Arnold Schwarzenegger is beginning may have gone to the same
well once too often with his role in
”
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine,
”
currently playing at Premiere Cinemas.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is beginning may have gone to the same well once too often with his role in “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machine,” currently playing at Premiere Cinemas.
It’s not that this one-hour and 48-minute release from Warner Brothers studio is a bad movie. There are enough big stunts and eye-popping special effects in this movie to entertain a lot of action-adventure fans.
It is just that this movie was a big let down when compared to the two the quality of its two prior movies. Both the 1984 cult hit “The Terminator” and the blockbuster 1991 sequel, “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” had a good mixture of an interesting plot mixed with an almost constant sense of tension.
Much of the credit for both those successes go to a young hungry writer-director named James Cameron (“Titanic,” “Aliens” and “True Lies.”)
But I can understand why the studios would want to try and strike box office gold one more time.
The Terminator franchise grossed more than a once staggering $550 million in worldwide theatrical release.
However, when Cameron did not sign on to direct “Terminator 3,” producers brought in Jonathan Mostow who directed action thrillers such as “Breakdown” and “U-571.”
This sequel just does not have the same magic that its predecessors did.
After a while this just starts to feel like nothing but one big chase scene, and while the two previous movies were essentially the same but there was a greater emphasis on creating an emotional connection between the audience to the central characters, so that you actually cared what happened to them.
Screenwriters Mike Ferris and John Brancato raised the stakes of the Terminator 3 story by pitting Schwarzenegger’s outdated Terminator model against Skynet’s most advanced robotic weapon yet: The T-X, an advanced alloy metal endo-skeleton covered in a liquid metal exterior designed in the guise of a beautiful woman equipped with a plasma cannon, morphing capabilities and the ability to control other machines, she is simply stronger, faster, smarter, more sophisticated and more indestructible than the obsolete T-101.
Once more the terminator is sent back through time to help protect John Connor, future leader of the human resistance against the machines.
And unveiling a huge hole in the plot, the future Skynet computer, leader of the machines, sends the highly advanced TX, played by the lovely Kristanna Loken, a young model turned actress who beat out the former WWF wrestling star Chyna for the part.
She is sent back to not only kill Connor, but all of his future lieutenants in the resistance.
