Found It Enjoyable

Rating: 5/10 (12 June 2010)

I'll say that for the most part this third film by Johnathan Mostow is pretty decent. He clearly made an effort to bring back the same atmosphere that was present in the first two films. This I very much enjoyed that aspect of it all. However, there is a somewhat diminished sense of realism in my opinion. This new terminator has flamethrowers and plasma cannons, built in of course. Oh geez... But I've come to embrace that actually. Except for that scene with KAte's 'fiance'. Didn't anyone notice a guy driving with an arm through his gut. Overdone...
The cast is rather well put together, I'll give it that. Gool old Arnold is able to reprise his role as the T-101. Unfortunately this will be the final bout. John Connor is portrayed by Nick Stahil, and he does nicely. One other weakness to this film is the run time. The second film was over two hours, and there was plenty of action and what not. But there was still lots of time for character development throughout. We saw the characters' inner demons, you know? The story in "Rise of the Machines" certainly has nice plot points, but their not used to full their potential. Not only that Kate Brewster's father and Skynet. We only see an early scene "greeting" scene as a phone chat and short conversation about the system's dangers; and later the opening of "Pandora's Box". It was constantly hinted at that Skynet was already beginning its attack in subtle ways, so why not show a little more of the government tension? Getting away from that, the action is superb. Winston's studio does its job with artistic talent. I can say without a doubt the Terminators are looking better than ever. My favorite action scene by far had to be the hand-to-hand fight sequence. I find myself constantly rewinding it. Another plus is Marco Beltrami, one of my favorite composers. I'm definitely not let down. And so, Terminator 3 is an all in all decent contender, but it did not surpass either of the previous films.
"Desire is irrelevant. I AM a machine!"