Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2003
	Director: Jonathan Mostow (Surrogates)
	Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger (Conan the Barbarian, Predator), Nick Stahl (Sin City), Kristanna Loken, Claire Daines (Stardust)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, SF
	Conditions of visioning: 24.08.2015, HD VOD, Home cinema
Synopsis: Even though he prevented Judgment Day to happen, John Connor (Stahl) has been living off the grid for ten years. After an accident he meets Kate Brewster (Daines) shortly before she is attacked by a new breed of Terminator (Loken) fom the future.
Review: More than ten years after Terminator 2: Judgement Day and right before Arnold Schwarzenegger starts an 8-year governorship, it seemed like the now-or-never time for a sequel featuring the ex-Body Builder still in great shape, as he himself describes in his autobiography Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story (2012). The movie looks like it wants to benefit from the popularity of its predecessors although Mostow doesn't have the talent or vision of James Cameron, and it will definitely never gain the cult status of the others, but it is in the end not bad at all. The villain is a small extrapolation of the knwon T1000, just enough to bring some interest, and I found the actors not badly chosen. Nick Stahl, even though not extremely charismatic, plays very well a John Connor tormented not by his past but by his unfulfilled future. He actually looks well like an older version of the Connor played by Thomas Dekker in the TV-series Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. I also liked the action scenes and in particular the one of massive destruction with the Terminatrix at the wheel of a huge Champion crane on wheels. It is not the only time when the movie makes fun of the straight-forward and extreme actions the Terminators take to reach their goal (the TV-series does it as well). And what I liked the most in Terminator 3 is the story, in spite of an Arnold Schwarzenegger sometimes useless especially in its comedy moments (the sunglasses outside of the strip bar!). This story tackles the topic of the inevitability of Judgment Day, and sticks to it until the very end. I could see the same trend in the following movie, in the TV-series and in the excellent trilogy of novels T2: Infiltrator, T2: Rising Storm and T2: The Future War. It is probably a necessary step after a couple of movies in this franchise: you cannot show Judgment Day being postponed indefinitely.
Rating: 6 /10