Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

2 and a half delicious cups of coffee that could stand to be freshened a bit.

T1: poorly lit, well paced, scary. T2: well lit, amazing effects for the time, even scarier.
T3: so technically proficient as to seem everday, about as scary as storyboard of T2. Beautiful, mechanical, not up to its predecessor.

So, lots more explosions and rather extensive tear 'em ups. Very smooth integration of actors into scenes that really should leave no human survivors. Sometimes I felt like I was lost in a John Woo shoot 'em up, slo-mo state of nirvanna-- or maybe I was still sitting in another darkened theater watching "The Matrix Reloaded". Ooooo....

T3 was a little too low on the suspense of pursuit that made T1 and T2 so much goddamned fun. They made you really feel the terror of being pursued by an inhuman Ronco product gone wild. Hard to accept the T3 was the ultra killing machine in that fine line. Sure, she morphed and fired plasma and made her boobs grow menacingly, but her relentlessness just turned into a plot metronome. They go to point A, big explosion, escape, then on to point B where it's a given You Know Who will be there. That's scary evil machine efficiency, I suppose, but she doesn't seem sufficiently evil or efficient enough to just blow them the hell away, and so the tempo of the movie ends up feeling contrived and jerky, making the story a sterile robotic imitation of a plot.

In the broadest sense then, I guess it really is the rise of the machines-- at least the rise of the Development Droids. But the ending was far better than I expected, and one revelation in the reason for Visit No. 3 by Ahwnald made the story work. And the very last bit: a logical end, narratively speaking anyway.

Kristanna Loken did an impeccable job portraying a character that is supposed to show no human emotion. It was a lot more work than just barely speaking. You can see that despite some scenes that had to have been physically rigorous, she never breaks a sweat or varies her cool, collected demeanor. In her leather catsuit and Eurotrash bun, she's a menacing Max Factor of Fate. Her style and the supercilious look she gives a human just before execution reminded me of the imperious looks given by the Prada piranhas one sees on the streets of NYC. Thankfully, they don't erupt into flames or even a barrage of bullets when a lower life form refuses to step aside for them.

Ahwnald did a terrific job of being a stiff. These are by far my favorite roles for him: no patriotic expositions, no painful attempts at depth or reach, just pure, formulaic presence, the perfect background for humorous juxtaposition. Mind you, the dramatic tension behind the Constipated Android Walk near the end made me laugh (and spoiled one of the few times they could have had the TX leap out of the aether to scare the bejeesus out of everybody), but it was repaid by the over-the-top corny heroic entrance line a little later on.

Nick Stahl made the John Connor role interesting. I like the idea he's not only uncertain about his heroic future, he's not particularly thrilled by the idea, either. Rather than being a whining, brooding anti-hero, he's a whinning coward who does what he has to, though sometimes he has to be backed into a corner and beaten first. That is a believable human character.

Kate Brewster (Claire Danes) was another believable human being: screaming in all out fear one moment, murderously vengeful the next. Good at being scared, freaked out, and pissed off about it at the same time. There wasn't enough time given to her to really expand that, but that's the fault of the pacing more than anything.

Ah yes, the pacing: practically a fifth character simply because it kept making itself so damned obvious. In addition to taking the edge off of the fear factor that made T1 and especially T2 so masterful, it made a discontinuous hodge podge of some elements. For instance, how did they just walk in to the secret base for Skynet? It was such a disjointed leap that the attempt to throw us off by having the TX call to Robert Brewster didn't work; in fact, I'm certain the character of Robert Brewster wasn't even all that surprised.

Well, that's what DVDs are for: filling in the craters in a plot line. But not even extra scenes can rescue the marionette pacing. The movie has excellent elements but doesn't quite feel right. Like clam chowder made with Cremora.

Summary: potentially good but blew the strongest currency of the franchise-- the dreadful feeling of the futility of running from an assassin that never gives up. Good cinematography, fire and blood and crashing cars, but it all bled away into the dull, spongioform pacing.