My Review of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines · 3:16pm Oct 8th, 2023
Rating Scale:
12/10—a complete masterpiece; flawless and outstanding
11/10—Excellent, near-perfect film
10/10—the standard rating; awesome film with a couple of flaws
9/10—a wonderful film with several flaws
8/10–a great film with numerous flaws but not enough to ruin it
7/10—a fun and entertaining movie; not great but still enjoyable
6/10—a slightly above average film; it is something I might watch again
5/10—mediocre movie; not awful but not great either
4/10—a below average film; it could have been much better
3/10—a bad film; poorly written and poorly executed
2/10—a very bad movie; the few good things in the movie overshadowed by the bad things
1/10—a terrible movie; a total waste of time
0/10—a worthless piece of abomination; should have never been made
Good morning, folks! This is Mr. J back with another movie review for today. This morning, I will be reviewing “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” from 2003, the third installment of the Terminator franchise. Let me just say this right now: this film is an absolute piece of garbage. The first one was great, the second one is near-perfect, and this sequel was terrible. It seemed like it was so easy for them to make it as nonsensical as possible because heaven forbid we have a satisfying conclusion T2 already provided.
This movie shows us a grown John Conner who is a nomad and has to take care of himself without his mother looking after him. Then he comes across a murderous T-X who not only hunts him down but also all members of his future resistance. That’s where another heroic Terminator jumps in to save him and preserve hope for the future.
Oh, give me a break because was it really necessary to continue with this storyline? As the second movie already established, Judgement Day has been averted thanks to the efforts of Sarah Conner, young John, and the second Terminator. But now this film says that Judgement Day was only delayed…and that’s it’s inevitable? The last movie did not establish that whatsoever, and this retcon basically renders all their efforts completely pointless.
This whole storyline tries to connect previous plot points in an attempt to make sense out of this whole past-future dilemma, but in doing so, it breaks itself apart and distances itself from established continuity. T-1000 has been completely destroyed, the second Terminator sacrificed himself, and all evidence and remains of their technology that would be used by Skynet were all melted down, so there should be no more conflict from the future. This whole movie makes no sense.
One of the most aggravating aspects of this film was the antagonist herself. T-X was not only bland and unoriginal (given that almost everything she did is what the T-1000 did) but also completely stupid. She had no problems causing collateral damage which would draw so much public attention to herself, and she made no effort in being subtle.
One example of her painful stupidity was when she killed that lady in the animal hospital and then asked her if she was Kate Brewster. Hey, dumbass, maybe you should’ve asked her that before you pulled the trigger. T-1000 was never that idiotic.
Her actress Kristanna Loken wasn’t that impressive due to her dull acting. It looked like she tried, but it wasn’t good enough for me.
Arnold Schwarzenegger however was certainly doing his best throughout this movie. Unfortunately, this third version of the Terminator was…less approachable and less interesting somehow. It really sucks that John didn’t have that deep connection he had with the previous one and had to suffer through this experience once again.
Another thing is that this is where the formula starts to get old: someone from the future comes to the present time to kill an important member of the human resistance and a heroic Arnold Schwarzenegger must save the future and then die at the end. From this point onward, the filmmakers who aren’t James Cameron will repeat this with no uniqueness or anything daring. It becomes boring in the long run, and it’s so tiring to see that.
The action was kinda cool to watch, yes, but it felt all over the place with the amount of unnecessary destruction caused by the T-X although she is supposed to be smart and subtle about this. The visual effects are a hit and miss, the soundtrack is lackluster, and the plot is a huge mess. But the acting is pretty good, so there’s that.
If there’s anything we can all take away from this, it’s that this was all a nightmare John had as his trauma and PTSD got the best of him and made him hug his mother in tears. Sarah, moved by compassion, assures him that Judgment Day will never come and that they can only hope that their future will be positive after everything that happened in T2.
There, that’s it. That’s what happened. This movie does not exist. Wherefore, I will rate this a 2/10. In all honesty, if they truly wanted another Terminator project, it had to be something that took place in between the first two movies like a spin-off or something. Not…whatever the hell this is.
Peace out!
Even though I agree that this Terminator sequel is vastly inferior to the first two films, I also still think it is vastly superior to the next three sequels.