Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines Review

by Ram Samudrala (me AT ram DOT org)
June 21st, 2004

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Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines
http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/the_terminator.html

The only "twist" to this Terminator flick is the presence of a female Terminator, Terminatrix or TX for short, who is out of destroy John Connor (Nick Stahl). Connor is the one responsible for saving the saving human race from a world taken over by machines in the future. It is up to our re-programmed original Terminator model (Arnold Schwarzenneger) to protect Connor and his future from TX. Lots of excellent action scenes, in-jokes and puns, and general destruction and mayhem follow.

The movie's ending is quite bleak in that it does indeed do what the title promise: showcase the rise of the machines. Even though John Connor and his love interest survive, it is at a cost that ends up destroying most of humanity. This is colinear with the premise of the /Terminator/ movies where the future is ruled by machines with the human renegades winning, and each movie features the machines trying to change the past to kill the human renegade leader.

In this sense, it cleverly avoids the paradox of past manipulations that result in a future time line that is inconsistent with the past manipulations (i.e., if there was no takeover by Skynet, why would the Terminator be created in the first place?). Not bad as far as movies go.

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