quite good. It is not as good, in my opinion, as Terminator 2. Maleficent liked Terminator 3 better (she hated the squeaky punk in Terminator 2).
This movie follows a T-X (get it, Terminator-X or Terminatrix, although that's a term used only by Connor) who has gone backwards in time to kill all the lieutenants of John Connor since Skynet can't find him.
Right away, we know something is different. The T-X has a blue lighting scheme. Her interface looks more like a Windows environment than the old red-code Terminators. She moves with the same eerie patience that the T-1000 did. For the most part, she's expresionless. When she reacts at all, it's disturbing. A scary, beautiful woman. Go figure.
The reason for the change is because the future has changed. Skynet's birth came and went. If you saw the last two movies, the world was supposed to have gone to nuclear war already. But thanks to Sarah, Judgment Day didn't happen. Not yet, anyway.
Arnold is unbelievably bulked up. I thought maybe they digitally inserted his head on a younger man's body. Nope -- it's him. Naked. 50 years old and the man is bulked. I fear anyone dating his daughters (does he even have daughters?).
The movie doesn't take itself too seriously. It focuses on the chase scenes, the running combat between the two Terminators, and the slow recognition of the whole scary plot by Kate Brewster, John's future wife.
The movie makes several propositions, which I found interesting. For one, it implies that history is self-correcting. Although John didn't meet Kate right away, he met her again a decade later anyway. Although Skynet wasn't built as a mechanical fortress, it was created as a virus over the Internet instead. In short, the future is NOT what you make of it. It all HAS to happen. It's just a matter of WHEN.
The director, Jonathan Mostow, recognizes his core audience. We've all seen Terminator 2. We know how Arnie got his clothes last time. This time, he walks naked into a bar with another fat guy with another shotgun guarding the entrance...and he says without blinking an eye, "You're early, go around back." Now the audience is confused. Why isn't he surprised Arnie's naked? We get the answer in a strip club for ladies who are hooting and shouting at the stripper on stage -- who just happens to match Arnie's dimensions. You've got to appreciate a movie that's willing to laugh at itself.
Although it has an "R" rating, this movie isn't that gory. The moments of possible nudity are actually covered up (no, you don't get to see frontal nudity on the Terminatrix). Almost like they were trying hard to make it acceptable for parents to bring their kids to see it. Hmmm.
The ending is very well done. I say this a lot -- this is one of those movies that had the strength of its convictions. There's a logical, unpopular conclusion to the events going on in Terminator 3. The movie embraces them.
If you're looking for a good popcorn movie and want to see robots beat each other up, this is a film worth seeing. If you're a Terminator fan and want to see more adventures set in the wild and wacky timeline that is constitutes the Terminator universe -- this is a MUST SEE.
Labels: Movies, Science Fiction
posted by talien | 4:39 PM
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