Search - Terminator 3 - Rise of the Machines (2-Disc Full Screen Edition) on DVD

Macho Man

Van Halen Kurtz | Twin Oaks | 08/06/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There's something unkillable about the idea of Terminator. Usually we (humans) get punished in the future for misdeeds we commit in the past or present. Take Star Trek IV, for one example out of millions. The Terminator idea, however, has it: we (humans) get punished in the past or present for misdeeds we commit in the future. That's a big Does Not Compute for ya there, captain. And so it goes compellingly into the future. No fate but what we make was the central code of Terminator 2 but Terminator 3 knows better. It's a sequel to a sequel and even the past has progressed along. Jonathan Mostow gives us the same movie which is what we demand but only bigger and badder and louder which is also what we demand. Expectations thwarted, cleverly ~ but only momentarily. There's less sentimentalism, less character development, less existential commotion and that's great. We all know machines are here to stay. Action. It's almost a silent film. Except for the sound of things exploding. The car chase sequence remains one of the most exciting ever filmed. Violence and strong language, that's why we're here. Fortunately there's no overreaching attempt to conjure up a catchy catchphrase ("Hasta la vista baby"). Schwarzenegger is gruffer than before, has less to say and is classy about it. "I'm an obsolete design." Kristanna Loken has Robert Patrick's act down clone cold. Little did anyone ever suspect in 1984, women's lib would have progressed so far that Arnold Schwarzenegger could plonk a urinal down hard across a babe's head and we'd all still be worried for his safety? Take a hint this isn't a battle of the sexes as much as showdown between Lexus-driving Xers and cowboy truck-driving boomers. Like Schwarzenegger's recalcitrant generation, Terminator 3 faces its dread of mortality and its fear of machines merely fleetingly before deciding either men or machines, it doesn't matter anymore, all we know is that heroes remain unkillable in either past, present or future."