Formulaic

Rating: 6/10 (29 June 2019)

This review contains spoilers.
'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines' is the sequel to Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The movie is directed by Jonathan Mostow. The story is written John Brancato, Michael Ferris, and Tedi Sarafian. The movie stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken. The movie takes place many years after the end of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. John Connor, played by Nick Stahl, is living off the grid. Skynet re-emerges through a new model called the T-X to assassinate John Connor's lieutenants. The threat of another Judgment Day becomes inevitable as the threat of Skynet still looms.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is an unnecessary sequel. The movie simply did not need to be made after the conclusion of Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The second Terminator movie had ended the franchise in a satisfying way. The sequel is still serviceable. The movie is well-directed for the most part. There are fun and exciting action scenes in this movie. The truck chase scene is one of the highlights in this movie. The cast overall do a good job. The movie is still serviceable and the movie as a whole suffers from lack of a reason to exist.
The villain in this movie is the T-X. The new terminator is a hybrid between the T-800 and the T-1000. The new terminator assumes a female appearance. The terminator is set up well throughout the movie. The T-X is able to maintain an intimidating presence, but it is not nearly as strong as the T-1000 in the previous movie. There are interesting aspects that the T-X has such as advanced weaponry that it possesses from the future. The movie makes this abundantly clear and focuses on it. However, the alien-like quality of the T-1000 is missing here and that ultimately causes the villain to suffer.
The movie does not have John Connor as the solo protagonist. Katherine Brewster, played by Claire Danes, and the T-850, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, also share the role of the protagonist. The movie commonly moves between these characters and the lack of true focus on John Connor can be distracting. The movie should have been more about John Connor, but he does not embark on a memorable character arc in this movie. John Connor has the arc of being the savior of humanity. It was not satisfying to see it as there was nothing special to see about it. John Connor simply accepts his fate and becomes the savior. Katherine Brewster on the other hand goes from a vulnerable woman to someone that takes a stand against the machines. This arc was slightly more satisfying but it suffered from lack of focus. The entire story did not work well. The T-850 is a centerpiece and the character development of the T-800 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day is copied over to this movie. It did not make any sense for this T-850 unit to behave the same exact way as the T-800 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Even knowing that Katherine Brewster had sent the T-850 unit back, it felt like there was no reason for its behavior to be the same as the previous movie.
Jonathan Mostow does an admirable job trying to create a Terminator sequel. However, the sequel does not have the same impact as the second movie did versus the first. I would still recommend the movie despite this flaw.
Grade: C