In honor of Terminator Salvation, I will be taking a look back at the three Terminator films as this is a franchise I’ve known since I could crawl and love deeply. Each day we’ll bring you a review of all three films before capping it off with my full review of Terminator Salvation. Today brings us to the bastard child of the series; Terminator 3.

TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES

If there had to be a Terminator 3, it should have returned Arnold as the villain and have him chase after John Connor. Already you have a great emotional conflict with John being forced to destroy what is essentially the only father he’s known. Instead, the makers of this film decided they wanted to make Arnold the good guy, have a villain partially made of liquid metal, give John Connor a tough, brash female to have boss him around, and have one human responsible for mankind’s destruction. Sound familiar? Well it should because Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is select scenes from each of the previous installments to try to make something coherent. What’s left is a film that’s as soulless as it’s main antagonist and as messy as the nitpicks at all of the time travel in this series.

The problems with this film begin at what has been a staple of the franchise in having a memorable villain. The T-X isn’t anywhere near as threatening or as engaging as the T-800 or the T-1000 were. She’s supposed to be “the most advanced prototype” but she feels like a downgrade from the T-1000 if anything. Seriously, how is throwing liquid metal over an endoskeleton an upgrade from an ALL liquid metal Terminator? The next screw-up comes in making everything the T-X says a one-liner and making her an outright parody. The first two terminators were based on fear and spoke softly. Kristanna Loken doesn’t help matters by giving one of the worst performances of the whole series and portrays a villain more concerned at giving silly lines than wanting to maim her next target. Also with this new model, Terminator’s have now learned to cum as the T-X gives an orgasmic reaction after licking a bloody bandage. These are supposed to be ROBOTS who’s purpose is to destroy all opponents, not women from the future with sick fetishes. Yes, Arnold’s T-800 acts more human as the film goes on but that plays on the theme of the film and is developed. Here we’re just told to buy that the T-X acts so incredibly human without her studying or learning human interaction. She’s a joke of an antagonist that shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath as the two that came before her.

But the downgrades don’t end there, as the movie devolves the tough, spunky John Connor from the end of T2 into a whiny, scared wuss. Life hasn’t been kind to John who only works day labor, is homeless, and constantly on the move. Nick Stahl for whatever reason decides to play John pathetically. T2 had established that John was anything but a wuss and was an independent figure who was already learning his way. This John Connor is a wimp, always whining at someone for not listening to him or when a main character doesn’t do what he wants. It’s a drastic and unbelievable change from the John Connor we came to know and way too unbelievable this is the guy who will lead us against Skynet. If anything, Claire Danes’ Kate Brewster is more “John Connor” than Stahl’s take as she’s actually kicking some form of ass in her first scenes. She might be annoying, but at least by the end she’s accepted what’s to come and opens a case of ownage on a prototype Hunter-Killer. Stahl’s Connor bitches through the whole thing even in scenes he doesn’t need to, such as the attempted suicide. When John tells Kate “you remind me of my mother” he must mean because she’s the one taking out machines and not him, much like what happened when he was just ten. Connor at this stage deserves to be strong, independent and hardened yet instead is the antithesis of that.

Arnold once again returns to the role that made him a superstar and he’s just going through the motions as what’s now the T-850. It’s not told why he’s the T-850 now and he’s never called that in the film. His one-liners which once felt so natural now feel here just to please fans and a majority of them fall flat. He plays up the more comedic elements higher than he did in the first two films and it falls unbelievably flat. “She’ll be back,” is one of the stupidest lines in the picture, followed by the T-850 literally talking to a hand after he’s instructed to by a male stripper. The character many children admired has been turned into a complete joke of what he once was, and like the T-X, acts way too human for his own good. Yes, the T-800 begins to become human toward the end of the last film but he is taught to be like that by John Connor. This “T-850″ (lame) shows up and acts like every other Arnold role the guy has played. The character has lost that charm that made him so unique in the first two films, not because he’s old, but because the filmmakers make him a caricature.

