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Dom Robinson reviews
Columbia TriStar
- Cert:
- Cat.no: CDR 34144
- Running time: 104 minutes
- Year: 2003
- Pressing: 2003
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 36 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English, Hindi
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Super 35)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9
- Price: £24.99
- 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 gametrailer, 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 yearsbefore I learned to loveTerminator 2: Judgement Day,so perhaps this piss-poor T2 remake, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machineswill grow on me by 2013, but for now it is a sequel that shouldn’t reallyhave been made.
It’s 2003 and John Connor lives like a rebel with his life tied to no singleaddress or phone number so he can’t be traced. The new T-X arrives in theform of naked Kristanna Loken, killing kids seemingly at random, butthere 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 machinesbecome 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 SFXat times, such as the tow-truck chase 30 minutes in and the helicopter towardsthe end, it’s still all so unnecessary, as if it’s like T2 but played for laughsand since it’s only rated ’12’, you know to expect little of the violenceyou enjoyed from the first two.
The new T-X, naked.
Apart from Arnie, the only other actor to have appeared in all three films isEarl Boen as Dr Peter Silberman, who Sarah Connor used as a hostagein the last one in an escape attempt. It’s a shame they couldn’t get EdwardFurlong back as the original John Connor, but he allegedly caused problemson-set, so was dumped in favour of newcomer Nick Stahl. There’s alsono 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 ispractically thrown away, so if you watch this, you watch it for completenessalone.
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 likeit’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 theycould and now that franchise’s director Richard Donner is planning a fifthwhich 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 Terminatorseries as a fourth is rumoured to be planned, albeit without Arnie because he’stoo 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 veryoccasionally, so it’s not a major problem – and I’m referring to unintentionalslow-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 amassive amount going on the rest of the time. Also, the film doesn’t even havethe 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, butthe 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, 90secs) apiece for this movie, a T3 video game trailer (4:3, 90 secs), T3 PC gametrailer (4:3, 90 secs) – both of which don’t exactly make you rush out andplay it as it looks like plenty other games that have gone before, and onesfor other Columbia films, SWAT (16:9 anamorphic, 2½ mins) and CharlieAngels: Full Throttle (16:9 anamorphic, 2½ mins).
SWAT looks good but I’ll pass on the other. “Oh, but you get to see CameronDiaz in a bikini!”, cooed one of my friends. Yes, but I saw that in thetrailer(!)
- Inside T3: Rise of the Machines (13 mins):Shown in letterbox 16:9, this basic documentary blends film clips withinterview 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 outtakesthen 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 introductionand what it calls “Create Your Own Visual Effects”, which is a fallacy sinceit 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 thenbecomes 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 grabyou that way here.
- Skynet Database:Pages of text information. For such a technologically-advance film, why isthe text spelt out like the DOS screens inWarGames?
- Terminator Timeline:More pages of text, spelling out what you already know if you’ve seen allthree films to date.
- Storyboards (4 mins): Does almost exactly what it says on the tin, but keeps chopping and changing betweenviews, 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 afuss about her red leather outfit.
- “Toys in Action” featurette (7 mins): The collector’s merchandise. Of course, you know that none of these toysever look exactly like the actors so that they don’t have to pay them royaltyfees. Spawn creator Todd McFarlane talks you through what he thinks you needto 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 thatthey’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, butnot 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, itsuddenly felt like every class FPS I’d played. I don’t get that feeling witheither this new movie or the game trailer.
- Easter Eggs:Go to the Skynet Database and select one of John Connor, Kate Brewsteror General Robert Brewster – all under “Human Central Archive”, or Series 850 -Model 101: Infiltration Unit, T-X “Terminator”, T-1 Arial and Ground AssaultVehicles 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 selectedman or machine.
Note that the info says Sarah Connor was born in 1965, yet we know in the filmthat she was born in 1959. Perhaps this is really an advert for that governmentblurb that says you can check the info that is held on computers about you tomake sure they don’t think you’re dead when you’re really alive? (No, that’s nota 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 seeshim 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 actuallyenjoyed it, there are subtitles in English, Dutch and Hindiand the main feature is divided into 36 chapters.
PICTURE QUALITY
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.