Terminator 3 - Rise Of The Machines is far better than it had any right to be. It perhaps shouldn't have got made. It's practically a retread of the other two movies, making it a pure case of sequelitus; an assassination robot is sent back in time to kill John Connor (and his subordinates) who is protected by another, less sophisticated Terminator robot. Cue car chases, fights and lots of running away.
Despite my sarcasm it's a great premise and it plays very well as a non stop chase movie.
Making the aggressive Terminator a female (the feline Kristanna Loken) is a cool move although the android's new arsenal isn't as awe inspiring as Robert Patrick's shape shifter in T2. It's great to see Arnie back in his most iconic role although he's not as well directed here (being a bit stiff and awkward...and not in that cool, robotic sence) than in the first two movies. Claire Danes steps up to the challenge, in what is effectively the Linda Hamilton role from T1, being both feisty, resiliant and vulnerable.
Apart from it's over-familiar plotting, it falls down in two areas. The first is one of tone. No longer allowed an R rating in the US of A due to it's gigantic budget, T3 is noticeably lighter and sillier in tone throughout. (A gay bar? I mean, really?)Then there's the recasting of John Conner. Since Edward Furlong was now a happy, smackhead, Z-list actor, the producer cast the usually dependable Nick Stahl as the future leader of the resistance. Stahl completely gets his performance wrong. Instead of a highly trained, heroic, commander of men we get a weedy, whiny wreck of a man. Admittedly the character goes on a learning process throughout the film but he's still a quivering mess by the film's climax.
Talking of which, if T3 has one triumphant moment it's the decision to let Judgement Day happen and nuke the planet. It's bold, it's surprising and it's spine tinglingly brave in such a huge budgeted blockbuster where the heroes are meant to save the day.
It's also aided by some cool effects from ILM and some entertaining (if a little silly) action sequences. T3 might be daft but you can't help but be impressed when the film makers build an entire city street and then destroy it by driving a massive crane through it. Like Arnie, it might be a bit dumb and lumbering, but it's always entertaining to watch.
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