Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

 

 

So anybody who saw the end of Terminator 2: Judgement Day was probably thinking to themselves, "How in the name of Kyle Reese' ghost does Arnold come back from that to be in the third movie?" The answer: some things were better left unmade.
John Connor (Nick Stahl) is now his own man after supposedly preventing Skynet and a war with machines from destroying most of humanity. But Connor, like his mother before him, has spent the last several years in paranoia of that future. As you can guess by the movie poster, this rightly so.
Again Skynet has sent an upgraded Terminator assassin, the T-X (Kristanna Loken) to destroy the Resistance of Mankind before it can ever be created and ensure the survival of the computer system that will eventually take over the world. But a new T-101 Terminator (again played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) has arrived on the scene to defend both Connor and another pre-destined war hero Kate Brewster (Claire Danes). These three are the only ones capable of preventing the rise of machines before they fight back against the humans who designed them.
For a franchise with the moral message of "There is no fate but what we make" this movie rewrites drowns the series and its characters into destinies that not only steer them away from the development of previous movies but solely exists for the sake of fan service. It tries to bring the Terminator world into the modern digitally-centred age but seldom comes up with anything creative with what it offers.
Schwarzenegger's performance is thankfully just as good as his last turn at the Terminator character, but the script really tries to make this robot into something he's not. New cast additions Danes and Stahl aren't bad, but they aren't given much development. Whereas the previous movie at least had a strong supporting cast, the movie makes little attempt to hide the fact this whole cast is built around Schwarzenegger. This also doesn't help with our new baddie, the T-X who has little cool factor to her name. She may have superior CGI, but she's definitely no T-1000.
For a movie that's set on the verge of a nuclear apocalypse, they don't give the audience much to invest in. One solid chase scene will keep your adrenaline at its peak but its fairly early and by the end of the movie you're left with a bittersweet impression at best.