The same could be said for the film on the whole which follows Terminator 2 to a T, only without the heart. Jonathan Mostow does an admirable job directing the action scenes, but there’s nothing too original about them. The film takes scenes from T2 and alters maybe one or two details but keeps everything generally the same. Watch the truck chase in the previous flick and the one present in this movie and you’ll see they begin and end the same way. We’ve seen the Terminator wipe out cop cars with a mini gun and not kill anyone, why does it need to be rehashed? True, the last film took the basic concept of the classic original and altered a few things, but those had to do with the plot and not the action. This venture doesn’t develop the characters as well and the plot lacks the heart and deepness of the first two. The ending is the best thing about the film but feels wasted when the journey to get there is all but meaningless. I’m aware I’ve compared this a lot to the other two and to the films credit if it wasn’t a Terminator film it’d be a great sci-fi action epic but it since it carries the brand name it has to be judged as such. At the end of the day, this is a movie carrying a brand name it feels like it has no association with.

You’ll notice this hasn’t been as long winded as the other two reviews and rightfully so. After what is one of the top three sequels of all-time, Terminator 3 sunk the franchise well below the good will established by the first movie. It didn’t need to try and outdo the second but I suppose the filmmakers felt too afraid of their own ideas so they copy and pasted every action scene for this. The villain is unmemorable, there’s no character development, and it tries and fails to have the themes the first two films established. If there has to be a sequel to T2, give me T2: 3-D – Battle Across Time. Yes it’s a lot shorter, but at least it’s immersive, slightly original, and is thrilling. This film belongs right next to Alien3 and Alien Resurrection, RoboCop 2 and 3, and whatever other movie franchise has lame sequels that need to be forgotten from the canon.

Rating: ★½☆☆☆ 

In honor of Terminator Salvation, I will be taking a look back at the three Terminator films as this is a franchise I’ve known since I could crawl and love deeply. Each day we’ll bring you a review of all three films before capping it off with my full review of Terminator Salvation. The piece begins with the film that started it all; The Terminator.

THE TERMINATOR

The Terminator probably shouldn’t have worked like it does. What we have is essentially a B-Movie premise with no name actors (at the time) outside of Schwarzenegger and up until this the man hadn’t done anything with depth. No one saw this film being the cultural phenomenon that it now is back before the fall of 1984. James Cameron was unknown, as was Gale Anne Hurd, and the budget barely cracked $6 million dollars. Hell, even Arnold Schwarzenegger hadn’t fully taken off even though he’d had a Conan movie under his belt. From that perspective, it should have been another run-of-the-mill science fiction film with a character that would be selling action figures in a toy line today.

The Terminator has deservedly earned it’s reputation. What separates it from most films in it’s genre (and some films in general) is it puts story and characters first. Yes, that silver skeleton and glowing red pupils are no doubt one of the most memorable things about the film and have become culturally significant. Yet when one thinks The Terminator scenes such as the T-800′s decimation of an entire police station come to mind. We’re told countless times throughout the film that this thing is unstoppable and all we’ve seen til this point is the title character take some damage to his arm and eye. One cinematic classic catchphrase later and we’re shown why the T-800 is unbeatable. Sarah Connor is in a place she feels safe and is assured multiple times that she’s going to be OK in there. Yet this machine waltzes in only to maim and murder every cop in the building. At least thirty officers have M-16s and the T-800 takes every shot like it’s nothing before spraying them down with everything he’s got and all of them fall to their death. In any other movie this might be a fun scene to watch and applaud the man plowing through the police. It’s a terrifying sequence and one of the best examples of how to use action to advance a story and build a character.

