Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

In a summer filled with sequels, Terminator 3, along with The Matrix Reloaded, had the most to live up to. Like The Matrix, T2 had represented a quantum leap in Blockbuster cinema, with groundbreaking use of computer effects, and heavyweight, edge-of-your-cinema-seat action sequences. This was action cinema, in 1991, at its grandest scale. Matrix Reloaded was almost buried by it's expectations, and by four years of homage/rip-offs of the original Matrix's breathtaking effects. Could T3 withstand twelve years of the same?

Well, the answer is not quite. This is not to say that T3 is a bad film, but that it feels merely average, where T2 felt extraordinary. Much of this is due to the script, which uses some dreadful plot contrivances to create a workable story in the wake of T2's conclusion, and to the fact that The Terminator is now so ensconced in popular culture, to the point where Arnold Schwarzeneggar is using 'Hasta la Vista, Baby!' in his Governor of California campaign speeches, that it has become a parody of itself.

In terms of story, the film starts out as a rerun of its predecessor: In a future war, human rebels send a Terminator cyborg (Schwarzeneggar) back through time to the present day to protect theirleader John Connor (Nick Stahl, replacing T2's Edward Furlong) from a more advanced killer that the machines have sent. Replacing the T-1000 is the TX (Kristana Loken), a female shape-shifter who has the ability to operate other machines. Chases and gunfights ensue, as Connor's, high school friend Kate (Claire Danes) and the Terminator fight to stop the Machines from causing nuclear Armageddon.

The greatest feeling one gets from viewing the film, is the disappointment that James Cameron, writer/director of the first two installments, was not involved in this project. That is not to say that Jonathan Mostow, who made his name with the taut thrillers breakdown, and U-571, was ill-equipped to replace him, or that he has done a poor job. Yet the film lacks the panache, the virtuosity, and, most importantly, the self-belief that Cameron would have brought to the project. Too often T3 descends into lame in-jokes - Earl Boen's cameo as Dr Silberman, the most excruciating ? while Schwarzeneggar himself is reduced to the role of comic relief at times. Newcomer Loken, meanwhile, possesses neither the insidious menace of Robert Patrick's T-1000 in Terminator 2, nor the physicality and brute force of Schwarzeneggar in the original, and therefore fails to create a fearful villain.

However, there is also much to recommend about T3: the action sequences, as you'd expect from a $170m budget, raise the heart rate and set the adrenalin pumping, and the special effects do look good. Furthermore, some touches to the script, including the Terminator's mission before he was sent back in time, and the fact that the TX is able to control her adversary, are highly innovative, and it is a shame that they are not brought to the fore.

As a summer blockbuster, Terminator 3 has all the fights, explosions, car chases and laughs that it needs to succeed. As a Terminator film, however, it misses the tension, intelligence, and technical bravado that made the first two films work so well, and ultimately falls flat.