how do you re-invent the wheel?

Rating: 5/10 (11 April 2005)

When I heard that James Cameron wasn't helming this third installment, I didn't expect it to be very good. And I was right. How do you re-invent the wheel with the shock waves he brought us with Terminator 2? (Still one of my favorites). At the end of T2, there was an element of hope that was instilled by the actions of the Terminator, John, and Sarah Connor and the destruction of CyberDyne. Well, fast-forward to this movie, and the writers simply tell us that "judgement day is inevitable". Okay, then I guess that means we should have another sequel to milk this franchise for everything it has. I wouldn't be surprised if this turned up as a Saturday morning cartoon, too. So back to the important point that the writers probably thought the audience wouldn't realize about the future: time is always in transit in motion- and the future is compiled by what happens in the present. There is no set unprecedented event that will happen regardless.
Another flaw that was never explained (not much really was in this film and instead left to clever one-liners, "talk to the hand"), was how did the government all of the sudden after the demise of CyberDyne conjure up all of this spectacular and much more sophisticated technology on such short notice? And why did the Terminator have to go into another bar as soon as he arrived, get the same kind of clothes, and the director even threw in a comic relief gag when leaving...Hmm, I keep thinking of the second one...John Conner was a whiny wimp, and I never believed for a second that this was the future leader of the free world. Claire Danes had more balls than him. I'm not saying Nick Stahl wasn't a good choice (I saw him in "Bully"& he was a bastard), but if the writer(s) gave him a front-row seat (like they did with Edward Furlong)instead of playing the helpless b$#ch, I think it would've helped in becoming a better film. Claire Danes was on her way to becoming the next Sarah Conner, and the TX wasn't very threatening. No special powers to speak about aside from controlling machines. Did I see that once on the Sci-Fi channel? Once again, it was the work of the writers/producers condescending to the audience thinking sex appeal would sell more tickets. I think it did. The film had a look to it as if it were an early-eighties, made-for-TV flick, whereas T2 had blues, metallic greys, and shadows. This didn't feel like a Terminator movie.
I really hope they don't make a Terminator 4 and chip away some more @ Cameron's reputation and our intelligence.
A day or so after I saw this, I was talking to someone about it, expecting them to tell me how they were disappointed they were in the flick, but they said the opposite! Guess they don't get out much!
And I guess she's the kind of person filmmakers of this dreck want in their test audiences. You really CAN fool all the people some of the time!