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Terminator 3 : Rise of the Machines, a review by Dragonfire

Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as a time-traveling T-101 Terminator in this smash hit directed by Jonathan Mostow. With dazzling effects, bravura thrills and a story that boldly spins into the unexpected, this is an event spectacle to see and see again.

My Thoughts

This completes my Terminator movie marathon..now on to the show.
For the most part, this was a decent action movie, but it wasn't as good as the first two movies.  I really didn't like that Sarah wasn't around and I really, really didn't like the explanation for why she was missing.  John had some ...attitude issues at times that were annoying.  I did think that the explanation for how Skynet was still created despite what happened in Terminator 2 made sense, though it would have been nice if there had been some more...specific information about how the same types of machines were created even though all the evidence was supposed to have been destroyed. 

There were some inconsistencies with what had been previously established though.  The biggest one was that during Terminator 2: Judgment Day, it was established that John was 10 years old when those events happened.  During the first few minutes of this movie, John did a voice over and said that the T-1000 had been sent to kill him when he was 13.  That is a minor thing, but it still bugged me.  Also, the Terminator that was sent back to protect looked the same, but was not the same Terminator from the second movie.  He knew certain things, but not specific things that had been done.  In the second movie, John ordered the Terminator to not kill anyone, so he didn't.  Right away in this movie, without him being given the order, he wasn't killing people during fights.  There wasn't any explanation for why he did that.  I'm guessing that maybe that was added when his programming was changed in the future.  It was a small thing, but it bugged me. 

The movie could have been better..and I'm thinking that if James Cameron had been involved it would have been, but it wasn't horrible. 

 

I did write up a review that I posted on Epinions back in 2003 after seeing the movie in the theater.

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

(From Dragonfire: What I've Been Watching on January 15th, 2009)

The Descendents, a review by Antares

The Descendents (2011) 60/100 - Is it me, or are films of the last few years sorely lacking in creativity and re-watchability? One of the criteria in my reviews is whether or not I would ever want to watch a film again down the road. Sadly, many films I've watched from the last five years or so, fail miserably in this aspect. This was a film that my wife really wanted to see, and after seeing George Clooney in his last couple of roles, seemed like a good choice for me too. But this film's screenplay is so weak and flimsy, that it had me looking at the clock more times than I wanted. It just kind of meanders along without any concern on the part of the director, to make it either interesting or entertaining. And one final note...George Clooney should have it written into future contracts that his character will never run at full speed as part of his role. I thought it was bad watching Steven Seagal run like a girl in his films, but Clooney looks like he's about to keel over when he's on a sprint. That being said, if you decide to give this a whirl, at least the cinematography is first rate, but then again, it would take a complete hack to make Hawaii look bad.

What the color coding means...

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is

(From Antares' Short Summations on October 12th, 2013)

"Due South" marathon, a review by Rick

An Invitation to Romance

Pete was right when he called her irritating. Holy Crap - JUST SHUT UP ALREADY!!!!! I wonder how many takes they had to do to get some of these scenes. 

Not only was Ray taking over for Fraser but he was also having a 2 way conversation with the wolf! 

A solid episode.
My Rating:


(From "Due South" marathon on July 27th, 2009)