He's Back... For Better or Worse
I have mixed feelings about T3. While I appreciated seeing Arnold Schwarzenegger don the sunglasses and leather jacket once more, I couldn't help feel that there was something missing from this film. There's plenty of action, don't get me wrong, and it's very well done. But T3 lacks something the previous two had. In fact, it lacks quite a bit. Compelling characters, a sense of danger, and good directing. It would have been interesting to see how James Cameron would have done the story, had he returned. But, he has not returned, and after more than ten years of waiting, we are given this. While this performs quite well as an action movie, it fails as a Terminator movie.
Set about ten years after the events of T2, a new Terminator known as the T-X is sent back to kill the lieutenants of future resistance leader John Connor. A protector is sent back again, another T-800 model Terminator. The T-X mistakenly stumbles upon John Connor, as does the protector, and the chase ensues. John, along with his future lieutenant Kate Brewster, learn that Judgment Day is in a few hours, and they must stop it. But can it be stopped?
The performances are quite subdued, but that isn't the fault of the actors. Had they been given a chance to fully act out on their characters emotions, the plot would have felt much more human, much more similar to the previous movies. Instead, the movie rarely slows down to catch its breath, throwing action sequence after action sequence at us. The result is a cast of characters we really don't care about. The movie is all about the two Terminators fighting, and not about the people trying to survive. Who's more important, the Terminator with no name, or John Connor, the savior of the human race? That's what made the first two movies so compelling
The actors put on the best performance they can, despite the weak script. Even Arnold isn't given much to work with. In T2, even though he was a machine, he was still a deep character. He learned that killing was wrong, and even learned human emotion. In T3, Arnold has been reduced to spouting inane one-liners. His Terminator this time around has no depth at all, except for a small scene at the end. Conflict of interest? I think it just overloaded his CPU. You'll see what I mean.
The action is very well done, and rivals even Terminator 2. The car chase is one of the best I've ever seen, it is complete destruction. Destruction is where the heart of the action lies. The final fight between the two terminators is so horrific, and total in its pure carnage. In some ways, it surpasses The Matrix Reloaded for this sumer. That's the only high point of this movie, unfortunatley.
This is an enjoyable movie, but it should have been much more. It feels like the director, Jonathan Mostow, thought the original movies were purely action, when they were not, and that is evident in his work. The classic Terminator music is also absent, as is any music at all really. It just doesn't feel like a Terminator movie to me. The only part of the story I really enjoyed was the very end, its vey nostalgic and feels like it starts a new chapter for the series. If you're a fan of action movies, you should love this movie. Everyone else, keep away, because there's not much under the special effects and one-liners.