Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines, as much as I wanted to like this, just leaves me feeling cold whenever I watch it. I even convinced myself when I saw it in the theater that it was a worthy installment into the franchise. I just couldn't admit defeat. It wasn't until I picked up the DVD when it came out and watched it did all the things that annoyed me in the theater (that I buried within) came to the forefront. There are so many things wrong with
T3 that I don't really know where to start. I guess I can start with the biggest annoyance, turning the
Terminator into a joke with campy mannerism and sight gags. You know what I'm talking about, "talk to the hand" and wearing star rimmed sunglasses just for starters. Ugh.
Another annoying thing about
T3 is the
T-X (Kristanna Loken), who is one hot babe, but just fails miserably here as a
Terminatrix, much like that of the
T-1000 (Robert Patrick).
Loken is no
Patrick who just owned that role and had a ton of personality even though he was programmed to have no personality.
Loken on the otherhand just looks odd and doing her idea of what a cyborg to do. Don't even get me started on her 'walk'. Ugh. There was a lot of talk shortly after
T2 had run it's course and talk of
T3 was being thrown around and
Arnold had said that he wanted
Rachel McLish to portray a female
Terminator. I was on board with that idea 100% and she was on my mind the first time I saw
T3. I'm not left with a 'What could have been' moment realization, had they made the movie sooner. By then, she was too old.
I like both
Claire Danes and
Nick Stahl as actors. But I think they were both miscast in the roles of
Kate Brewster and
John Conner. Personally, even though I'm not the biggest fan of
Edward Furlong, especially around the time this movie came out, I would have preferred that he reprised his role to make the scenes between him and the
Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) more engaging and satisfying. There was such a hugh disconnect between
Nick and
Arnold that I as a viewer just couldn't invest emotionally in it and the movie suffered because of it.
The movie itself has a lot of things going wrong for it, but it does have some cool set pieces for the most part. The editing in some of the places could have been done better, especially the Tanker scene near the beginning of the film. There were so many close ups that you couldn't tell where or what was happening. Go back and watch it again and you will see what I'm talking about.
Even though I own this on DVD and the only time I ever watch
T3 is when I'm obligated to watch it during my
Terminator marathons, this gets nothing more than a Rent from me. Stick with
The Terminator and
Terminator 2: Judgment Day