TERMINATOR 3: RISE OF THE MACHINES - Blu-ray review

The shoes of James Cameron are something I would never want to attempt to fill. He is one of the great filmmakers in the science fiction and action genres. He is the creator of the "Terminator" series and the first two films were powerhouse motion pictures that helped define the career of California's current governor and paved the way for Cameron's ascent to becoming the ‘King of the World.' After the massive success both commercially and technologically with "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," Jonathan Mostow was chosen to try and fill the shoes of James Cameron and helm the third film centering around the "Terminator" characters created by Cameron and to carry on the profitable franchise. After the rousing success of the first two films, Mostow was not guaranteed success with reviving the long dormant "Terminator" franchise.

The Terminator character is an iconic role for Arnold Schwarzenegger and the actor was initially hesitant in taking part in the third film without the involvement of James Cameron, who lost his stake in the franchise during his divorce to the female lead of the first two films, Linda Hamilton. Without Arnold, it is hard to imagine the "Terminator" franchise continuing, but his decision to co-star in the third film certainly made Mostow's job a little easier. Arnold was allowed to continue his role as being a good guy, but to provide a new twist and fresh take on the franchise; the newest Terminator model sent to kill a member of the Connor family was no longer a large muscular male or a liquid metal creation. Instead, the filmmakers chose to introduce an absolutely stunning femme fatale, Kristanna Loken as the T-X model Terminator.

I was worried that "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" would be an embarrassment to the first two films. Loken was a relative unknown and the action looked far more over the top than the second installment. Arnold isn't getting any younger and although we've now seen the re-emergence of Sylvester Stallone with successful films in both the "Rocky" and "Rambo" franchises, I wasn't so sure the Governator would have what it takes to bring a physical and imposing T-101 back to the screen. I was excited to see "Carnivale's" Nick Stahl land a leading role in a major film and having a talented actress such as Claire Danes onboard could hardly be called a bad thing. Still, reviving the series after a dozen years seemed risky and "Terminator 2" ended in what seemed to be closure. Not to mention Linda Hamilton was not attached to the film.

"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" finds John Connor (Nick Stahl) a few years older than where we left him at the end of the second film. His mother Sarah (played in the previous two films by Linda Hamilton) has passed away and John has lived his life ‘off the grid' to avoid any record of his existence and discovery by anything similar to the Skynet system he had worked to defeat and would one day rise up against as the leader of the human survivors. Connor finds himself injured and breaks into a veterinarian's office for medication and discovers that a former elementary school student, Katherine Brewster (Claire Danes), works for the vet and captures John in a dog kennel cage. That is the least of Connor's bad luck as a new Terminator model, the T-X (Loken) is sent back in time to kill him before he can lead mankind against the machines. Of course, an aged T-101 model (Schwarzenegger) is sent back to protect Connor as what happened in the second film.

Another new twist in the franchise is that Brewster is the eventual second in command in the rebellion and that the T-101 must protect her as well as Connor. Of course, the antiquated T-101 is outgunned and out-powered by the sexy looking T-X model. She has a tremendously powerful cannon as part of her right arm and this has enough firepower to destroy the T-101. Connor, Katherine and the Terminator must uncover a hidden weapon cache left behind by Sarah Connor and work to prevent Judgment day from occurring, as it is revealed that they only delayed Judgment day during the events of the second film. Brewster's father Lt. General Robert Brewster (David Andrews) is in charge of the Skynet project and the machines are still schedule to become self aware and John Connor must work with the Terminator and Katherine to stop Skynet from becoming self-aware and starting the war of the machines.

"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" is not as entertaining as the two James Cameron directed features. It lacks the story and impact of the first two films and doesn't push the envelope of filmmaking as the first two films did. Having Arnold reprise nearly the same character as what was seen in the second film feels rehashed. A few new ways of creating laughs are injected in the series; such as putting some pink star sunglasses on the muscled star. The film tries to find a way to become fresh and separate itself from its older siblings. Unfortunately, I just cannot find myself comfortable with an uber-hot Terminator model that was sent back in time primarily to kill a woman. The film tries to be bigger and louder than the two previous films, but while it did have a number of moments that were strong in spectacle, it is just far too much to ask Jonathan Mostow to surpass James Cameron in the science-fiction/action genre. Cameron is the master and while Mostow is a talented filmmaker, this is Cameron's world.

