It has the Action and entertainment, but lacks the originality and intelligence

Rating: 7/10 (12 May 2004)

To follow up a great film like "Terminator 2 - Judgment Day" (1991), which is probably the best Action-film I've ever seen, is not easy. To be honest...it's nearly impossible. Especially if your name is Jonathan Mostow and not James Cameron. Cameron is one of the best Action-directors ever, with high quality, brilliant and intelligent Action/Science Fiction-films like "The Abyss" (1989), "Aliens" (1986), "The Terminator" (1984) and the mentioned "Terminator 2" under his belt. When I first heard that James Cameron was not going to be involved in "Terminator 3 - The Rise Of The Machines", I knew that it wasn't going to be a film at the level of it's prequels. And after I saw the first trailers, I prepared myself for an almost mindless Action-film, yet an entertaining one (I'm a huge fan of the whole Terminator concept, so that's enough to satisfy me) that was going to do it's best to overwhelm the fantastic Action-sequences of the two other films. Last summer, when I went to the cinema and watched it for the first time, that's almost what i got....
John Connor has erased his identity and tries to hide his existence, in fear of being find by another terminator, after the death of his mother Sarah Connor. One day he runs into Kate Brewster who is also going to play an important role in the future of the human beings. After a little while, they're being chased by two terminators. A T-X (played by Kristanna Loken) and a T-800 (the Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger). The T-X is sent to kill a number of people, including Connor and Brewster, and the T-800 is sent to protect the two of them. Suddenly they find themselves fighting against time, to save the humanity from a nuclear war.
That's the story of the film...simple as that. But this story definitely provides almost two hours of good entertainment and "non-stop" Action. Because this is the kind of film you can really describe with the mark Non-Stop Action. I've heard that this movie is the most expensive ever made. And after watching the breathtaking Action and Special Effects of this film, I won't doubt that. The ones who loved the first Terminator-films only for the Action-scenes, shouldn't be disappointed. But the ones who also loved the fascinating and originality of the characters and the whole story and concept, is surely to be (at least) a bit disappointed.
This is a much more simple movie, compared to it's prequels, and the Action and the Special Effects has to carry the film on it's own. The prequels had some good character-development and good dialogs to put us deep into the brilliance of the story. This film lacks both. Character-development is almost completely absent. And poor performances by Clair Danes and Nick Stahl doesn't make it any better. They should have gotten Edward Furlong to play John Connor, just like he did in the last film. And the dialogs are minimal too. Much of the dialogs are just silly and doesn't grab me the same way as they did especially in "Terminator 2". Even though it has the most simple story of the three films, there's no doubt that this film could have been as good as the two others, only if they would have done it in a better way. I can see the potential just from watching the beginning and the end of the film.
But the film is definitely not going downhill all the way. Kristanna Loken is not only a EXTREEEMLY beautiful and sexy woman, but she sure is doing a good job playing the T-X. She really have that robot-look all over her face and body when she moves and talks, and she's almost as frightening as Robert Patrick's T-1000 in "Terminator 2". And Mr. Schwarzenegger...what can I say? He IS the Terminator. He was born to play a machine from the future, and he is just as good as he was in the other films. As mentioned before, this film has the impressive Action from it's prequels, so it's really giving me the right Terminator-feeling. It also has the humor we saw in "Terminator 2", and this time it's even more of it. So people are guaranteed to be entertained.
Over all....I pretty much got what I expected from this film. "Terminator 3 - The Rise Of The Machines" has the trademark Terminator-Action and entertainment, but it lacks the originality and the fascinating intelligence of the other Terminator-films. I know there's a "Terminator 4" on the way, which I doubt would be any better than this one. But one can always keep a little hope that the film will be a worthy conclusion to(in my opinion) the best series of Action-movies in film-history. Until then...just grab a bucket of popcorn and enjoy these two hours of wild, high tech Robot-Action.

7.5 out of 10