feeling listless

Film Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is a film which will pleasantly surprise you. With almost none of the creative team behind the first two films about, it could be possible to assume that this would be a quickie sequel, more akin to Jaws 3D in its fidelity with the film which went before. Actually, what we have here is a natural continuation, a perfect counterpoint to the previous films and decent bridge into a possible franchise series. If you’ve seen and enjoyed the previous films, you’ll probably go to see these anyway, and you really should. In terms of a sequel long after the event it resonates in the ways The Phantom Menace should have.

Since you will end up seeing it anyway, a couple of hints to enhance your enjoyment. Do not watch again the first two films as preparation for this one. I didn’t have time, so they were more of a distant memory for me – the facts and ideas and images in my brain somewhere, only clearing and locking together at the same times as John Conner in this film – whenever a reference occurs you’ll find yourself scrabbling around to put the pieces together. This is a lot of fun. In addition, see it on a massive screen. There are some fantastic vistas filled with detail at play here and you’re going to need the memory of those when it’s squished onto DVD.

The most startling moments in the film for me were those between the characters. As with the previous films, in amongst the bangs there is some really good moments were the chemistry of the actors is up on screen. It’s great to see Claire Danes in a film were she can be angry and scared and running, rather than someone’s girlfriend. There is a moment in there though which is pure My So-Called Life, were she could just as well be an older Angela recalling her fling with Jordan (although I’m sure that was hardly the intention of writers John Brancato and Michael Ferris). Nick Stahl (looking for all the world like Bashir from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine) cleverly makes the decision not to try and be an older Edward Furlong and reinterprets the character to some extent. Now you can understand how he could be the great military leader. The performances of the relative Terminators (Arnold and the Tamsin Outhwaite lookalike Krisanna Loken) pretty much work as they should. To some extent, they both inject a little bit too much humanity and irony for merciless killing machines, but the film is actually better for it. Jonathan Mostow feels like a director for hire, and he’s no Jim Cameron, but his work is above average.

If I’ve any criticism, it’s that a large amount the plot develops through exposition. It’s not bad exposition, and it’s enthralling in a ‘listening to the stories of an old school friend you’ve met at the pub’ kind of way. And it is the same overall plot as the first two films (which will have to change in T4 surely). But these a really minor. When you see the end of this film you are going to want them to make another one. There is one final story which demands to be told.