What makes a good sequel? There is no magic formula and about the best description of the one’s that work is a deft balance of elements that made the first film so popular combined with new twists that shake up but do not betray the original. Whew!
Employing that definition, I’d have to rate Terminator 2: Judgment Day high on the list of successful transitions. As for Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, not so high. The new entry is a well-crafted, thoughtful, visceral piece that echoes the earlier hits. Its filmmakers have carefully studied what made them tick and create a story that is a logical, intelligent continuation of the saga. Where their effort falls short is in shaking up, mussing up or gussying up the first two entries in a manner that would give the third outing its own distinctive stamp - the illusion it can stand on its own merits, irrespective of the other movies that spawned its creation.
Essentially, it is the child of Judgment Day. John Connor (Nick Stahl) is now in his early twenties and still man’s best hope against a future where machines have become their creator’s major adversary. However, that time is still off in the distance. In the interim, the emissaries of those mecho menaces of tomorrow have sent the new, improved version of the killerbot to eliminate him and his lieutenants before they can become mankind’s rebel forces. Almost simultaneously, their opponents dispatch that earlier prototype with the slightly garbled speech program to protect Connor.
Wait a second, you say, that is the plot of T2. Well, it is rather close and it’s often the case that immediate sequels are retreads that are fitfully successful at masking the fact they are driving down the exact same highway. The most striking variation in T3: Rise of the Machines is that the original Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenagger) must now face off against the distaff T-X (Kristanna Loken) and we all know what gender is the deadlier of the species.
The other obvious fact is that Connor is no longer a teenager. In fact, he is at a sexually charged age that rather demands he have a female foil. So, he meets cute with Kate Brewster (Claire Danes), a junior high classmate now operating a veterinary clinic that Connor breaks into to secure painkillers. The young man has been so ingrained with the knowledge he’s a target, he has taken on a migratory lifestyle a la Richard Kimble, The Fugitive. While there is a relentless pursuer, the equivalent of finding the one-armed man is staying alive and averting the apocalyptic event that cements the battle between man and machine.
It all sound rather highfalutin and one has to doff one’s hat to director Jon Mostow for avoiding the obvious trap of seriousity. Studied or not, the film owes a considerable debt to ‘50s yarns of paranoia, particularly Invasion of the Body Snatchers. While T3 has greatly improved technical resources at its disposal than the bygone sci-fi nail biters, it is nonetheless chiefly about the chase, thrills, close calls, stunts and explosions. One can read in all manner of meaning related to the thin line separating man and the mechanical Frankensteins he has created, but in the end the objective and desire is to just blow something up.
The well-worn title hero/villain has become a comfortable old shoe for Schwarzenegger and he slyly slips in humor and human frailties where none should exist. This is a film more about attitude than depth, so the true danger of the piece is that its actors might complicate it by introducing something other than such primal emotions as fear, desire or anger. One can rest ease in that regard and struggle with less weighty issues such as whether it was the filmmaker’s intention to make T-X a malevolent version of the arcade depiction of Lara Croft.
There are other quibbles that can be made such as the recent penchant for protracted chase sequences that are heady, anxiety-raising experiences of the moment but fail to linger much beyond the closing credit crawl. Movies, particularly ones such as T3 that trade on spectacle, feel obliged to step up the volume to outdo last season’s decibel champ. And while the physical prowess of the new film is impressive, the spark of the unusual is sorely absent.
T3: Rise of the Machine is popcorn entertainment just the way you want it and skillfully made to obviate inconsistencies and lapses in logic. If there is to be a T4 _ and as each episode has had roughly a decade hiatus between productions - one shudders at the lighting challenges for a 65-year-old Schwarzenegger. But next time perhaps those incisive human minds of the future will send back a new model hot off the assembly line and not a retro-fit.
A Warner Bros. release of an Intermedia/IMF production in association with C2 Pictures and Mostow/Lieberman production. Produced by Hal Lieberman, Colin Wilson, Mario Kassar, Andrew Vajna, Joel Michaels. Director, Jonathan Mostow. Screenplay, John Brancato, Michael Ferris; story, Brancato, Ferris, Tedi Sarafian, based upon characters created by James Cameron, Gale Anne Hurd. Camera, Don Burgess. Editors, Neil Travis, Nicolas De Toth. Music, Marco Beltrami. Production design, Jeff Mann. Costumes, April Ferry. Visual effects supervisor, Pablo Helman. Makeup/animatronics supervisor, Eric Hayden.
Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator), Nick Stahl (John Connor), Claire Danes (Kate Brewster), Kristanna Loken (T-X), David Andrews (Gen. Robert Brewster), Mark Famiglietti (Scott Petersen).
Reviewed: July 2 , 2003
