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I saw a preview screening of T3: Rise of the Machines last night, and I have to say, it's pretty good!! I'd give it a strong 7 out of 10. Lots of action, explosions, but also a good plot and some fun bits like the combination of wit and mayhem we've come to expect from the Terminator movies.
The guy who plays the grown-up John Connor is very good except for one specific moment where his acting slips (and it was at this moment and for this reason that the audience laughed at him, very loud, at my screening). He doesn't look a bit like Edward Furlong, the kid playing John Connor in T2, but ah well. Clare Danes is just fine, looking cute but a little bony/thin, and yes, she does shoot a submachine gun with gusto. It's kinda cool to see an actor's actress like Danes in a shoot-em-up sci-fi bonanza like this. She traces her character's journey from thinking John C. and Arnie are just nutjobs to slowly coming to accept what they really are very nicely. Clare Danes' character's father plays a pivotal role.
How's the female Terminator, otherwise known as the Terminatrix? (ba-DUM bum! But they seriously refer to her as that, albeit once, in the movie) Very good and very hot. Although she kinda has a babyface, being the ripe old age of 19. She does the whole 'force of nature relentless unstoppable killing machine' just like John Patrick did in T2, although maybe she's a bit less scary than he was cause she looks like a supermodel. You do see her naked ass and a bit of breast action for a split-second when she first shows up. They come up with a cool new ability for this newest version of the Terminator, and it makes for a great chase/blow shit up in serious volume scene that rivals and is pretty much just as much fun as the famous chase scene in T2. I was watching this and just kept thinking "Ohhh my God, this is NOT CGI, none of this, they really blew all this shit up THE OLD FASHIONED WAY!!!!" And man, do they blow a lot of shit up!!! Something like 27 cars get completely demolished.
Arnie is Arnie....25% of his line delivery kinda sucks and is laughable but I guess you can buy it cause he's a robot. But for the most part he's the same old Arnie-as-Terminator we know and love. Some reviewers on Aint-It-Cool-News have said he looks old, but I didn't think he looked notably long in the tooth.
The plot is classic Terminator, all about trying to prevent Judgment Day/nuclear war triggered by the machines & SkyNet, with all the appropriate references to the events of the previous movies (and more than a few references to John's mom Sarah Connor). Some nice time travel convoluted logic here, and I mean that in a good way. The ending is very cool, I thought - intelligent and dark, with a nice twist that seems totally appropriate for all the characters. The music nicely accentuates the movie's suspense and ominous tone. In this day and age, the sequences where John C. has nightmares of nuclear war destorying the world are more than a little scary and carry a lot more edge and terror than we used to feel when we saw such images.
Even though James Cameron wasn't involved in this (interestingly enough, the producers have formed a new company called C2, which has a logo almost the same as Cameron's old company CarolCo, which makes me wonder if the remaining people in CarolCo are keeping CarolCo going or if they just formed a new company with almost the same name and logo for legal purposes).
I really thought this was a pretty well-made movie -- only a few cheesy moments where the audience collectively groaned. The editing in particular, if you pay attention to that sort of stuff, was really very good, ESPECIALLY in the seriously high octane, furious (and I do mean furious) action/chase sequences. I remember thinking "Man, this really makes me feel the speed and impact of all this shit colliding and blowing up" (seriously) - something I don't often think during an action scene in any movie. I found myself wincing a lot each time stuff impacted/collided/blew up as if I was watching a real car accident. But still smiling broadly through it all.
The audience seemed to have a good time overall. And hell, I saw it for free and really enjoyed it, but I think I wouldn't feel like I wasted $10 seeing it. In fact, I think it's definitely worth your $10. (Fuck, I still can't believe movies in the theaters are $10!!!!) |
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