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Techtite's DVD Reviews! |
"Scenes in the beginning of the film are perfect and dead-on, as if filmed by a cast and crew well rested and ready to hit their first scenes with panache...later scenes seem done by a cast and crew far more tired and weary, with little sign of major effort nor any desire for decent dialog delivery." --from the review
------------- Sidebar :: ------------- Letters; we get letters! As we get letters about a review, we like to link to some of them. Here is the top of the e-mailbag for this review: "Thank You. Finally someone agrees with me that T3 was garbage." Write your own letter, at Techtite's Letters page!
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T-3:Rise of the Machines(also called Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines)
Click picture to order this DVD (Full Screen version!)
Also available on VHS! Click Here. A Techtite ReviewAs Always, a review of The Film and The DVD (extras)! The Film: No, it's not as bad as Alien 3. However, could you blame someone for thinking so, based on the similarities? First, we have a "newbie" to the film series, as director (then David Fincher; now Jonathan Mostow). Second, characters integral to the story have been "killed off," for no reason other than the actors turning the sequel down (Newt and Hicks in Alien 3; now, Sarah Conner...!). Third, the promise of a "ballsy ending" (otherwise known as "crappy ending") to replace the prior film's ending ...which, quite frankly, was a better ending. Add a dash of "Is this sequel truly necessary?" and you have T-3: Rise of the Machines. Again, it's not as bad as Alien 3...though it's still not very good. Not that the story isn't there exactly. The film begins with a now adult John Conner (Nick Stahl) narrating that "No fate but what we make" is a lot of hooey. Who can blame him? This is the third time that he has had his life threatened by a terminator from the future, trying to prevent his "destiny" to lead the human rebellion against Skynet. It just doesn't seem to matter what he does or how he does it; Skynet will always try to make the future happen. After all; Skynet is a supercomputer which can think in a nanosecond. Is it any surprise it could send another terminator...and another...and another...until Conner just gives up? Which brings me to the first problem I had with this sequel: indeed, John seems ready to give up. How is this guy to be humankind's leader of the resistance against machines, if he is such a quitter? Fortunately, he has two people to push him in the right direction. One is yet another "reprogrammed" terminator from the future, sent to protect him (again played by Arnold Schwarzenegger). The other is newcomer Kate Brewster (Claire Danes); the woman who would be Mrs. Conner in the bleak future described...and his second in command. I particularly liked the new character of Kate in this sequel. Not only is she a believable ally/soldier/lover for John in the future; she even offers my favorite line. When told she may become Mrs. Conner someday, Kate's facial expression is priceless. "What...?" demands John. "Well," offers Kate, "quite frankly...you're a mess!" Indeed. The heart-wrenching scene, though, is when she sees a presumed ally morph into the terminatrix; a sight of pure horror that Kate cannot yet comprehend. Consider: Claire Danes had to do this scene off the cuff, since the majority of this cyborg was done in the FX lab later on. She's a great actress, and this film is a better one with her in a lead role. I've only alluded so far to the magnum opus of FX for this latest Terminator film: a very deceptively sexy-looking, female "terminatrix" (Kristanna Loken). She's a real beauty of a machine --figuratively and literally-- and the best of both designs of terminators from prior films: a hard as nails endoskeleton, laminated in liquid metal, allowing her to change appearance. The endoskeleton, one must presume, is needed to power a "super weapon" of sorts, the elements of which I won't reveal. Oh, she also can control anything with a microchip in it, from computers to automobiles. When it comes to FX characters, she is the queen. I liked some (yes, some) additional traits of this sequel. Whenever the terminatrix cannot track John Conner down, she systematically targets the next best thing: his lieutenants from the future. That's an amusing twist that the first terminators (and films) never considered. I also liked the cameo of Dr. Peter Silberman (Earl Boen), the criminal psychologist who was such a jerk to Kyle Reese in the first film, and Sarah Conner in the second. It's a quick take, though a welcome one for diehard fans. Yet neither a lieutenant killing spree nor a quick cameo could save this picture from being, in the end...rather disappointing. I don't know if it's the directing or the writing, though something just doesn't mesh here. Even the film's cast appears to get tired of the film at the midway point. Scenes in the beginning of the film are perfect and dead-on, as if filmed by a cast and crew well rested and ready to hit their first scenes with panache (the newest way Arnold-terminator gets modern clothes is a riot). However, later scenes seem done by a cast and crew far more tired and weary, with little sign of major effort nor any desire for decent dialog delivery. This leads to a finale that, well... Now, people new to my web site must learn that, while I do not like spoilers any more than you probably do, my feeling of announcing that an ending sucks is quite liberal. That is to say, I will not spoil the ending in a film review, though yes, I will give you fair warning that I feel the ending sucks, so you can better decide which 100 minutes of your life should be wasted to see a poorly ended movie. That said: this ending sucks. Cafe-philosophers will tell you that it is "artistic" due to such suckage, though smarter people know better. It's just bad.
