![]() ![]() This might be the most expensive Hollywood movie to ever end on such a downer. I think what I longed for the most in 'Terminator 3' is a clear theme. ![]() Has a once-great sci-fi icon really morphed into his own in-joke? When Schwarzenegger makes his big entrance at an all-male strip club - a reworking of the classicīarroom scene that opens T2 - it comes off as half-funny, half-sad. And Arnold is back as the same old T-Whatever, a rusty relic of armageddon complete with wrinkles and a few extra ounces of flab. Kristanna Loken is the T-X, another new-model endoskeleton-thing who can shoot lasers out of her hand and artificially pump up her breasts, courtesy of liquid metal. In true Terminator fashion, we meet the two cyborgs who will again wage war over the future of mankind. That 'T3' has almost become camp is clear from the opening scenes. Except for Schwarzenegger, all of the other major roles have been recast, which gives it the feel of a Universal theme-park ride. It recycles scenes, situations, and themes from its predecessors, and doesn't really introduce any new themes. Even checking it out again for this new HD DVD release, I still feel it is rather uninspired, pastiche sequel-making. Unfortunately, watching 'Rise of the Machines' didn't change my mind. Though Cameron wisely sat this one out, Schwarzenegger and company appeared intent on tarnishing what was once a shiny endoskeleton with a pretty transparent attempt to wring yet more profits out of a washed-up old franchise. So it was with a bit of dread that I greeted the news of 'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,' which was brought to the screen in 2003, almost twenty years after the original film. Yet the Terminator was also a character of limited potential that Cameron was able to pull off 1991's ' Terminator 2' as successfully as he did is a rarity in sequel-dom, a follow-up that successfully expanded the original's universe, characters, and themes, while managing to cap off the series on a high note. Playing a cyborg intent on starting/preventing mass nuclear annihilation, The Terminator was the perfect fit for Schwarzenegger's decidedly unique persona: big, intimidating and monosyllabic. Olympia turned world-famous action superstar, and his greatest role arguably came as 'The Terminator,' in James Cameron's tech-noir of the same name. Before he was the governor of California, he was just Arnold Schwarzenegger, one-time Mr. ![]()
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