Arnold did a pretty good job as the all-too-familiar model of Terminator. He is still in absolutely incredible shape for a man of his age, but we really do not need to see him walk naked into another bar and emerge to ride away on an unlucky victim's motorcycle. This sequence was recycled too many times now after being too similar to the opening scene in "Terminator 2." Arnold's performance feels a little recycled as well. Part of the reason is that he is asked to perform in a manner similar to what we saw in T2. The Terminator no longer remembers the teachings of John Connor in being a little more ‘human,' but he struggles to provide humor and understand human motivations in much the same manner as we saw in the second film. It is certainly impressive that Arnold looks and acts nearly identical to his performance in the second film after all of these years, but we've already seen this shtick.

The rest of the cast was affable, but felt a little out of place; with the exception of Nick Stahl. Stahl is a talented young actor who had his starring role on HBO's "Carnivale" cut short by poor management at the cable giant. Stahl was great in "Carnivale" and he brings some of the character's idiosyncrasies to his role as a John Connor who is coming to age ‘off the grid.' He knows how to play scruffy and he knows how to be silent, yet formidable. I was overjoyed at seeing Stahl cast in this film and felt he put forth the best effort in the film. Claire Danes was miscast and is just a little too gorgeous and too prim to be effective in the role for which she was cast. "Carnivale" co-star Clea DuVall would have been a far better choice and would have cost a few pennies less. Loken is a sexy young lady, but she just didn't fit the bill as the deadliest model of Terminator we've seen yet. For me, her casting seemed to be based entirely upon the thought process that a hot young actress would bring more males into multiplexes.

"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" was entertaining and it was not a complete waste of time, but it wasn't the "Terminator 3" film that I had been hoping for. I think the franchise's future rests wholly in the future world during the actual war between man and machines. This would be pornography for science fiction fans and would allow the Terminator franchise to find a unique and fresh approach to the rich universe created by James Cameron. A brief cameo by Arnold would more than suffice in such a film and the vast majority of money could be spent on effective effects. Instead, those that own the license to the franchise seemed content on taking the better parts of the first two films and remaking them. It wasn't a bad film and I enjoyed the action and some of the humor of the film, but this film felt like a tired rehash of a franchise being milked for profit.

Video:

Years ago, when my LaserDisc player was the key component in my home theater setup, "Terminator 2" was my reference disc to show friends and family how the large optical media could wallop the "crap-vision" (thanks Jim Cameron for that phrase) of VHS. The picture quality of the 430 lines of resolution of LaserDisc easily trumped anything that video cassette could dish out. The opening sequence of the film where machines dominated the landscape and dished out a tremendous amount of carnage was a sight to behold. Since then, I have retired my LaserDisc collection and hold on only to my CAV release of "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas" for sentimental reasons. HD-DVD and Blu-ray are now my mediums of choice and with owning all three "Terminator" films on Blu-ray, I cannot even begin to think about using any of them as reference material and while "Terminator 3" may be the best looking of the bunch, it isn't overly impressive on Blu-ray.

Mastered at a wide 2.40:1 aspect ratio and sporting a VC-1 encoded transfer at 1080p resolution, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" is strong looking, but lacks the detail and depth of the more impressive Blu-ray releases. Detail and coloring is still quite strong, but the Blu-ray release lacked the consistent three dimensional pop that exists on the best transfers. I witnessed a few of the feared ‘jaggies' on a few of the tighter patterns and a hint of edge enhancement. There were a few scenes that stood out as being very detailed and daytime sequences were especially impressive. Colors were clear and bright and the best aspect of the visual presentation. My biggest complaint with the film was during the darker moments where black crush set in and shadow detail was lost. Black levels were also somewhat weak in comparison to other films and not quite as strong as those from Lionsgate's release of "Terminator 2." "Terminator 3" became muddied when the lights were dim and I felt this was disappointing. Source materials were quite good and I have no problem with them.

Audio:

My favorite part of the "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" LaserDisc was the incredible AC-3 sound. For the unfamiliar, AC-3 was later renamed to Dolby Digital. The opening sequence was perhaps the most impressive segment on home video at the time of its release and I'm still waiting for a full-length version of those opening moments. The Blu-ray incarnation of the latest film in the franchise sports a very good sounding Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, but I must state that I'm disappointed that Warner Bros. didn't supply a PCM or TrueHD soundtrack for this film. "Terminator" films are among the most aggressive sounding films produced and I was really hoping for a soundtrack to plaster me against the walls with its soundtrack. The film combines a strong surround presence with deep and impressive bass in the .1 LFE channel to create an enveloping experience that makes "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" among the better sounding Dolby Digital 5.1 mixes. Explosions rock the room, yet more than a few gentle ambient sounds make their way to the rear surrounds. Dialogue is strong, during even the noisiest sequences. I can't think of any reason to dock points from the audio score, but I can't award a perfect 10 for a film that doesn't utilize the full capabilities of the format.

