Ten years have passed since the event of Judgment Day. However despite the ability of stopping Judgment Day from happening by Sarah Connor, the future is still a war between machines and humans. Present day time in 2003, a new female Terminator called T-X has arrived. T-X purpose is to kill all of John Connor, the human resistance leader, future lieutenants. During one of her mission to kill one of the future lieutenants by the name of Kate Brewster, T-X encountered John Connor himself hiding in the establishment that Kate Brewster works at. With both John Connor and his future second in command in her sight, T-X moves in for the kill but out of the blue comes Terminator T-101 to the rescue. Stunned by seeing a figure from his childhood past, John Connor with Kate Brewster made a quick escape with T-101 following behind to protect them from T-X.
After the dusk have settle on the night before, T-101 informs John Connor that he was sent back in time by Kate Brewster to protect John Connor and Kate Brewster from T-X and sheltering them from the coming Judgment Day and the rise of the machines. Shock by the news that Judgment Day will still take place despite his mother's effort ten years ago; John Connor formed a plan to stop the military government from turning all computer operation over to Skynet and to destroy Skynet itself. But things aren't that simple as T-X is moving on them to prevent them from carrying out their plan. Will the Rise of the Machines happen? That's for you to find out….
I'm back!
If looks can kill.
Good
In terms of what is good in the movie, there isn't a lot of stuff to be cheering about. The movie isn't totally bad or anything but the fact of the matter is that there isn't anything really good that would make watching the movie really enjoyable. There are two good things that come to mind when watching this movie, the return of Arnold as the Terminator and the introduction of Kristanna Loken as the new female Terminator. First, seeing Arnold back as the Terminator was great. It's the role that made him the big box office draw back in the 90s.
Arnold isn't as big in muscle size as he was in Terminator 2 or even as young but he still look good in black leather with dark sunglasses as a cool unemotional Terminator. The impact of seeing Arnold as a Terminator again wasn't as exciting as it was in Terminator 2 but it's still good just for that nostalgic feeling. Sure he's a lot older getting near the late 50s but he can still play a mean Terminator. And being a governor of California now, this will probably be his last time as the Terminator. The second best thing is the introduction of Kristanna Loken. Kristanna plays a mean looking female Terminator. As the first female Terminator, she fit the role quite well. Sexy but ice cold when it comes to eliminating all those in her path. She's so sexy that it's hard to think of her as a bad girl but that's the whole point of having a sexy Terminator. Kristanna doesn't talk much in this movie but her impact in the film is very strong. The action and special effects are another good part in the movie. With the advancement of CGI technology, you can now see the impact of CGI being used during the future story sequences of many Terminators attacking at once. Action sequences are shot nicely, especially during the big car chases between John Connor and the two Terminators. The only downside is that we aren't as excited about the action sequence as we once were, no matter how excellently the stunts were done. I guess this is because we expected to see the big action sequences and when you expect to see something, you're not going to be wow by it at all. So in short, reasons to see this movie are Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kristanna Loken, special effects and action sequences.
A burning sensation.
The first terminator.
Bad
The bad thing about this movie was that it didn't feel like a Terminator movie in the end. There was something missing. Linda Hamilton? James Cameron? I don't know what but there was something missing that didn't make it feel like a Terminator movie. The big action sequences in the movie was kind of a let down when compare to the other Terminators or we are no longer being awe by the action sequences. The sense of urgency to stop Judgment Day wasn't there too. Judgment Day doesn't seem real this time around, simply because we are past the age where Judgment Day was suppose to take place so what was once a science fiction movie that could've been a real event in the late 90s back in the 80s when the movie first came out is now pure science fiction. One of the strong points of the Terminator series was the possibility of machines taking over the world was an actual possible event in the 90s which drove our imagination to the series back in the 80s when the movie first came out. Now that the 90s are gone, we now know that the machines taking over are pure science fiction which sort of makes the movie less creditable in terms of its plot. The character of John Connor and Kate Brewster wasn't very effective in the film, either as the leaders of the resistance group or as a loving couple. It's kind of hard to believe that these two would know what to do after Judgment Day. Both Nick Stahl and Claire Danes weren't very convincing playing those characters as well. There was chemistry between the Terminator and John Conner back in Terminator 2 but here there's no chemistry at all between the two characters. Another drawback is the setting of the movie. The movie takes place away from the city as oppose to the previous two movies where everything takes place more in the city. Personally I believe the movie would've been more effect using the city as the backdrop than outside in the desert somewhere away from innocent bystanders. The pace of the movie also seem very slow this time around. Even during action scenes where you see the two Terminators fighting. It also gets kind of corny and predictable near the end of the movie. There's a scene near the end where the Terminator was re-program to go against John Connor but miraculous John Connor was able to convince the Terminator just by talking to him to fight against the program and the Terminator short circuited and re-program himself after having a meltdown.
That scene look way too corny and predictable that I think it hurts the credibility of the movie than anything else. The movie had more bad stuff in it than good stuff to make viewers enjoy it.
Are we all alone?
Judgment has arrived.
Bonus
This is a 2 disc package so there's going to be lots of bonus stuff added onto it. The 2 disc DVD features are commentaries from the cast and crew, an introduction from Arnold Schwarzenegger, a behind the scenes first look from HBO, On Location feature, a deleted Sgt. Candy scene, Visual Effects Lab, Sky Net Database, Terminator Timeline, Gag reel, Storyboard Gallery, Trailers, and Costume feature. As you can see, that's quite a lot of bonuses in addition to the main film itself. Any true Terminator fan will be happy with those features. However since I wasn't a die hard Terminator fan, I wasn't really intrigued with the bonuses. I was looking for more possible deleted scenes than just one deleted scene. But that's just me. This review however judge the DVD Bonuses by quality and quantity and for that, it gets a thumbs up from me.
Final Analysis
This looks to be the final Terminator movie. Although there were some comments from the creators that there might be a fourth Terminator movie with or without Arnold Schwarzenegger but I don't see that going too far as its Arnold that made these movies a Terminator movie. Just as the fact that Terminator 3 didn't have a strong effect without Linda Hamilton, I don't see Terminator 4 having any lasting effect without Arnold Schwarzenegger. Terminator 3 for its part didn't really feel like a Terminator movie despite the best effort of Arnold. The one linear seem to be gone that made Terminator 2 a hit. "Talk to the hand" wasn't an effective one linear. Personally without Sarah Connor in the movie, the impact of John Connor seems less. It's time to give the Terminator series a rest with Terminator 3. Anymore Terminator movies will be seen nothing more than trying to milk it for more money.
