Movie reviews continued. Terminator 3. For a more in depth review (not to mention more qualified), please check Stan's blog at http://leemur.blogspot.com.

I don't really wanna talk too much on the details of the film, cuz Stan did that already and I agree with everything he said.

To the point: all in all, I came out of the movie theatre satisfied, though maybe a bit saturated with a high-concentration of explosive razzle dazzle (but hey, it's the 4th of July). As a strict summer action movie, this one goes at the top of my list, tying closely with Matrix Reloaded, and with X2 coming in a very distinct second. The eye candy was enormous, and if you think I'm talking about Kristanna Loken, I'm not. Anybody who knows me well enough should know that I, like any other Terminator fan, came to see the real live pectoral gigantasor affectionately known as "Arnie".

The detail flaws of Terminator make it a very sub-par Terminator film, which is a holy legacy-esque entity that ideally shouldn't be touched unless it can emulate the perfection in the archetype: T2. Well, it didn't; in fact, it didn't even come close. For a large part of the film, I put serious question into whether or not Jonathan Mostow had even seen the other two Terminator films - the same question I had about Francis Ford Coppola when he decided to do the terrible Godfather 3 (that was a little worse, considering Coppola had done the other two as well).

So, I don't want to echo what Stan said, and other than his complaints, I only really have one more.

The ideology behind the Terminator premise rests in a certain space-time continuum that more or less coins it's catch line: There is no fate but what you make. Well, Mostow must have seriously fucked up, because he tarnished the idea of fate into a hopeless hole of pessimism; the new catch line? You can't do shit about your future. It's set, echoed ridiculously by John Conner's soon-to-be-famous line regarding his future death: "Well, that really sucks."

That would be cool and all, if Mostow's fate-is-set idea had some sort of philosophical premise to vouch for it, but I became more concerned with the fact that he conjured up the overhaul for the sole purpose of leaving a gap open to do a T4. Everything boils down to money, even if creative flair has to suffer for that cause. Other sidenotes:

Claire Danes is actually pretty good. I was surprised.

The TX wasn't at all intimidating.

The movie is completely worth it just to see Arnie tearing the shit out of a car with his bare hands.

Why the hell is the TX a woman? If it really had to be a woman, they could have gone in two directions: 1) Put Sigourney Weaver in it. After Alien Ressurection, she was made to be a Terminator. 2) Put Pamela Anderson in it and make her get naked. 3) Bring back Robert Patrick. He's not that old - Arnie is certainly older. Besides, all that fool is doing these days is a retardo-replacement act for David Duchovny in the X-Files.

Anyway, go and see it. If you liked Matrix Reloaded and X2, you'll definitely get a kick out of T3 - but when you buy the DVD Trilogy, be sure to ask if you can get a discount by buying only 2/3 of the package.