Extras:

"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" was released onto HD-DVD quite a long time ago. Part of the reason it was delayed was because of the inability of the Blu-ray format to provide the picture-in-picture capabilities of the format. With BD-50 discs available, the film finally makes its debut on the Blu-ray format and uses seamless branching instead of Profile 1.1 PiP to deliver the In-Movie Experience. For this ‘video commentary' like feature, director Jonathan Mostow spends a lot of time talking about the film and including some very nice video vignettes on the making of the film. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others are also featured during this IME, but Mostow is clearly the most common personality during this decent video commentary. There are long absences of footage during the IME and some last longer than five minutes, but I found this to be a pretty entertaining experience that occurred in movie. There are better examples of this type of feature out there, but so much of the material exists only in the IME, so it is worth checking out.

A number of typical features are also included on the disc and this includes three commentary tracks. The first commentary by Cast and Crew features Jonathan Mostow with the Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes and the lovely Kristanna Loken. This is a Criterion-like track where each actor was recorded at a separate location and then edited together. It still works very nicely and I found this to be my favorite of the three commentaries with everybody talking about their experiences. The second commentary by the film's Director has Jonathan Mostow flying solo and he is quite good at providing commentary tracks. If you don't have a ton of time, you may want to watch the In Movie Experience over this track and the third one, but the Mostow-only commentary was the most informative overall and the director is a good speaker. The third and final track featuring the Crew again included Mostow, but a number of other folks from the production of the film. This two was a Criterion-style commentary and didn't seem as interesting as the other two commentary tracks.

The features that do not require repeated viewings of the film are decent, but run for only about forty-five minutes. The Introduction by Arnold Schwarzenegger (:33) is short and was taken from the DVD release and has Arnold talking about the commentary tracks contained on the disc. It was short, but Arnold made it fun. I wish he was my governor. The HBO First Look (13:02) feature is the promotional little short that was shown on the cable network and featured important members of the cast and crew to rally up excitement for the film. Arnold, Danes, Mostow and Stahl all stop by for a moment and this was about as good as any thirteen minute promo reel can be. Some Storyboards (3:54) are up next and has a comforting blue background with scenes from the film and their matching storyboard. Not a bad feature. The Dressed to Kill (2:11) featurette is too short, but focuses on the costuming of the Terminator. This really should have been longer and was one of the more entertaining two minutes shorts I've seen in recent times.

Moving beyond the "Behind the Story" part of the supplements, a few short bits are thrown in. Two scenes are contained under "Additional Footage." The Sgt. Candy Scene (1:50) is a riot and explains how the T-101 earned its skin and accent. Arnold with a horrible southern accent was just too funny to not watch twice. The Terminal Flaws (3:01) blooper reel was cute the first time around. It wasn't so cute this second time around on Blu-ray, but still had some funny moments. The Toys in Action (6:34) short looks at Todd McFarlane's creations. McFarlane does make some nice toys, but nothing too interesting to see here. The Making of the Video Game (8:56) is interesting in being more than promotional, but the game wasn't very good. Finally, the Theatrical Trailer and the PC Game Trailer are included.

Closing Comments:

"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines" is an entertaining film, but it feels rehashed and recycled. Many of the film's scenes are grander and more exciting versions of what we've seen in either "The Terminator" or "T2." Arnold's third time around as the titular robotic assassin is impressive in how well he has aged, but he doesn't vary much at all from what we saw back in 1991 with the second film. Nick Stahl feels at home in the film, but Claire Danes almost seems to be slumming it. Jonathan Mostow had an almost impossible task in continuing James Cameron's trademark franchise and he does a commendable job, but having him repeat much of what was previously done did not help him fill those shoes. Perhaps I'm just too eager in having a "Terminator" film that takes place during the war against the machines, but while I was entertained by the film, I was underwhelmed. The Blu-ray release featured a flawed, but decent picture and a very nice Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that teases at how well this film could have sounded with a PCM or TrueHD mix. The supplements are decent, but don't push the boundaries of the format's capabilities. I'm still looking forward to the upcoming fourth film, but the third time was not a charm for the "Terminator" franchise.