While it features a ton of violence, it gives us time to get to know it’s complex characters. Most films of this ilk would have opted to give us generic characters and let the monster and action be why it’s remembered. The Terminator is smarter than that and presents believable characters from a very conceivable future. Sarah Connor’s change from naive, stupid girl to tough super woman is poetry. She only curses once and that’s at the end of the picture when she terminates the T-800. She’s never once annoying as Linda Hamilton is golden as a girl who thinks she’s worthless, but ends up responsible for mankind’s salvation. It’s interesting to watch Terminator 2 and see her do an incredible job as a tough woman in Sarah Connor then come back to this one and see her just as spectacular as a naive girl. Michael Biehn isn’t a slouch either as Kyle Reese. Much like the title character, he’s on a mission and will not fail. Kyle is the viewers connection to the desolate future as many times the movie shows us how he’s haunted by that horror. Cameron doesn’t glorify this future as a place you’d want to take battle in, but creates a world that’s as ghastly as Reese dreams it to be. These sequences don’t show Reese as a hero who takes out eight Terminators with one explosive or a phaser. People die, and much like the 1984 in this film, you’re always in fear of the Terminator. Another small nuance either added by Cameron or Biehn but Reese never turns on the headlights to any of the cars he drives. I like to think it’s because he’s accustomed to hiding from Hunter Killers and would not want to attract attention.

Then of course this leaves Arnold as the title character. Originally he was to play Kyle Reese (with O.J. Simpson, and then Lance Henriksen as the T-800) but after a meeting with James Cameron, the King of the World knew he had his villain. Cameron himself assured Arnold, “you’re going to be a mega star after this.” He was right, as it’s impossible to find someone who hasn’t seen much less knows about this film. The filmmakers chose to shoot Schwarzenegger from low angles to give the feeling of dominance and it works. A nice subtle touch on the part of Arnold though is how he holds and acts when he has a weapon in his hand. The scene that sticks out the most is when he whips out an Uzi in Tech-Noir and has a field day blasting away at Kyle Reese behind the counter. His body language and facial expression communicates a true marksman wanting to terminate it’s target. It’s not glorified nor does it come off as awesome like it would in say Commando. Special mention needs to be given to Paul Winfield as Lt. Ed Traxler. It’s a very subtle performance as his character may be the only one who believes Reese about The Terminator. The deleted scenes give more depth to Traxler coming around and believing Reese and actually he’s the reason Kyle has the pistol toward the end of the picture. These should have stayed in the film because they wouldn’t have slowed the pacing down at all and actually given a nice arc for Traxler. Even though we don’t hear or see John Connor in this installment, one still feels they know him due to what we’re told and how Kyle perceives him. It might also have to do with the fact he’s the reason the Terminator wants to kill his mother, but it’s a testament to the film to create and make us care for a character that it doesn’t show us.

For a film that’s roughly $6 million dollars, the film looks like it was shot with a considerably higher budget. One of Cameron’s strength’s is that he’s always been able to make sure every dollar of production is pumped out on screen (say what you will about Titanic, but you can’t deny how great the effects are and put some of today’s pictures to shame.) While the effects are starting to show their age, it’s still a marvel to witness and they have yet to lose their effectiveness. The animatronics are still believable enough to not make the T-800 lose his edge nor take the viewer out of the movie. Maybe the biggest achievement is the future war scenes. The Terminator effects could be achieved by such a budget (yet might not look as good) but the scenes 2029 are where the visuals glow. Again Cameron and his team make these machines come to life and fearful. Phaser blasts fly across the scene and even the first shot is of an HK flying across the screen and it operates as one would expect a machine to. Where films today would over-CG the crap out of a desolate world and show us hordes machines, The Terminator relies more on the fear of the machines by showing us very few HKs and only one Terminator while they give us the results of their damage. Cameron would later use the same tactics in Aliens where he had only six Xenomorph suits but makes it feel like six thousand.

The Terminator should be a lesson to anyone trying to make a film on a small budget due to how well made and well scripted it is. It birthed arguably the most iconic character in cinema while also maintaining complex characters and a terrific story. While Cameron would go on to do better work (partially due to his growth as a director), this film would be influential and generate a whole new genre. The Terminator deserves it’s spot in any collection and has earned it’s status as one of the best films of all-time.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

Well with the below trailer supposedly attached to The Dark Knight, which it wasn’t on my screening, it was sure to hit the net as soon as it was completed. Terminator Salvation expands on the storyline we have all come to love, minus that last crap known as 3.

Set in post-apocalyptic 2018, John Connor (Bale) is the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynet’s operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind

Terminator Salvation arrives in theaters next summer on May 22nd, 2009.