Extras :
Deleted scenes, Outtakes, Introduction by Arnold Schwarzenegger, Documentary,
"Dressed to Kill" featurette, Making of the video game featurette, Storyboards,
"Toys in Action" featurette, Terminator timeline, Web/game demo, T3 video game
trailer, Skynet database, Easter Eggs, Two audio commentaries
Director:
Jonathan Mostow
(Beverly Hills Bodysnatchers, Breakdown, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, U-571, TV: From The Earth To The Moon)
Producers:
Hal Lieberman, Joel B. Michaels, Andrew G. Vajna and Colin Wilson
Screenplay:
John Brancato and Michael Ferris
Music:
Marco Beltrami
Cast:
The Terminator: Arnold Schwarzenegger
John Connor: Nick Stahl
Kate Brewster: Claire Danes
T-X: Kristanna Loken
Robert Brewster: David Andrews
Scott Petersen: Mark Famiglietti
Dr Peter Silberman: Earl Boen
Betsy: Moira Harris
Chief Engineer: Chopper Bernet
Brewster's Aide: Chris Lawford
Rich Woman: Carolyn Hennesy
It took ten years
before I learned to love
Terminator 2: Judgement Day,
so perhaps this piss-poor T2 remake, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
will grow on me by 2013, but for now it is a sequel that shouldn't really
have been made.
It's 2003 and John Connor lives like a rebel with his life tied to no single
address or phone number so he can't be traced. The new T-X arrives in the
form of naked Kristanna Loken, killing kids seemingly at random, but
there is reason is given later for this.
It transpires that after the second movie, Judgement Day was only postponed,
not stopped indefinitely and, hence, we get to see it happen and the machines
become self-aware courtesy of a new computer super virus jamming the system.
It's nice to touch base with the series, but while there are some decent SFX
at times, such as the tow-truck chase 30 minutes in and the helicopter towards
the end, it's still all so unnecessary, as if it's like T2 but played for laughs
and since it's only rated '12', you know to expect little of the violence
you enjoyed from the first two.
The new T-X, naked.
Apart from Arnie, the only other actor to have appeared in all three films is
Earl Boen as Dr Peter Silberman, who Sarah Connor used as a hostage
in the last one in an escape attempt. It's a shame they couldn't get Edward
Furlong back as the original John Connor, but he allegedly caused problems
on-set, so was dumped in favour of newcomer Nick Stahl. There's also
no James Cameron and, although they've now split up, no Linda Hamilton either.
There's just no heart to this third installment at all and any potential is
practically thrown away, so if you watch this, you watch it for completeness
alone.
On a scale of 1 to 10, this is a "Lethal Weapon 3". In other words,
they're just in it for the money, not for the script. In fact, it looks like
it's following that series of movies where the first two were excellent,
the third was made for the sake of the money, the fourth was made because they
could and now that franchise's director Richard Donner is planning a fifth
which centres around a final 24 hours in the lives of Riggs and Murtaugh.
So, it's all his fault, and now we know what to expect from the Terminator
series as a fourth is rumoured to be planned, albeit without Arnie because he's
too busy playing at politics.
The picture is presented in the original 2.35:1 ratio and is anamorphic.
It gets a bit stuttery during fast action scenes, but this only happens very
occasionally, so it's not a major problem - and I'm referring to unintentional
slow-down moments, as there are a couple of *in*tentional ones.
The sound effects are first rate when all guns are blazing, but there's not a
massive amount going on the rest of the time. Also, the film doesn't even have
the signature theme to open it, albeit just having a slight return at the end.
...but meet the in-laws.
Most of the extras are on disc 2 and are fairly lacking in excitement, but
the commentaries and trailers are on the first:
Introduction by Arnold Schwarzenegger:
Arnold Schwarzenegger introduces the movie, briefly. Job done.
