Terminator 3
Living in London has neutered my ability to see movies in a timely fashion. A natural side-effect of this delay is that I’m as tardy with my reviews as Scorcese was making Gangs of New York.
I finally had the opportunity to see Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and then proceeded to take even longer to write about it. I normally endeavour to write my reviews without discussing the plot in detail because I don’t believe you need to know exactly what happens to know how I felt about it. Bad enough that I’m adjusting your expectation from what it was before reading this, I don’t need to tell you in great detail that Bruce Willis dies as well.
Speaking of expectations, watching blockbuster movies this late does let me hear what the general buzz of a movie is before seeing it and that buzz was – uncertain. Some loved it, others hated it. Even my peers, most of whose opinions I trust, had very mixed reviews. So my expectations were set quite low. T3 exceeded said expectations with flying colours – or perhaps it was flying cars.
People who feel the Terminator series has been an epic story arc will find that this movie neither satisfies nor disappoints. The plot was very safe and as such, somewhat predictable. However, I would argue that anyone who thought Linda Hamilton’s soliloquies in T2 even remotely thought provoking needs a few cybernetic implants. This movie is an action flick, get it? Cyborgs and humans walk around naked for a bit and then blow shit up. When you look at the movie in that context, I was duly impressed, especially with a certain chase scene (oh, was that a spoiler! Oh my god! There’s a chase scene! You’ve given everything away!)
Having said that, no action can save really really bad plots so I can at least say this movie kept me interested. Claire Danes and Nick Stahl were both competent and I’m sure most heterosexual males would agree that we wouldn’t mind seeing more from newcomer Kristanna Loken.
To cut a long review short: Arnie blow things up. Big bang. Big guns. Claire Danes. Gooooooooood.
2 Comments