Awesome Action & Villian, Great Ending, Good Story

Rating: 9/10 (17 July 2003)

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, is in my opinion, very well done. It combines the most intense action sequences that I have ever seen along with some good characters and a pretty well thought out plot. The acting: Overall, I would have to say the acting was good. Nothing great, but good for an Action/Sci-Fi movie. Nick Stahl's performance was fine, nothing to over-criticize. His performance as the older, 20-something year old John Conner has made some fans of the series a little angry at how different his John Conner is compared to T2's Edward Furlong's. First of all, I think they are both good actors and I probably would have rather seen Edward Furlong reprise his role as John Conner in the third film, but Nick Stahl did good. I also tend to agree to some extent the characteristic differences between the two Conners, but the only explanation that I can give is that going through a life-changing experience like Furlong's bad-ass Conner did in T2, can change your personality throughout your life, especially when you know the world is in your hands. So maybe the new Director, who also did a awesome job to fill in for Cameron, wanted the new Conner to act the way he did. Claire Danes was very good in my opinion as Kate Brewster, her first action role. Some critics and fans panned her performance and her character because they said she was just the girl who `screamed at everything.' Well, maybe she did, but at least she brought some of the only emotion from all the actors in the film. Arnold is Arnold. He will never be able to get away from Terminator, no matter what film he is cast in. It will always be compared to Terminator. He is in excellent physical condition for his age (56?). Kristanna Loken was exceptionally villainous as the new T-X evil Terminator, and extremely hot. Many people don't realize how hard it can be to be kicked, punched, and hit over the head (even if it isn't hard) and not flinch. Her face stayed emotionless and calm, exactly how a terminator should act. A few times she smiled, but that only added to her evilness. Although her character isn't nearly as terrifying as Robert Patrick's T-1000 in T2, she definitely added some presence onscreen. The Story: Overall, the story was good. Some stuff evolved from the previous two films and some other things contradicted them. I would definitely have liked it to be a little longer. But I have to say that I liked the fact that Jonathan Mostow took a different approach than Cameron by going straight to the action, and staying there the entire time. That is much different than Cameron's Action, Drama, Action direction from T2. Mostow had massive shoes to fill, and he filled them quite well. I loved the action scenes, because even though a large amount of special effects were used, they weren't the main object in each scene, like in Attack of the Clones. Many people are calling the effects mediocre, and nothing compared to T2's groundbreaking, Oscar-winning effects. Well, he knew he wouldn't live up to the effects, because basically, there was no more ground to break in the Visual Effects world, so he decided to take a different approach to the action scenes. And it paid off, for me at least. There is one scene that is possibly one of the best action-chase scenes that I have ever seen in a movie. All I will say is that it involves a massive crane truck, a Toyota Tundra, a motorcycle, a fire truck, and many `undriven' police cars. Awesome scene, and one of the best parts of the movie. All in all, great movie and if you're a fan of action or Sci-fi, you'll like it. Just don't think too much of it like a die-hard Terminator fan, or else you'll get to confused. ***1/2/****