MOVIE - TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES - Review Rating $$$$$ $$ (OUT OF 10)
STARRING - Arnold Schwarzenegger (Terminator), Nick Stahl (John Connor),
Claire Danes (Kate Brewster), Kristanna Loken (T-X) & David Andrews (Robert Brewster).
DIRECTOR - Jonathan Mostow (Breakdown, U-571)
The producers of Terminator 3, following the lead of car manufacturers and their cross-over vehicles (SUV's, SUT's etc), may have just created a new movie category known as STARR's (Sequels That Are Really Remakes).
Here's the 5 easy steps for making a STARR. 1) Wait ten years or more to make the sequel so the majority of the audience forgets the finer details of the original story. 2) Change the sex of the "bad" terminator/character. 3) Create a scenario that allows the returning "good" terminator/character to have no memory of his/her previous encounter with the main protagonist. 4) Instead of writing a new script have the main protagonist reeducate the "good" terminator/character about the plot of the previous movie and 5) use the latest techniques to make the special effects look that much more impressive.
James Cameron, the director of the first two Terminator movies, and Linda Hamilton declined to participate in this sequel claiming that it was more about the money than advancing the story. They were absolutely right.
T-3 manages to be entertaining mostly because the story it is rehashing was well written and thought provoking to begin with. Add decent pacing, humorous one-liners, modest length and top quality special effects and you end up with a watchable, if not compelling, sequel.
T-3 is really a very slick, expensive ad campaign for a new video game. Anyone who was a fan of the T-2 Arcade shoot 'em up game will recognize scenes in T-3 (the crane chase in particular) that seem to have been included for no other reason than to serve as the basis of the next generation of Terminator video games. I'm not exactly sure what benefit Toyota thought they would derive from having one of their Tundra trucks dented into oblivion but it no doubt will be featured prominently in the video game too.
T-3 is the Chicken Little of movie sequels. The sky isn't constantly falling but Sky-Net and the machines are constantly rising. If you were looking forward to seeing the rise of the machines, and the human rebellion against them, you'll be disappointed. If you have fond memories of T-2 and you don't mind paying $11.00 to see essentially the same movie, again, then I recommend T-3.
Running time - 109 minutes
Alternative Reviews:
Roger Ebert's Review
Private Joker's Review
Rotten Tomatoes Reviews
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11:53:52 AM 
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