Trailers (11½ mins):
A teaser (16:9 anamorphic, 2 mins) and theatrical one (16:9 anamorphic, 90
secs) apiece for this movie, a T3 video game trailer (4:3, 90 secs), T3 PC game
trailer (4:3, 90 secs) - both of which don't exactly make you rush out and
play it as it looks like plenty other games that have gone before, and ones
for other Columbia films, SWAT (16:9 anamorphic, 2½ mins) and Charlie
Angels: Full Throttle (16:9 anamorphic, 2½ mins).
SWAT looks good but I'll pass on the other. "Oh, but you get to see Cameron
Diaz in a bikini!", cooed one of my friends. Yes, but I saw that in the
trailer(!)
Inside T3: Rise of the Machines (13 mins):
Shown in letterbox 16:9, this basic documentary blends film clips with
interview snippets. Nothing outstanding.
Sgt. Candy scene (2 mins):
A fake advert about Cyberesearch Systems' upcoming product line.
Terminal Flaws: Gag Reel (3 mins):
Outtakes in a ropey 2.35:1 letterbox print. If those are worthy outtakes
then I'm a millionaire(!)
T3 Visual Effects Lab (48 mins):
Plenty of info on how key SFX scenes were created, in 16:9 letterbox, including an introduction
and what it calls "Create Your Own Visual Effects", which is a fallacy since
it just plays a different selected pre-created scene based on your choices,
one which shows John Connor dropping a beer bottle into the water which then
becomes a Terminator head in a change that's about as subtle as Timmy Mallett.
Given how groundbreaking the SFX were in T2, there's just nothing to grab
you that way here.
Skynet Database:
Pages of text information. For such a technologically-advance film, why is
the text spelt out like the DOS screens in
WarGames?
Terminator Timeline:
More pages of text, spelling out what you already know if you've seen all
three films to date.
Storyboards (4 mins):
Does almost exactly what it says on the tin, but keeps chopping and changing between
views, so sometimes you only get the film action and not the storyboards.
What's wrong with using multiple angles like every other DVD doing this does?
By the way, this covers the final scenes for the T-X, so don't watch first!
"Dressed to Kill" featurette (2 mins):
It's about Arnie being dressed up in his Terminator uniform. Wow(!)
We never get to see Kristanna Loken as nude as Arnie, although she makes a
fuss about her red leather outfit.
"Toys in Action" featurette (7 mins):
The collector's merchandise. Of course, you know that none of these toys
ever look exactly like the actors so that they don't have to pay them royalty
fees. Spawn creator Todd McFarlane talks you through what he thinks you need
to know.
"Making of the video game" featurette (9 mins):
On the plus side, you get to play Arnie in this game but you can tell that
they've just gone for a bog-standard first-person-shooter and given it a
Terminator bent so as to coin it in for Xmas. Maybe I'll be proved wrong, but
not on what I've seen so far.
And I do enjoy FPS games. Initially, I thought T2 was very lacking as a movie,
but when I re-viewed it in 2001 at the time of the 2-disc DVD release, it
suddenly felt like every class FPS I'd played. I don't get that feeling with
either this new movie or the game trailer.
Easter Eggs:
Go to the Skynet Database and select one of John Connor, Kate Brewster
or General Robert Brewster - all under "Human Central Archive", or Series 850 -
Model 101: Infiltration Unit, T-X "Terminator", T-1 Arial and Ground Assault
Vehicles or Hunter-Killer Units - all under "Artificial Intelligence Interface".
When on the respective page, click right then up to highlight the footage above.
Then select that to see a minute or so of more info about your selected
man or machine.
Note that the info says Sarah Connor was born in 1965, yet we know in the film
that she was born in 1959. Perhaps this is really an advert for that government
blurb that says you can check the info that is held on computers about you to
make sure they don't think you're dead when you're really alive? (No, that's not
a spoiler about this film, by the way).
For the record, Linda Hamilton was born on September 26th 1956.
Audio commentaries:
Two here. One from director Jonathan Mostow on his own, while the other sees
him joined by all the main cast members, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl,
Claire Danes and Kristanna Loken.
The menus blend in well with the theme of the film, which is good if you actually
enjoyed it, there are subtitles in English, Dutch and Hindi
and the main feature is divided into 36 chapters.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