With or without this ending, the film still suffers in another regard: it's an action film and...that's all. There simply isn't enough humanity here. Isn't that the whole point of this film series: humankind's survival against unemotional killing machines? Consider the moment the new terminator explains his origins to John Conner. He tells John some truly horrible news about his own future, only to have John act like he'd shrug it off as "no biggie." I know John is supposed to be a very rough and tough military mastermind in the future, though would he not be totally inquisitive and argumentative, when told such horrible news...? It is true that the overall story here makes more sense than the prior films, and yet it is also less appealing. The point of this film saga, after all, was never to be a blueprint for time travel, nor to even be true to the "laws of time." Heck, the point wasn't even to make total sense. The point was to offer the typical male fantasy, that any one man is in charge of his own destiny. This film turns around and tells us that, sorry, as long as there are sequels to be had, the future must suck, so terminators can still go through that rift in time, and movie producers can make more money. "Fate is what you make it," indeed. Consider, however: that includes the fate of this film series. What fate will it have? You decide.
The DVD: I know you're asking: why did I put the order link for the "full screen" version above the "widescreen" version? Because the widescreen isn't really widescreen at all; it's just a cropped version of the pan-and-scan full screen version, apparently because the people who made this DVD were too bored to transfer the original film "as it appeared in theaters," for the widescreen TV audience. Uh, guys...? Isn't that the whole reason for widescreen TV's? I don't think someone pays three times the price of a regular TV (at least), just to see an image that was cropped TWICE. What's more: the extras are the same no matter which version you buy. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken all are on hand for an admittedly impressive yet very self-congratulatory commentary, with a separate commentary by Director Jonathan Mostow. No; they don't bother to cover the numerous plot inconsistencies, nor the finale, which even on a scientific level makes no sense, let alone from a storyteller level. They're too busy talking about the movie that was so great to be in blah blah blah. Anyway; given how Arnold is now Governor of California, this comment reel may become a rare treat. I doubt he'll feel like making any more comment reels after this now that he's this big shot politician, or whatever. Yeah, that's exactly it: what...ever. Arnold offers an introduction to the disc as well, which is nice, as are all the added extras on disc two! There's the HBO First Look special preserved on the disc, along with a separate "on location" feature. A Visual Effects Lab allows you to build your own effect sequence; a feature that to the best of my knowledge was first offered on the Men In Black DVD way back when, and still is intriguing to this day. A Sky Net database summarizes the characters, weaponry, and vehicles. I admit, while there is only one deleted scene present...what a scene! It nearly makes up for the whole DVD, and even the film's own shortcomings. In this "Sergeant Candy Scene" we see a very campy moment behind the scenes of Skynet, explaining what happened to Cyberdyne after being blown up in the first sequel (apparently, the military just salvaged and bought out what elements of the company's research they could). However, it's the revealation of how and why all terminators look like Arnold that's the real selling point here. If only the movie itself could've taken the lead of this scene, and taken itself far less seriously. Maybe the film wouldn't have been so bad. Now, here's where the DVD goes too far. A "Terminator Timeline" is offered, apparently to show how gosh oh golly Miss Molly, this movie's ending makes sense because it means that the "timeline" makes sense. Oh, really...? Then answer me this genius: if the timeline is so "set" and cannot be changed blah blah blah, why was the terminatrix successful in killing many of John Conner's lieutenants in the past? These guys will never be lieutenants, ergo, the future can be changed, you idiotically dumb-witted dipsticks! In short, to offer a quote Sarah Conner would make had she starred in this farce of a sequel: "No fate but what we make,"...period! Say: that sounds like the title of a well-written My Two Bits editorial, doesn't it? I'm just saying: this timeline is bunk, and so was this film's treatment of it. Okay, now I'm mad. So let me just zip
through the remaining extras: a gag reel of bloopers, a storyboard
gallery, a costume featurette and the obligatory film trailers. What can I
say: I just got a letter from a guy who was mad at me for bad-mouthing a
puppet movie (!!!), so I can only imagine I'll get grief from someone for
lambasting this film. Don't worry, oh fans of this third Terminator film
(both of you!); I'm sure this film will be put to good use, soon enough.
After all: isn't it about time Mystery Science Theater 3000
made a comeback?
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