Terminator three or two and a half?

Rating: Null/10 (2 January 2004)

I was like many of you who waited, longed and prayed for the third instalment of was, a simply remarkable story exceptionally transferred to the screen by James Cameron. The Terminator (1984) and T2: Judgement Day (1991) will forever be referred to as landmark movies; the first, a dark, graphic, cult horror and the latter, six years later - a visually stunning action sequel which further developed the complex narrative bringing us to a mouth watering conclusion which left those of us, rather sad hardcore fan's, still emotionally attached to our Terminator and begging for a third to be created someway... somehow... We all sat and thought about it didn't we? Countless times after re-watching the T2 we envisaged the third... Somehow, after clearing up the mess in the Steel Factory, some fat, hard hat wearing extra, would find Arnie's Arm and hand it to the Police... a twist and a turn later, and Skynet is a reality once more... Then... What would T3 be like? A war in the future surely? That's what we were all craving for... we had the past...(T1) we had the present (T2) and as Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines lands before our drooling tongues... we have... the present again... (strange though, how 1991 seems to reflect reality as we know it, a whole more 'realistically' than our 2003 version.) So the narrative moves absolutely nowhere. A more credible title may have been, 'Terminator 2, and a half' and lets face it, the casting director may as well have brought in the likes of Lesley Neilson as the TX, for all the humour that Mostow thought would lure the sceptical audience members into giving the movie a chance. But I guess with a duo of disillusionment in Nick Stahl - a weak, unconvincing development from Edward Furlong's portrayal of the rebellious John Conner and Claire Danes, a pretty but in no-way, shape or form a replacement for Linda Hamilton's hard, masculine heroine, the audience can do nothing but accept this a parody of the first two.

In my opinion, there is no need for such blatant humour in a movie narrative that was originally motivated from a deep conscious paranoia of nuclear war and technological change. T3 should have brought into contention themes that are still relevant and scare us today. We know too much about computer technology to be taken in by idea of 'Software in Cyberspace'.

In conclusion I will say that 'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines' needed to strike a cord with our fears to really polish off the trilogy and those fears breed within the anxiety of 'an unknown FUTURE'.
This was, without doubt a terrible, terrible movie whose profits only have the first two instalments to thank.