Well, it’s been a very long time coming for this newest Terminator film, and I’m glad they waited. The story once again follows John Conner, now in his 20s the future leader of the human resistance after the machines turn on us destroying most of the world. But if you’ll remember, after the last film, John and his mother Sarah managed to avert Judgement Day. So what’s the deal this time? Well, one more time the machines of the future have sent a deadly Terminator back to destroy the magnanimous Conner, as well as his trusted lieutenants which include his future wife. The new Terminator, the T-X, is of course the most dangerous model yet, she’s sort of a combination of Arnold’s model and the T-1000 from T2. And for some inexplicable reason she’s extremely hot. Well, I guess no one expects this film to delve too deeply into reality. Anyhow, Conner’s future wife has sent back the good ol’ T100 to keep everyone safe and sound. But it’s a pretty big job this time, as we learn that Judgement Day was in fact not stopped outright, only postponed and in a few hours the world will be almost completely destroyed…
It’s good, it’s fun, and it doesn’t take itself very seriously. Something that T2 managed to pull off fairly effectively. Which I applaud T2 for doing so well, but this is a different sort of film and doesn’t make any pretensions of being T2. The dialogue is for the most part decently written. Danes’ characters motivations are kind of shallow, and she seems to accept the situation with more grace than most, but hey, its an action film, we don’t have all the time in the world for believability. On the whole the story is good, no it's not T2 good, but it is a fun summer action flick, and I enjoyed it.
4/5This film isn’t as groundbreaking as T2 was, but then again what really is? The effects, which are of course one of the major draws to a film like this, are very good; not as grand as T2 but thats alright. I liked the fact that there was a lot of physical action and it didn’t overly rely on CG stuff. There is a very entertaining chase scene down a busy street where the T-X is driving a massive crane truck, and I immensely enjoyed the ending. Which I’m not about to give away here; but just so you know, it’s very fun.
Everything else was kind of secondary, the effects were good as I said but much of the rest was very standard stuff. The tone was fun action. The set dec, cinematography, and everything else was fine but nothing stood out, as either good or bad. Which for a film like this is fine by me.
3.5/5Well, we’ve got a brand new John Conner this time around. Nick Stahl takes over for Eddie Furlong after T2 and does a very good job. I actually would’ve been seriously worried if Furlong had returned for this installment, but Stahl has all the cool rebel attitude but none of the whininess the younger Conner character had. Maybe that’s because of the writing, or the perhaps its the character development, either way I think it definitely has something to do with the acting quality too. Stahl is a good cast and he gives a good performance of the tortured reluctant hero.
Also on the plate are the T-X played by the beautiful Kristianna Locken and Kate Brewster, Conner’s future wife played by Claire Danes. Both give nice performances, hardly reserved and fairly subtlety-free, but it is an action film. I hope they make a sequel to this one and use both of these women again, they really are fun to watch and I like Danes as the Linda Hamilton, Sigorney Weaver bad-ass type. She holds her own well.
The film is directed by Jonathan Mostow, of U-571 fame. And I’d say he did a good job on the whole. Maybe this one didn’t really call for anything overly difficult as a director. But I am sure the action sequences took a lot of patience and with the level of destruction involved it must have demanded some pretty careful planning. So good work on the whole by Mostow.
4/5It’s Arnold at his finest. Ok, well maybe not finest, but it’s a very watchable film that is really fun and continues the Terminator mythos admirably. Check this one out, you’ll enjoy yourself.
